UNSUNG UNDERREPRESENTED WOMXN BIPOC LBGTQIA2S+ EXCEPTIONAL LITERATURE FRINGE GENRES REBELLIOUS AUTHORS ANTI-CORPORATIONS SMALL PRESS
UNSUNG UNDERREPRESENTED WOMXN BIPOC LBGTQIA2S+ EXCEPTIONAL LITERATURE FRINGE GENRES REBELLIOUS AUTHORS ANTI-CORPORATIONS SMALL PRESS
Leo Season
Is Here.
Forget everything you have heard about Leos. This is not a reading list for people who need attention. It is for people with enormous hearts, complicated pride, fierce loyalty, creative nerve, and willingness to push against a society that asks them to “keep it down.”
NEW AND UPCOMING
On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that tore across the Indian Ocean. In a matter of hours, entire coastlines were transformed and more than 230,000 lives were lost across fourteen countries, from Indonesia and Sri Lanka to India, Thailand, the Maldives, and East Africa. Those who survived carry vivid memories of where they were when the water came. Countless others were never able to tell their stories. Tsunami is one woman’s account of that day and the long, uneven aftermath that followed.
Romance, deception, and murder erupt when the use of modern-day practices pits one farmer who has faith in the ancient wisdom of husbandry against another who uses chemicals, mistreats his animals, and exploits farm workers, while the son of the first and the daughter of the last try to rise above the war that engulfs them.
A grief-driven literary novel where loss bends reality, secrets surface, and a child refuses to stay gone.
ESTUARY opens in the disorienting aftermath of loss: Megan Mostly nearly collapses when she finds her son, Lincoln, awake and watching television in the middle of the night—despite the fact that his funeral was only a week ago.
As if grief weren’t enough, Stephen Tremble appears at her door the day before, asking an impossible question: was Lincoln his son? For six years, Megan has lived inside a carefully constructed lie. Now it’s cracking open.
Stephen, newly returned to Atlanta, is unraveling too. After a fire exposes the hoarded remains of his isolated life, he clings to the one object that survived—a diary he can never seem to lose. Inside it, he finds an entry he doesn’t remember writing. It speaks of a child he never knew existed.
As Megan is drawn into a series of unsettling encounters with a mysterious woman who appears without warning, delivering cryptic messages that seem to echo Lincoln’s presence, Stephen grapples with the fury and grief of a father too late to love.
Pulled together by secrets, loss, and a child who refuses to stay gone, Megan and Stephen must confront their pasts where memory and longing converge—at the estuary between what was, what is, and what still refuses to let go.
The White Field is a fast-paced journey of a man Tom, fresh out of prison and trying desperately to rebuild his life. But he is caught by mysterious, unseen forces beyond his knowledge or control.
After his release from prison, he is dropped back into the world in the wastelands of the city. In the menial work afforded the underclass, he begins his new life among characters at the edges of society - dwellers of the netherworld - such as Raphael, a former cop from Mexicali-singing Spanish areas in the mists of the industrial night among drug addicts and crooked cops; Tony, a stoner scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge of history based solely on the intricate study of rock and roll; and Larry, the bloated, abusive manager trapped as much as his workers in a world of tedium and repetition and machines
Think, The Three Stooges on acid.
Unable to reconnect with what’s left of his family, Tom embarks on a criminal path more harrowing than the one that led him to prison in the first place. Lured in by the nefarious Thane, he slips into a plan that will leave him with no way back. And with no place left in this world to go but prison, he makes one last run for freedom. Will he escape?
KIRKUS totes THE GEOGRAPHY OF SAYING GOODBYE as "A fleet-footed romp of a book with some sneakily perceptive insights into larger human questions."
On her deathbed, Paul Canton’s mother declares she’s bound for the Alboran Sea. The nurses dismiss it as nonsense, but the next morning she vanishes, along with her son’s credit card. Paul, who finds leaving his comfort zone “more terrifying than the Third Battle of Nanking,” sets off across continents in a quixotic pursuit, desperate for one last chance to say goodbye. Only, the farther he travels, the less he understands the woman who raised him, and the more he realizes how little he’s actually lived.
Wry and tender in equal measure, THE GEOGRAPHY OF SAYING GOODBYE blends humor with lyrical observation in a story about family and mortality, yes, but also about learning how to live.
In a series of 112 vignettes, Without Your Father chronicles the year following the sudden death of Jessica Lynne Henkle’s father. Written in the second person and with searing honesty, the book depicts the oddities and absurdities of navigating sudden loss, along with the utter devastation of it: the daily, sometimes hourly trudging forward in a life that has become unrecognizable now that one person is no longer in it. Without Your Father seeks to mimic the grieving process itself and allows readers to enter its pages and move through their own losses, in their own ways. It is, at its core, an offering—from one grieving soul to another.
MOTHER! by Summer Stewart is a genre-defying collection of poetry and essays that interrogates what it means to be made—and remade—as a woman. Moving through girlhood, the body, labor, relationships, and motherhood, the book dismantles the idea that identity is self-determined, revealing instead how it is shaped through expectation, silence, and survival.
Blending intimate narrative with sharp cultural analysis, Stewart explores pregnancy, loss, sexuality, and care as lived realities rather than abstract concepts. Her work exposes the invisible systems women sustain—within families, partnerships, and institutions—while examining the psychological and physical costs of carrying what is never fully named.
At once deeply personal and structurally aware, MOTHER! reframes motherhood not as a role, but as a condition that illuminates broader truths about autonomy, power, and inheritance. In doing so, Stewart offers not resolution, but recognition and a path toward self-definition that does not rely on disappearance.
The Mechanicals is a modern-day love comedy tracking the journey of a young couple, Jackie and Norman, who are brought together by an unplanned pregnancy, the imperative of family allowing them to survive their wild and unsettled twenties and their functionally alternative thirties, ultimately leading them to a deeper understanding of what they have come to mean to each other. The event that catalyzes this outcome is the death of Guy Roche, the world champion MMA fighter Norman becomes friends with through his work as a feature writer for a men’s magazine, Voyeur. Through helping Guy’s family decide what to do with his estate, Norman and Jackie become closer to Guy’s widow, Natasha, a former adult film star who models for them her intuitive understanding about how to exist in the messiness of the universe.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST BABES
In A LONG WAY FROM ANYWHERE: LIVING OFF-GRID IN THE AMERICAN WEST Norah Esty takes readers on her surprising journey from math prodigy and tenured professor to a homesteader in the rugged landscapes of Eastern Oregon. With a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley and a stable academic career in Boston, Norah and her husband Jim left behind urban comforts for a life off the grid, inspired by the works of Michael Pollan and Wendell Berry. Trading their city condo for an isolated homestead, they leapt into rural life with little experience or preparation.
With sheer determination as their guide, Norah and Jim faced the trials of homesteading head-on, from raising animals and butchering rabbits to handling heavy machinery and troubleshooting generators. Each day brought unforeseen challenges, from predators lurking nearby to the isolation that made every medical emergency a risk. Yet, moments of wonder—like wolves howling in the hills and mountain lions padding through snowy trails—balanced the realities of rural survival. In this reflective, honest account, Norah shares the trials, triumphs, and life-changing insights of leaving the familiar to embrace the wilderness and the unknown.
THE PRUMONT METHOD is a darkly funny story, capturing the wild last gasp of a family in retrograde against the backdrop of gun violence run amok in America.
Staring down the barrel of a crumbling career and imploding marriage, “math hobbyist” Roger Prumont, unwittingly creates a formula that might predict when and where the next mass shooting occurs. He hits the road (where he’s joined by his unimpressed daughter) to test whether the Method could actually save lives. Except what if mass shootings are so ubiquitous now that his predictions are merely dumb luck? And what if he’s risking his own life to find out?
THE LAND OF ALE AND GLOOM: DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST concerns the summer of 2016, which the author spent traveling the region in the looming shadow of a Trump presidency, having come to the somewhat blue realization that there perhaps remained just one thing in this world with the power to bring him true happiness: craft beer. And while there’s no better place for a beer enthusiast than Oregon and Washington State, a philosophical guide seemed necessary—hence, Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, an encyclopedic Renaissance-era opus which advises the melancholic patient to treat his affliction with a few cold brews.
Along with these elements, THE LAND OF ALE AND GLOOM: DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST incorporates the fascinating history and vibrant literature of the Northwest into a comic yet insightful exploration of the region.
SAD MAN HAPPY HOUR is a four-part poetry collection rooted in the Pacific Northwest that resists regional mythmaking in favor of lived experience. With wry humor and earned wisdom, SAD MAN HAPPY HOUR aims to deconstruct queer alienation and our ever-changing relationship with the natural world. Determined to be more celebration than elegy, the book suggests “if you thought that life would end when the world did / then you don’t know anything about life.” Drawing on county fairs, 90’s true crime TV, and the COVID-19 pandemic, SAD MAN HAPPY HOUR locates meaning in memory in unexpected places, while situating itself in the tradition of Northwest writers who treat the land not as backdrop, but as an active force–and in doing so, offers a portrait of the Pacific Northwest as it is: fractured, funny, enduring, and alive.
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JOY is the new full-length collection of poetry by Francis Daulerio, author of If & When We Wake, Please Plant This Book, and With a Difference. Beginning with one pregnancy and ending with another, JOY examines the ways in which we keep ourselves alive, centering around the birth of Daulerio’s first child while coping with the loss of friend and collaborator, Scott Hutchison. With a foreword by acclaimed author Maggie Smith (Good Bones, Keep Moving), and cover art by UK artist Helen Ahpornsiri, this life-affirming collection highlights what Bon Iver’s Sean Carey describes as “Daulerio’s relentless hope and love,” encouraging readers to push through hardships to find their own sense of meaning.
DREAM POP ORIGAMI: A PERMUTATIONAL MEMOIR ABOUT HAPA IDENTITY is a beautiful, ambitious, interactive, and engrossing lyrical memoir about mixed-race identity, love, travel, AAPI masculinities, and personal metamorphosis. This experimental work of creative nonfiction examines, celebrates, and complicates what it means to be Asian & white, Nisei & hapa, Midwestern & Californian, Buddhist & American at the same time. In this stunning collection of choose-your-own-essays and autobiographical lists, multiracial identity is a counterpoint of memory, language, reflection, and imagination intersecting and interweaving into a coherent tapestry of text, emotion, and voice.
Noted as a Distinguished Favorite by the Independent Press Award committee and the 2022 NYC Big Book Award Winner for the Poetry/Social Justice Category, GATHERING BROKEN LIGHT confronts pasts we cannot understand, largely following the October 2017 mass shooting. Anchored in the severity and the beauty of the Mojave Desert landscape, fractured narratives, surrealist repetition, and imagistic lyricism work to contemplate grief, including both overwhelming sorrow and deep love. To those lost by gun violence, a voice yearns, “I wish I could sing the sky to you.”
Winner in the 20th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards in Women’s Issues, You May Feel a Bit of Pressure: Observations from Infertility's Heart-Wrenching Ride tells the maddening, mysterious story of one woman's unexplained infertility through a spectrum of emotions that will be familiar to each of the millions of women fighting their way to motherhood. From Hope to Shame, Courage to Grief, Disappointment to Dread to Uncertainty, this book, with unflinching honesty, explores the many painful, palpable human truths at the heart of a most common experience we've only scratched the surface of understanding.
BESTSELLERS
Debutiful Named MOUTH One of the Best Debut Short Story Collections of 2025
In MOUTH, Kerry Donoghue’s provocative debut, the ways we consume—from the drinks we can't put down to the lovers we can’t resist—reveal deeper hungers we often keep hidden. A competitive eater, a rodeo clown, a pearl diver, and a mermaid-in-training are just a few of the outsiders in this collection, each grappling with their own consuming desires. Whether through alcohol, infidelity, or chasing perfection, these characters are forced to confront what they’re truly starving for—and who they become when they can't fill that void. MOUTH asks: when our appetites define us, how do we survive the hunger?
Lit Hub named MOSAIC one of the “100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.
Mosaic is a story of exploration and self-identification, of grief, relationships, tackling mental health, and how to walk through difficult times when there is nowhere else to go. The story follows Laura, who along with her husband Jason, embarked on having a baby, only to go on a journey that spanned over five years. Over this time, Laura learned the hard truth about pregnancy loss, the medical field, and how to negotiate unforeseen difficulties. She persevered through four high-risk pregnancies, with the last one being a pregnancy more successful than the rest. Yet, it posed many tribulations, launching Laura and her husband into the world of an unpredictable birth, fetal abnormalities, their premature baby, the NICU, and breath-holding. Through the story, the book delves into grief and resilience, and how they work together to get Laura through a difficult time in her life. It shows how relying on her own mother also taught her how to enter motherhood for herself, no matter at what stage she considered herself to be a “mother.” Mosaic explores how to use challenges to change us into better versions of ourselves.
Kirkus Reviews calls DIQUE DOMINICAN, “A brutally raw, poignant, and literary coming-of-age memoir.”
Dique Dominican is the powerful debut memoir from Ayendy Bonifacio, born "near a mango-steepled, river-scented town" in the Dominican Republic and raised in Brooklyn after migrating as a child. With lyrical precision and emotional honesty, Bonifacio reflects on the immigrant experience, identity, language, and belonging.
Ralph makes world-class corndogs in a small Kansas shop. It’s humble work, but honest. The problem? The bills pile up faster than the money rolls in, and Ralph can’t help but notice the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. In Dollartorium, named a 2026 IPPY Book Awards Finalist, Ron Pullins takes that pressure and turns it into what Kirkus Reviews calls “a boisterous and thoughtful journey through the absurdities of modern capitalism.”
As Ralph puts it:
“As far as I can tell, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting… what? Screwed? If I think about it too much—my situation, the way the money runs out before the month does—I start wondering if anyone’s even paying attention. And if they are, I’m pretty sure I’m at the bottom of the heap.”
Ralph’s wife has had enough. She’s determined to get rich, one way or another. So when an infomercial for the “Dollartorium” promises untold wealth through a few simple business courses, Ralph reluctantly agrees to give it a shot.
Soon he’s learning how to hire, fire, market, and hustle his way to success. And for a while, it works—until the entire Dollartorium empire collapses under the weight of its own greed.
In the end, it’s Ralph’s daughter, Stella, who saves him. With her help, he finds his way back to what really counts: honest work, family, and the best damn corndogs in Kansas.
BOOKS BY WOMXN
Set in a small island community called Hope, Alaska, this fresh and contemporary collection of linked stories drops us into the lives of a host of quirky town characters striving for freedom, meaning, and utopia in a wilderness of startling beauty and danger. It poses the culminating question: To what extent can we, should we, bury the past?
Amy Shimshon-Santo's EVEN THE MILKY WAY IS UNDOCUMENTED is a testament to the lost, the loved, the courageous. Each poem is the past and the future. Each page turns for those built by families that span political borders -- families that see borders as nothing more than lines drawn by an invisible hand that's long forgotten that we belong to the earth and not the other way around.
In “Ice,” two men contemplate their future in a bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape: “The point is, there is no point. You just keep going. Even if there’s no point.” In Dumaguete, a young boy must become his mother’s protector: it nearly tears him apart. In the title story, a ship captain discovers a city on the ocean floor and finds himself grappling with the notion of moral responsibility. Clear-eyed and lacerating, Marianne Villanueva’s RESIDENTS OF THE DEEP imagines human nature at moments of extremity. Vulnerable and challenged as most of these characters are, there is no denying their tenacity or capacity to endure.
Dive into the bittersweet, beautifully peculiar world of Patricia Q. Bidar's Pardon Me for Moonwalking, a collection of short stories that illuminate the offbeat, the tender, and the painfully human. Each story offers a glimpse into the extraordinary moments of seemingly ordinary lives, from fleeting encounters with strangers to lifelong battles with identity and connection.
Bidar's characters grapple with isolation, unspoken longing, and the complex tangle of relationships in settings that range from suburban living rooms to shadowy city streets. With sharp prose, wry humor, and poignant insights, this collection explores themes of love, regret, and the elusive search for meaning in a chaotic world.
Pardon Me for Moonwalking is a literary kaleidoscope of modern life, showcasing the subtle beauty of human resilience and the power of small, unexpected connections.
POPULAR FICTION
IT WAS AN ACCIDENT.
Marc's hand slipped and he played the secret chord that summons the Devil—the same chord Jimi Hendrix and Robert Johnson knew. The one Keith Richards’ ghost showed him years ago in a moment of weakness. When all hell breaks loose, Marc is pulled into a quest to collect magical artifacts from rock and roll history to prepare for a showdown with the Devil. Marc’s road is instantly beset with supernatural forces working against him, but he isn’t alone. Not by a longshot. Riding shotgun is his band of misfits: the pop-culture loving Bollocks; the burgeoning rock journalist Maybelline; the occult practitioner Tanner; and Marc’s ghost buddy who brought this all about in the first place, Keith Richards.
Along the way he crosses paths with Papa Legba and one of the biggest rock stars of the 20th century, who just so happens to be the Devil’s son. Failure means eternal damnation—not only for himself, but for his friends and Keith Richards' ghost, who needs Marc to help him win back his own soul traded years ago. Armed with one of the most famous guitars in history, a leather jacket that may have been worn by Elvis, and a magic guitar pick, this should be a piece of cake. But when bargaining with the Devil, it might take more than tricks and sick guitar riffs to save their souls.
Families. You can’t pick them, but you can keep them. Or not.
As your family is bright, so is it dark. Sure, the love and laughter of family lingers in your heart, yet it’s the secrets, pranks, and punishments that haunt your soul. The mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons in Functional Families all seek only love to cure their familial ills, but they often go about it in strange ways. To come to terms with his father’s past and encroaching dementia, Reynold Vasquez takes his father out for one last fancy dinner in “Bird Dog,” while in “Bat Out of Hell,” Margaret abandons her mother at a Tijuana gas station hoping to move on with her life. In “My First War,” young cadet Gilbert Fernandez goes AWOL from a pretend battlefield to be with his pregnant girlfriend on the verge of an abortion, and in “Wheel of Fortune,” Hillary Clinton visits a homegirl fortune teller in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the end, these disparate souls resolve their desperate actions to return to their nuclei, the only places they can call home.
KIRKUS REVIEWS, calls A BROKEN WINDOW, "A contemporary poetic novel for audiences who love strong female characters."
In A BROKEN WINDOW, Anne Leigh Parrish gives us Sam Clark, a poet haunted by the shadows of her past. Sam channels her emotions into verse, hoping to find peace and strength, but when she falls into a new relationship with Steven—a professor, seemingly wise, and full of promises—she’s unsure if happiness is something she truly deserves. As the couple moves to Boston for Steven’s academic sabbatical, Sam is ready for a fresh start. However, the city and her relationship soon reveal complexities she hadn't anticipated. Amid her personal struggles, Sam connects with the son of the publisher Steven is researching, an older man who helps navigate her memories. With poetry as her anchor, Sam begins to distinguish who will stay beside her as she confronts the pain of her childhood—and who will fade away.
Would you be willing to kidnap your child to save his life and set sail in search of a doctor that may hold the key to his survival when everyone else has given up? When it means you may lose everything regardless of the outcome? PACIFIC by Trevor J. Houser discovers what a desperate father is willing to do to save his son's life...even if it means braving deadly storms at home and on the run.
On a remote Puget Sound island, police chief Bell navigates his job and marriage in the wake of his son's near-death brain surgery. When his wife no longer wants to tempt the fates of experimental medicine he takes matters into his own hands. With the help of his spaced-out fisherman friend, Bell kidnaps his boy and sets sail for Guatemala in search of the mysterious Dr. Haas. On the way, they'll brave the seventh biggest storm, befriend two behemoth fly-fishing Nords, and try to outrun the ex-Navy captain hired by his wife to find them.
A 2022 Indie Book Awards Finalist, 2022 First Horizon Book Award Finalist, 2022 The Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List, and 2022 Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Award in Fiction, PACIFIC is a powerful narrative that takes readers for an emotional ride.
MEMOIRS THAT PUSH LIMITS
A cycle akin to the seasons of a life, Blood Fire Vapor Smoke, selected as a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of 2020, asks questions of the ancient struggle between life and death amidst landscapes new and old. Does ultimate forgiveness answer to ultimate violence in the world? What is the nature of grace? Who determines the fates that move us? A collection of stories opening upon the inner world with the abandon and gravity involved in personal and collective responsibility, the book responds to the present age of enragement, and the collapsing binary of two hungers: violence and forgiveness.
BLOOD FIRE VAPOR SMOKE considers the human myth of regeneration through violence, and the aftermath of loneliness, love, and yearning found in a more merciful expression of human existence. Violence is caught by love, and changed, transcended, and transformed into a yearning for restoration, atonement, and the fusion embodied in the true power of community, humility, and greater humanity. The characters in each of the four sections of this collection of stories and one long poem, pass through thresholds of knowledge and responsibility. Asking not what life owes them, but what they may receive from life, and in the end, just how they are responsible for life, those who people this collection cross into unforeseen places of mystery, mercy, and grace.
In Blood Fire Vapor Smoke, beyond our inevitable compulsions toward violent ends, healing calls, beckoning us toward a crossroads where we turn and face one another, finding the beauty and strength to serve and love one another again.
IndieReader Award Winner, True Crime
In 1970, Patricia Knight Meyer was trafficked along a Texas hospital curb in an illegal, attorney-brokered adoption with no judge, no paperwork, and no questions asked. Patricia grew up celebrating a made-up birthday, haunted by nightmares of "The Dark Man." Her parents, blackmailed by the attorney they hired to skirt a discriminatory adoption system, faced an impossible choice: go to the police or pay up. They paid $30,000 to keep their paperless child. Navigating her mother's violent alcoholism and caring for her disabled 600-pound father, Patricia spent her childhood trying to save her saviors, unaware of the lifelong threat that haunted them: at any moment, someone could come back for their child.
Never legally adopted, Patricia used a fraudulent birth certificate for 47 years. Part detective story, part searing family portrait, part historical reckoning, WONDERLAND exposes what happens when maternal desperation meets need and greed, and when falsified documents, dark family secrets, and systemic abuses can no longer sustain one woman's relentless search for truth. A tumble down the rabbit hole of America's baby trade, Patricia delivers a haunting reckoning with Baby Scoop Era exploitation that asks: as reproductive rights disappear, are we ready for Baby Scoop 2.0?
Adam Pertman, a Boston Globe Pulitzer-nominated senior journalist whose 1998 series "The Adoption Revolution" helped define the national conversation about adoption, wrote: "Wonderland is an important contribution to everyone in the adoption world... It provides a much-needed reminder of why transparency, equity, honesty, and adoptee-centered practices are vital. Oh, did I mention that it’s a compelling read for almost anyone?"
Also a finalist for the 2026 Eric Hoffer Award, the 2026 Indies Today Award and the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Award.
A memoir in verse, Elisabeth Blair’s BECAUSE GOD LOVES THE WASP documents two and a half years she spent living in two abusive facilities for “troubled teens” during the late 1990s. The wilderness camp and emotional growth boarding school were modeled on the teachings and tenets of Synanon, a mid-20th-century cult.
Alternating between painful clarity and surreal metaphor, the poems grapple with the shock and disorientation of being taken away in the middle of the night by strangers; the bewilderment of navigating expectations in an environment of institutionalized bullying, shunning, and sleep deprivation; and the gravity of the adulthood that follows.
Writing in the second person, Blair confronts the reader, withholding the potential relief of distance. Ripping through a patchwork of disturbing descriptions—of violent staff, isolated and terrified children, and decades of brutal nightmares—she cradles her fierce testimony in sonorous language and striking imagery.
The book’s tight corralling of traumas takes aim at the notion that inducing fear, despair, and shipwrecked helplessness can rehabilitate a child—the catastrophic doctrine of “tough love.”
MEANINGFULL: 23 LIFE-CHANGING STORIES OF CONQUERING DIETING, WEIGHT, & BODY IMAGE ISSUES is a blend of motivational self-help, memoir, psychology, and health and wellness. Alli Spotts-De Lazzer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an expert in eating and body image issues, and a woman on the other side of her own decades-long struggle with food and body.
A $702 billion global diet/nutrition and weight loss industry shows that people worldwide are devoted to achieving maximum health and their desired bodies. Yet mainstream approaches are failing these individuals, and sadly, science proves this. Intent on gaining the “health” and “happiness” that diets promise, consumers keep trying. They become sad and frustrated, believing they’re failing when they’re not. They simply need a legitimate, alternative path, which MeaningFULL offers. Through the contributors’ diverse, real-life mini-memoirs followed by Spotts-De Lazzer’s commentaries, readers will learn about themselves and discover their unique, unconventional formulas for conquering their issues. Along the way, MeaningFULL will also guide them toward more self-appreciation, wellness, and fulfillment.
MASTERFUL POETRY
CORMORANT is a work of contrition. The poems are political and personal. A response to the federal government’s plan to kill thousands of cormorants in the name of salmon recovery and a tribute to the person who died from heartbreak because of it.
To support wildlife, we are donating the profits of this book to The Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
A 2024 Best Book Awards Winner for Urban Poetry, and Finalist in both the Narrative and Contemporary Poetry categories, THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD is Douglas Cole’s first poetry collection to explore the prose poem. Inspired by Charles Baudelaire, Octavio Paz, Claudia Rankine and James Wright, Cole tells a tale of the world in fragmentary, dreamlike poems rich in musical language that retains a mystery bringing readers back again to see what shimmers at the edge of the page. If the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, then these poems are visions wrought in moonlight.
In classical Chinese Zen painting, nature is large, human presence often nothing more than a tiny hut. In the Tradition of Mountains and Rivers, clarity of vision comes most often with a journey up and out of the world of political intrigues and warfare and pettiness. A similar vision comes through the poetry in The Cabin at the End of the World. But as the 12th-century Zen poet, Ikkyu, also known as Crazy Cloud, writes: one cannot truly experience enlightenment in seclusion. It must happen in the world, in a lover’s kiss, in a night of revelry and drinking. Just so, THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD explores truth and beauty in the world of people and their lives, and even when we do reach the Mountain and Rivers in the section titled “Windows of the Sea,” human remnants, outposts, graves and ghosts still hover close under the surface. Any “escape” is directly confronted and put away. Here in the world we find paradise.
EXQUISITE CORPSE, the sixth poetry collection by renowned Chilean poet Malú Urriola (1967–2023), translated by Elena Barcia, showcases Urriola's intensely personal and innovative voice. Oscillating between deep self-reflection and playful Dadaist influences, these poems dive into the emotional intensity of memory—whether through vivid sexual encounters or profound personal grief—often morphing into surreal, imaginative leaps. Her work brims with allusions to music, literature, and the natural world, deeply exploring what it means to live and think as a poet in the modern world. As Urriola writes, her aim is "to navigate the instant, to delay its departure a while, fine-tuning the ear of the eye in that brief journey of presence.”
Inspired by Dadaism’s embrace of unpredictability, Exquisite Corpse breaks from traditional poetic form, blending graphics, shape poems, aphorisms, philosophical reflections, and free-form meditations on poetry itself. Her thoughts spiral and loop like jazz riffs, crafting a richly layered reading experience. Wry, intelligent, and moving, the collection delves into themes of urban life, academic arrogance, female sexuality, existentialism, and the beauty and solace found in nature, music, and poetry.
In Terry Tierney’s second poetry collection, WHY TREES STAY OUTSIDE, voices emerge from our social, political, and natural environment, including perspectives we thought were inanimate or at least insentient, some human, some spiritual. Through provocative imagery, they ask how we can save ourselves, find love, and find meaning given our current relationships with one another and the earth. The chorus of questions radiates with occasional remorse, but the poems also flash with redemption and humor. By exposing features of our physical and personal environments, their wealth of perspectives, and our innate desire to create and destroy, these accessible poems dare us to reconsider our assumptions and find a way forward.
Love books and a little bit of mystery? Dive into a literary adventure with our Book Boxes, Subscriptions, and Surprises! Each box is a treasure chest packed with handpicked reads from Unsolicited Press, exclusive merch, and a sprinkle of bookish delight. Perfect for the curious reader who thrives on discovery or as a gift for the bibliophile in your life. Whether you choose a one-time treat or an ongoing subscription, every delivery is a celebration of indie literature. Because who doesn’t love surprises, especially when they’re wrapped in stories?
BUNDLES, SUBSCRIPTIONS, AND SURPRISES.
If you’re new to Unsolicited Press, this is the place to begin.
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These are books that listen closely to the world and respond honestly.
Because what’s life without a little literary chaos?
For $15, you get:
📖 1 surprise book from our weird, wonderful backlist
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Together, these books offer a snapshot of the press right now: diverse, ambitious, and deeply human.
MERCH
Show off your love for indie books with our Bookish Merchandise! From cozy tees that scream "reader vibes" to mugs perfect for fueling late-night page turns, we’ve got you covered. Add some literary flair to your life with stickers, totes, and more—all designed to celebrate your bookish personality. Whether you’re treating yourself or shopping for the bookworm in your life, these goodies are bound to bring a smile. Wear your love for books proudly (or sip it, or stick it—your choice)!
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• Yarn diameter: 30 singles
• Relaxed fit
• Side-seamed construction
• 1 × 1 rib at collar, cuffs, and waistband
• Forward-rolled shoulder
• Twill tape on the inside of the back neck
• Twill label
• The fabric of this product is OEKO-TEX Standard 100-certified
• Blank product sourced from El Salvador
Disclaimer: This sweatshirt undergoes garment-dyeing and softening processes, which may cause slight color variations.
This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!
• Ceramic
• 11 oz mug dimensions: 3.79″ (9.6 cm) in height, 3.25″ (8.3 cm) in diameter
• 15 oz mug dimensions: 4.69″ (11.9 cm) in height, 3.35″ (8.5 cm) in diameter
• Colored rim, inside, and handle
• Dishwasher and microwave safe
• 100% combed cotton
• Heather colors are 15% viscose and 85% cotton
• Fabric weight: 5.3 oz/yd² (180 g/m²)
• Relaxed fit
• Cropped length
• Ribbed crew neck
• Dropped shoulders
• Side-seamed construction
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Double-needle hems
• Preshrunk
• Blank product sourced from Bangladesh
A tiny manifesto you can slap on your laptop, water bottle, mailbox, or the nearest corporate publishing catalog. “READ SMALL PRESS” is our rallying cry — a reminder that literature survives because readers choose to support the presses doing the real work. Weatherproof, matte, badass.
Product features
- Vibrant, long-lasting color printed with eco-solvent inks
- Matte UV protective laminate for weather and sun resistance
- Premium, water-resistant vinyl rated 5+ years outdoors
- Strong waterproof adhesive with easy-peel backing
- Eco-friendly inks and durable construction for indoor/outdoor use
Care instructions
- Use a soft, clean and dry cloth to gently brush any dust or dirt off from the center of the sticker outwards.
Literary Nights with Unsolicited Press. Hosted by Rosalia Scalia
Literary Nights is Unsolicited Press’s twice-monthly reading series hosted by acclaimed writer Rosalia Scalia. Each event spotlights bold, innovative authors whose work pushes past the limits of mainstream publishing. Intimate, unpretentious, and driven by the belief that literature thrives in community, Literary Nights brings writers and readers together for live readings that celebrate voice, craft, and the unmistakable fire of small-press storytelling.
SMALL PRESS, BIG MOUTH BOOK CLUB
A monthly book club celebrating the unruly brilliance of small-press literature featuring bold titles, intimate author salons, and a community of readers who don’t shut up about the books they love.
Publish Without Burning Out:
A Small Press Launch System for Authors Who Want a Real Career (Not a Meltdown)
A humane, repeatable way to launch books without sacrificing your health, creativity, or life.
Publishing a book shouldn’t feel like a slow-motion collapse. And yet—for authors and small presses alike—it often does. Launch plans spiral. Marketing feels endless. Outreach turns into self-doubt. Everyone is overworked, underpaid, and expected to somehow do more.
Publish Without Burning Out exists because that model is broken.
This system offers a realistic, ethical alternative: a clear, sustainable launch framework designed for people who actually make independent publishing happen.
Available for Small Press Publishing Collective members only. It’s free to join (just below!).
The Small Press Publishing Collective
A membership community redefining what publishing can be. Free. Transparent. Collective.
The Small Press Publishing Collective is a free membership community created by Unsolicited Press to support writers, editors, and independent press-builders who believe that publishing should be transparent, ethical, and accessible.
Our mission is simple: to teach the publishing world as it really is, not as the industry benefits from portraying it.
We are here to dismantle gatekeeping, redistribute knowledge, empower literary workers, and build sustainable, people-centered publishing ecosystems.