"A group of Florida stoners tour France to visit the apartment of an obscure psychedelic sci-fi writer called Rocco Atebly, who not only was a necromancer, and played the theremin like a champ, but created an apocalyptic, device called Fat Tornado Clock, that messes with other dimensions and layers of reality.Chase Griffin and Christina Quay’s novel is not a puzzle, but some esoteric kind of improv that explores Borges’ thesis on causality as the main problem of the literary arts. This narrative seeks to transcend the giant dead whale of postmodernism without undoing any of its promethean conclusions, driven by a passion that fears no ironic judgment.You may have seen a dime-a-dozen indie lit psychedelia writers exploring and at the same time ironizing their very quest to better understand their world, yet this hysterically silly and viscerally paranoid work of metafiction tries its dang hardest to sketch the blueprint of the authors’ still beating hearts: something that no posers can ever do. Maybe you read people who have read Foster Wallace, Vonnegut, Pynchon and Wittgenstein before, but trust me, you have not read Florida’s finest freaks’ meditations on the nature of reality, nor their musings over the consequences of this never-ending human quest for transcendence and authentic, spíritually meaningful living in our techno-infused carnival of political horrors called early 21th century late-capitalism."—Kelvin Matheus Rosa, English literature researcher, writer and teacher from Brazil

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About the authors

Christina Quay and Chase Griffin are reclusive authors and not much is known about them. It is rumored that they live in Florida, they have three children, they have pet alligators, and they spend their spare time building orgone accumulators.

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"D.T. Robbins writes like he met the Devil at the crossroads, sold his soul, and dropped acid in the underworld. The stories in Birds Aren’t Real are psychedelic fables of tunnels and ghosts, hair and graveyards, but underneath the Danse Macabre is a painful quest for love in a heartbroken world."—Kevin Maloney, author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim"A boyfriend once told me the best art leaves you disoriented. It makes you question reality, as if what changed wasn’t you—it was everything around you. In that case, Birds Aren’t Real is a masterpiece."—Danielle Chelosy, author of Cheat"The stories in Birds Are Real are so exuberant, so chaotic, so full of energy and sentiment and joy and romance and the belief in both themselves and the world around them that anything is possible — they feel a little like you've jumped in the sidecar of Evel Knievel's motorcycle for a journey across the country, around the globe, through the galaxy, while Evel points out all these beautiful moments hidden everywhere you'd never even thought to look."—Aaron Burch, author of Year of the Buffalo"Birds Aren't Real is euphoric, ridiculously funny, and so very good. These stories feel like the wild west of fiction, like pure freedom."—Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy"Anything can happen in these wild dream-like stories."—Bud Smith

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"As essential as Hannah Arendt in understanding history and the heart."—Pietro Federico"This journey through Italy of the 1940s, with its terror of fascism and its historical reckoning, is especially meaningful in this moment, reminding us of our own terrifying, impossible world. Fasano is a writer of special, different bravery, and The Swallows of Lunetto is a dream of a book."—Ilya Kaminsky, author of 'Deaf Republic' and 'Dancing in Odessa'“I am in awe of the great ethereal wisdom that is at the core of this journey. To read The Swallows of Lunetto is to step into a sensual, sea-woven and brutal world of war and its aftermath. As a son returns, as mothers grieve, as swallows glide, and history compiles, the novel asks what it means to forgive, what it means to love and create. Fasano’s prose is alive with the ancient and archetypal as it battles with the present moment.”—Andrés Cerpa, author of ‘The Vault’"One could argue that our strongest social awakenings happen when the past collides painfully with the present. This is exactly what happens in Joseph Fasano’s The Swallows of Lunetto. Reading this novel is both necessary and uncanny, as it draws parallels between historical Calabria and the modern world. And yet we are carried so gently through this story by Fasano’s lyricism. Yes, this is a novel, but there is poetry running through every scene, every moment, every conversation. This book strikes the perfect balance between taking humanity to task and reminding us of our beautiful possibilities."—Taylor Byas, author of 'I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times'

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About the author

Joseph Fasano is the author of the novels The Swallows of Lunetto (Maudlin House, 2022) and The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry include The Crossing (2018), Vincent (2015), Inheritance (2014), and Fugue for Other Hands (2013). His honors include the Cider Press Review Book Award, the Rattle Poetry Prize, and a nomination for the Poets' Prize, "awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year."Fasano's writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Measure, Tin House, The Adroit Journal, Verse Daily, PEN Poetry Series, American Literary Review, American Poetry Journal, and the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program, among other publications. He is a Lecturer at Manhattanville College and a Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University, and he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books. He is also the founder of the Poem for You Series, and his latest project is a "living poem" for his son that he is live-tweeting on Twitter at @stars_poem.

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Adam Soldofsky

Adam Soldofsky is the author of Memory Foam (Disorder Press), recipient of the American Book Award. His cartoon series "Signs and Wonders" appears regularly on the Maudlin House website. He lives in Concord, CA.

Axel Wilhite

Axel Wilhite has shown his artwork in the United States, France, the Netherlands, and Taiwan. He is a co-founder of 7x7.la, an online magazine that facilitates and publishes creative collaborations between artists and writers. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

"So much of the brutal, beautiful magic of Christina Rosso's Creole Conjure is in its intricate details and how deftly they weave themselves together into a seductively monstrous, fairytale tapestry. Each one of these stories is inextricably intertwined with its sister stories-each a single coiled snake on the head of the well-groomed Gorgon. Strands of the old-world fairy tales we know are braided with the new-world characters and landscapes. In Rosso's darkly dreamy New Orleans and lush swamplands, women and girls find themselves both freed and dammned by their own bestial appetites. You can't be certain from one moment to the next who will be devouring whom."– Lindsay Lusby, author of Catechesis: a postpastoral

"Creole Conjure is one of the most original and imaginative books I've read in a long, long time. It's dark, violent, empowering, sometimes downright hysterical, and packed with enough magic and New Orleans lore you'll want to hop a plane down south with only this book as yout huide. Rosso's new collection belongs on every reader's shelf-and I wouldn't be shocked if it finds its way into a cobwebby, cauldron-bubbly occult shop near you."– Nick Gregorio, author of With a Difference and Good Grief

"Rosso weaves a rich tapestry of characters and experiences set in her otherworldly vision of New Orleans with these interconnected stories. Each piece lures the reader into some dark corner of the city or its surrounding swamps to introduce them to the local residents, whether they're a swamp siren, an overworked voodoo doll, or an usher of the newly dead. Rosso crafts even the unlikeliest of characters with care, giving nearly as much fascinating depth to a talking alligator as she does an all-powerful swamp witch. While magic and the supernatural abound in these stories, the histories and experiences of these characters are often harsh realities that give the collection a socially critical and progressive focus."- Nicholas Perilli, author of Cul-de-sac"Rosso's collection invites us to think about our own humanity - and what it means to be alive and how to live our lives. In particular, the lessons learned in each of these stories aren't always easy to swallow, but ultimately call us to live in a better world, starting with our small actions. I care about the characters in the stories, literally sitting at the edge of my seat wondering what the next page will bring, and what will happen to them. Rosso is a true master of suspense."-Joanna C. Valente, author of A Love Story and other books“In crafting Creole Conjure Christina Rosso brings equal parts imagination and an introspective eye against the backdrop of the familiar and fantastical . With witches, with sirens, with a profound darkness and buoyant light these tales will entrench you in the most wonderful kind of chaos.”- Charlie J. Eskew, author of Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark

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About the author

Christina Rosso-Schneider lives and writes in South Philadelphia with her rescue pup, Atticus Finch, and bearded husband, Alex, where they run an independent bookstore and event space called A Novel Idea on Passyunk. She received an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Arcadia University in 2016. Her debut chapbook, SHE IS A BEAST (APEP Publications), was released in May 2020. CREOLE CONJURE, her first full-length collection, is forthcoming from Maudlin House. Her fiction and nonfiction work centers around gender, sexuality, and fairy tales, and has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize. When she isn’t writing or working at the bookstore, she leads various writing and occult-based workshops. Check out the events page to get information on upcoming readings and workshops.

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“This is my favorite kind of poetry: dry, real, hilarious, sharp, surreal, poignant, unapologetically itself. Laura’s singular charmingly unmoored voice offers surprise after surprise in this collection. I started copying and pasting my favorite lines into an email draft, which quickly turned into copying and pasting entire poems, before I realized I'd soon have an email draft containing an exact copy of the book. Salad Days is ‘a planet nobody asked for’–like how the best gifts aren't requestable–a life-giving planet for self-conscious folks with thirsty imaginations, accessible only by reading. It’s a love letter to the future–not the kind of love letter that gushes with promises and pathos, the kind that arrives after truly knowing the faulted gritty humanity of another with whom you can be nothing but honest. If you lurk on social media and silently lament, ‘where did all the interesting stuff go, isn't anyone doing anything new anymore,’ this is the book for you.”– Megan Boyle, author of Liveblog and Selected Unpublished Blog Posts of a Mexican Panda Express Employee“I don’t usually like poetry. 98% of poetry is overwrought and academic and boring. But Laura Theobald is mad (like Sylvia Plath mad, not the other kind) which makes her poetry different, in the way a mad woman’s voice is always a little different. In a way I like. In a way that intrigues me. Listen to her.”– Elizabeth Ellen, author of Person/a and Her Lesser Work“Are you sure you can call it poetry if it is this fun and cool? This is a stunning collection that gives equal respect and curiosity to the simple and profound dramas of human life. I felt very uplifted reading it. Several times I thought, ‘I should get this poem tattooed on me’ and I do not normally think things like that. I think I just wanted ownership of the poems. Salad Days gives attention to the quiet moments and the cartoonish ones, and the people we lust over and the people who are ruining the world. It is delicate and unflinching and effortless and fun and so, so important.”– Chelsea Martin, author of Caca Dolce and Even Though I Don’t Miss You“Laura Theobald’s Salad Days speaks to everyone ‘invested in a life of destruction.’ At times a conversation and at others a secret rumination on purpose and desire that the reader feels privy to, Theobald’s poetry sits at the intersection of lightness and heaviness—each poem building like the ticking of a time bomb. It is often the case that one must self-destruct in order to begin again; Laura’s poetry asks what it means to be the ‘bomb.’”– Erin Taylor, author of Bimboland and Arts Editor at Observer“Something about Salad Days reminds me of Emily Dickinson—if Emily were hornier and funnier. The poems have the kind of specificity that allows them to feel universal, like some beautiful, demented collective dream. Laura Theobald really is one of the best poets we have.”– Juliet Escoria, author of Juliet the Maniac and Black Cloud“Swerving, honest, & exuberant, the poems in Salad Days document a continual knotting of simile & metaphor. The book’s self in each poem is compared to some new thing, revealing the incessant reinterpretations & positionings that the lyric mind demands of a life. Laura Theobald makes poetry look easy, how a sudden slice across the finger while chopping onions makes blood look easy."– Mathias Svalina, author of The Depression

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"Funny, blithe, whip-smart, hilarious, of the moment and of the past, despairing yet hopeful, melancholic yet joyful -- these are a few of the words that come to mind after reading Duncan Birmingham's blissfully delightful collection of short stories. THE CULT IN MY GARAGE has it all."-Jonathan Ames, author of The Extra Man and the creator of BORED TO DEATH."Duncan Birmingham spins piercing tales populated by desperate characters trying to find their place in an ever-changing world. He's talented, he's funny, and he's a true weirdo. Enjoy a walk through his charmingly bananas brain."-Sara Benincasa, author of Agorafabulous! and Real Artists Have Day Jobs“The Cult in My Garage is the rare book that made me laugh alone in my room, made me pick up the phone and tell my sister, you should read this.”-Bud Smith, author of Double Bird and WORK“If it were 1955, Duncan Birmingham would be famous for this hyperreal book of sad funny short stories. Partly because people read short stories back then. And partly because only white men were allowed to write back then, so he would have had less competition."-Joel Stein, In Defense Of Elitism

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About the author

DUNCAN BIRMINGHAM is a writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He’s been a writer and producer on numerous tv shows including Maron (starring Marc Maron) and Blunt Talk. Short films he’s written and directed have premiered at film festivals including Sundance and AFI. His stories have appeared in literary magazines including Mystery Tribune, Maudlin House, nerve, Juked, 7x7, Brooklyn Vol 1 and Joyland.

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“In Tell Me How You Really Feel, Hopple conjures her ensemble cast of captivating oddballs through subtle yet electric sentences that read so easy it’s as if she simply rolled tape on characters who existed long before she brought them to life and who continue to exist after she calls it a wrap. It seems a magic trick, but it’s a true feat—not messing with the destinies of these good, flawed people, having the patience and empathy to allow them their nemesis and failed heroics, their heartbreak and their humor. Tell Me How You Really Feel is flash fiction at its most charming and magnetic."-Kara Vernor, author of Because I Wanted to Write You a Pop Song"Like the old saying, "You’re born alone and you die alone," the characters in Claire Hopple’s peculiar and very funny Tell Me How You Really Feel are befuddled by most people, dooming them to a life of awkward, sometimes surly, individualism. The concerns of Hopple’s lifelike characters thread through each other, creating a cinematic tapestry evocative of a great Robert Altman movie. Combine that with Hopple’s sharp delivery and acute sense of details and Tell Me How You Really Feel becomes a small miracle."-Kevin Sampsell"Everything I want to say about Claire Hopple's writing pales in comparison to the writing itself. In her third book of fiction, she effectively reinvents the rules for short story writing for the third time. In Hopple's hands, this is a climax: The dog whimper of the door hinge and it was done. This is a description of emotion: corn-shucked and echoey. This is dialogue: "A Megabus driver is greater than a regular bus driver. It’s simple math." This is metafiction, humor, and character development: The cymbals were maybe supposed to be symbols, she would think later. And this is all from the same page. There are 45 more in TELL ME HOW YOU REALLY FEEL. What are you waiting for?"-Tyler Barton

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About the author

Claire Hopple is the author of two story collections and one novella. Her fiction has appeared in Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, New World Writing, Timber, and others. She lives with her husband in Asheville, North Carolina. She's just a steel town girl on a Saturday night. More at clairehopple.com

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“Dreams of Being is a taut journey into the fantasy of perfection. A novel with powerful pulse about a person seeking out a hero, hoping to understand themselves. Michael Seidlinger writes beautifully, with purpose, with skill.”-Bud Smith, author of Double Bird“I never trust people who use a middle initial, but Michael J Seidlinger is different. When I read his writing, I’m on my back, I’m having my behavior corrected: It’s teaching me a lesson. And I can see stars.”-Scott McClanahan, author of The Sarah Book“Michael J Seidlinger understands the messy mysterious business of being human, and of also looking to be wanted, needed, and validated.”-Ron Currie, author of The One-Eyed Man“Seidlinger continues his quest to become a literary chameleon, diving into new genres and remixing them into something wholly his own. His is a kingdom without borders.”-Joshua Mohr, author of Sirens“Dreams of Being is a fever dream, a religious text, a writer’s notebook, a case of mistaken identity, a love letter. Jiro is one of the most fascinating characters you will ever read, and this is Michael Seidlinger at his very best, his sentences full of his particular energy and verve. Start here. Open this book and get lost in Seidlinger’s dream. You will be drawn in by the complexity and wonder of Jiro’s story and the mystery of how to tell it and what it takes to make meaning.”-Matthew Salesses, author of Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear“Take one unexpected yet hard-won friendship, mix in sensory delights via the culinary arts, sprinkle in the pathos of (lost and found) aspirations, and you have Michael J Seidlinger's Dreams of Being. In this close narrative, Seidlinger captures the doubt, desperation, and deceit involved in finding purpose. Ultimately, is this "purpose" of our own making, or is it a prescribed notion to become someone manifested by and for others? Dreams of Being captures the relatable fear in being who we are, complexity and all.”-Jennifer Baker, editor of Everyday People: The Color of Life

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About the author

MICHAEL J SEIDLINGER is a Filipino American author of My Pet Serial Killer, Dreams of Being, The Fun We’ve Had, and nine other books. He has written for, among others, Buzzfeed, Thrillist, and Publishers Weekly, and has led workshops at Catapult, Kettle Pond Writer’s Conference, and Sarah Lawrence. He is a co-founder and member of the arts collective, The Accomplices, and founder of the indie press, Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM). He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he never sleeps and is forever searching for the next best cup of coffee.

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"In the Western Lands there are people who believe in its landscapes and cities like a secret cult. To be let into this cult you have to visit several locations, Portland, its National Parks, Boulder, Santa Fe, Tucson, Flagstaff and the great Eugene. Every Western junkie knows this conversation, "Hey, you've been to Eugene, twilight at Skinner's Butte is the best." "Hey, you've been to Zion, I walked the Narrows during a flood, didn't know if I would come out alive." "The buskers in Santa Fe are the best." Nate Perkins lets you into this world of travelers, the secret passwords that allow you into the Western Lands."-Noah Cicero"Depression makes most people's memories collapse inward onto themselves. Perkins struggles with himself but knows the beautiful punctures on the the stick-and-poke world around him."-Brendan Wells, of Uranium Club

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About the author

Nathaniel Kennon Perkins lives in Boulder, CO, where he works as a bookseller. He is the author of the short novel, Cactus, and the ongoing literary zine series, Ultimate Gospel. His creative work has appeared in Triquarterly, High Country News, the Philadelphia Secret Admirer, decomP magazinE, Pithead Chapel, Timber Journal, and others. He runs Trident Press.

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"'This Distance' is a badass book full of meditations on the moments when we're alone, vulnerable and striving for connection."-Daniel DiFranco, author of Panic Years"Gregorio pulls you in before you even know what happened. He develops such strong plots he leaves you no choice but to binge read."-Claire Hopple, author of Too Much of the Wrong Thing"Wow, what a wonderfully deranged carnival ride!"-Joshua Mohr, author of 'Sirens' and 'All This Life'

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About the author

Nick Gregorio is a writer, teacher, reader, husband, hobbyist musician, and teeth-grinder living just outside of Philadelphia with his wife and dog. His fiction has appeared in many wonderful publications, and his first novel, Good Grief, was released by Maudlin House in 2017. He cohosts a podcast called book.record.beer, loves movies, punk rock, and comics, and buys more books than he has time to read. This Distance is his first collection of short stories.

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"Nick Gregorio is a thrilling new voice in American fiction and his debut novel, Good Grief, is as packed with emotion as any funeral and as playful as any game of Ninja Turtles. A wonderfully gripping, tender tale of youthful destruction, reluctant adulthood, and the toughest kind of brotherly love."-Katherine Hill, author of 'The Violet Hour'

"Good Grief captures the spirit of a generation raised on Social Distortion records, Sega Genesis, and Ninja Turtles. The characters have a freedom their parents never did, but also no road map for how to navigate it—as a result, they make messes in their lives, but the truly intriguing aspect of the novel is how they right their paths. In this way, Gregorio explores what it means to finally find a little bit of solace and happiness in this crazy modern world of ours."-Joshua Isard, author of 'Conquistador of the Useless'

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About the author

Nick Gregorio is a writer, teacher, reader, husband, hobbyist musician, and teeth-grinder living just outside of Philadelphia with his wife and dog. His fiction has appeared in many wonderful publications, and his first novel, Good Grief, was released by Maudlin House in 2017. He cohosts a podcast called book.record.beer, loves movies, punk rock, and comics, and buys more books than he has time to read. This Distance is his first collection of short stories.

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“Manic Depressive Dream Girl is a knockout debut. Courageous, precise, and darkly funny, Naadeyah Haseeb’s prose blends pharmacology, love, and the intersections of mental illness, gender, and race into the kind of potion that undoes curses and restores humanity. More, please.”– Sonya Vatomsky, author of ‘Salt Is For Curing’

“Naadeyah Haseeb is an impressively observant, funny, sweet, smart writer. Manic Depressive Dream Girl tackles addiction and sadness, the science behind it all, but more importantly it tackles the heart—the heart in color, the heart in black and white, the heart acting as engine, the heart spurring us to love, the heart lassoing another as we pull ourselves to a safer place.”– Leesa Cross-Smith, author of ‘Every Kiss A War’

“Naadeyah Haseeb’s Manic Depressive Dream Girl unsettles in the best way—characters desperate to feel whole reach, in sometimes clinical and sometimes fiery ways, for each other and risk implosion. Read, with caution: this book will take root in your heart and will burn outward, consuming, and you will feel it in every inch of you.”- Justin Lawrence Daugherty author of ‘Whatever Don’t Drown Will Always Rise’

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“Hamidzadeh’s poetry gives voice to the heartbreak of modern war. I can find no comparison to its gift. We cannot forgive the forces that have caused him such misery, but we can marvel at the transformative power of this important book.”– Charles Bane, Jr., Poet Laureate Nominee Of Florida.

“Seyed Morteza Hamidzadeh transports the reader to another part of the world in his poetry book, ‘Exile Me.’ ….We are given an extremely personal, honest, and strong collection of poems that present vignettes of struggle, brutality, and war. Hamidzadeh not only gives us that strong, raw voice we desire, but an eloquent one, too…”– Zach Benard, author of 'The Lost Islander.'

“Seyed Morteza Hamidzadeh’s poetry chisels pictures into your head with his dramatic imagery and striking spiritual themes. Often channeling some of the voices of the 18th and 19th Century, Seyed’s work can also follow the loose rhythm of modernity, complete with a blunt combination of violence and beauty.”– Vivimus Magazine

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About the author

Seyed Morteza Hamidzadeh is a Persian poet who was born on Augist 31st, 1991 in Masshad, Iran. His poetry can be found in magazines all around the world such as the WAF Anthology, eFiction, Zouch, Vivimus, Five Poetry, Maudlin House, and the Literati Quarterly. He is currently spending his days training in a military camp so that he may better defend against militants and extremists.

“Having taken the artist into my heart, I now spend my days pretending to be an extra in a motion picture he is directing. I just sit in the background and pretend to talk and hope he is happy with my performance.The artist is clearly one of the greatest minds of our time. It will take a very sharp arrow to change this, and even then, I cannot be certain.”– Ross Sutherland, author of Emergency Window

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About the author

Ross McCleary is from Edinburgh in Scotland. He says he has stories and poems published widely in print and online. He says he has had a pamphlet published by Spacecraft Press. He says he is one of the organisers of spoken word night Inky Fingers. He says he is the editor of podcast journal Lies, Dreaming. He says he is working on 2 pieces loosely linked to this book. He says he was born 9 months after Jorge Luis Borges passed away. He says a lot of things and not all of them are lies.

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“Luis Neer lost himself in a world where a polaroid flash replaced the light of the sun. I felt frightened when I read this book. I felt broke inside my own body. Like war. Like je na sais pas quis faire. I walked into the kitchen and made tea, the water from the kettle a fire whistling eerie between the palms of my hands. I thought about the river Willamette, the water you die if you drink. I thought about loneliness, the tree the winds uprooted in my backyard. All of it felt alive, if only for that moment.”- Zachary Cosby, author of ‘Cave’

“In Become Death, Neer explores bursts of horror, loneliness, and alienation with a cold stillness that haunts over me in its own type of fallout. I see in these poems a sense of awareness and control, the type that looks at the ocean and asks how to become mist.”- Davis Land, poet, editor of Alien Mouth.

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"Visceral, raw, and rich in sensory detail, Shannon Cawley’s depression is a thunderstorm and i am a scared dog is a brave account of mental illness and the way it shapes a life. Read it and weep and fight and heal."–Meredith Alling, author of Sing the Song

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About the author

Shan Cawley is currently a student at West Virginia University studying English with a focus in literary & cultural studies. In 2017, Shan was the recipient of WVU NAACP’s “Rising Star” Award. Her first collection of poems, 'depression is a thunderstorm and i am a scared dog', was published by Maudlin House Press during the summer of 2017. Her work has appeared in apt magazine, Crab Fat Magazine, tenderness, yea, seafoam magazine and elsewhere. When Shan isn’t writing, she is serving as a member of her university’s Student Government Association Student Senate, advocating for women’s healthcare and rights for sexual assault victims, and tweeting about something oddly specific.

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“Dissinger writes with a delicate balance of sadness and beauty that captures the complexities of life and love with humanity and tact. She instills in her audience these same overlapping layers of emotion, to heartrending effect. Sometimes Cool Things Are Terrible defies its own title by being very cool, but not at all terrible. It’s wonderful, really. Amanda Dissinger is a master of feeling.”– CA Mullins, author of Day Drunk Blues“Genuine and intimate, these poems are imbued with a sense of nostalgia and familiarity which makes the reader feel right at home. Dissinger’s writing is transient, simultaneously conscious of what has been, but also imagining ways to take another step forward. This collection is written with a sense of honesty usually reserved for late night conversations with close friends. Sometimes Cool Things Are Terrible is an exploration of any number of possible futures and serves as an invitation into Dissinger’s poetic world.”– Kevin Bertolero, author of From the Estuary to the Offing“Amanda Dissinger is the queen of cool and her writing reflects this. I wish I could give myself this book at fifteen while I was still learning how to love and be loved. She has mastered the soft love poem that still aggressively desires to be heard and validated. Her writing perfectly explores her relationship with others and herself, especially her own body and self-perception. Amanda Dissinger is the writer you read voraciously while also tweet at for boy advice and affirmation. In this book, you will find a friend.”– Erin Taylor, author of OOOO“Sometimes Cool Things are Terrible occupies the quiet moments of nostalgic being. Listening to air conditioners and remembering his voice. Returning to old bars as if to find a missing person. Dissinger’s poetry floats between those objects we keep and the stories that give them meaning. I read these lines like looking into a mirror, wondering— “how many years will i see you? / how many years will i be?”– Zachary Cosby, author of 21 May“Sometimes Cool Things Are Terrible pins reality under a three-lens microscope, dissecting each section before turning the magnification up and starting the process again. Amanda Dissinger’s second collection is a story of youth, waiting, mistakes, and nostalgia. SCTAT perfectly captures our brains’ ability of blurring the lines between what is and what was.”– Joseph Parker Okay, author of my phone is about to die and it hope it takes me with it

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About the author

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“The way this book treats each of the many dogs within its pages—big and small, wild and obedient, aggressive and low-key—with tenderness and empathy makes me want to fly Joseph Parker Okay to New York the next time I need a dogsitter. These funny, personal, and sometimes surprisingly tragic journal entries capture the everyday mystery of encounters between humans and animals, as well as the comforts these fleeting relationships can bring in moments (or long periods) of darkness. I trust almost no one to care for my dog in all her wildness, but I trust Joseph and his journal.”– Liz Bowen“I've always said that poems are just a means of killing time between petting dogs. But with every dog i pet in 2016, Joseph Parker Okay has decided there's no time to waste, writing poems capture the humanity (dog-manity?) of the minutia that holds our small, small lives togethe–wait. I wonder if this book increases your chances of seeing dogs? Probably. I'd get it, just in case.”-Dalton Day, author of Exit, Pursued

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beyza ozer’s beautiful and irreverent poems speak the necessary restlessness of a world in which, “we’re all just really bright specks that help make the dark look like something.” Raw and powerful, ozer’s work tethers the emotional to the scientific and offers hope for the most universal of conditions: “I know you are / lonely right now / but I have ideas.”–Holly Amos, Continual Guidance Of Air“Here is a fact: humans are celestial & celestial objects are always moving,” beyza ozer tells us in I DON’T MEAN TO REDSHIFT. ozer writes with the anxiety and frenetic unruliness of the Space Race: who will die on the moon first? ozer takes us deep into our galaxy just to remind us that even black holes and ancient objects in space look just like us: tiny, lost, and yet so animated, so aware. There are so many reminders here to never choose between any one thing and the other, but to be both, be all, be above and below, be surrounded, be related. These are poems that hope we all live and die spectacularly, and if “i could only hear one sound out of thousands,” it would be beyza ozer’s I DON’T MEAN TO REDSHIFT shaking like a universe on fire inside all of our bones.–Erin J. Mullikin, When You Approach Me at the Lake of Tomorrow and Founding Editor of NightBlockbeyza ozer invented scale. Or rather, they invented the complete blurring of scale. A planet is the size of your heart is the size of oh, we are so, so tired, & yet we are still here. beyza invented this! & I DON’T MEAN TO REDSHIFT is the unrelenting & glorious proof that any direction we look could be up.–Dalton Day, author of Actual Cloud

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“Logan Ellis has changed the game. His debut, Etymologizer, is a surreal and forensic reimaging of a language we thought we knew. Ellis has discovered the secret formula that turns poetry into cinema. The speaker wants you to witness grief on new terms in a newly defined space; /forgery/ I’m safe, I’m safe, the world has built a cave around me. I’m safe, I’m sad.”– Katherine Osborne, author of Fire Sign“Etymologizer is an index of loneliness for a blindfolded mouth. In this dictionary on fire, Logan Ellis creates his own vocabulary for longing, crafting new origins of don't and listen and bitter. Anyone who has ever felt that “sadness too fresh to weep” or the sweet horror of being noticed will re-encounter themselves here in this catalog of fragments that reminds us how language can break our hearts and then heal around the wound.” – Traci Brimhall, author of Saudade“Etymologizer is a dynamic collection that repeatedly highlights the relationship between form and content. Ellis displays a real gift for balancing potentially incongruent impulses; a commitment to experimenting with form with a streak towards describing the particular moment — the tension between both results in an exciting palimpsest sensation while reading the poems. It is the observation, exploration, and acknowledgment of both “the alphabet” and “its own city-filled shadow” that ultimately reward the reader as the unexpected becomes expected and the familiar becomes unfamiliar.”-Junior Clemons

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About the author

Logan is pretty cool. His work has appeared in Enizagam, Eleven Eleven, A Galaxy of Starfish: An Anthology of Modern Surrealism, and Electric Cereal, among others. He's currently earning his MFA at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He can be contacted through his blog, unknowmenclature.tumblr.com, or his twitter @bugcatcherlo.

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“This chapbook is full of weather and rumors of weather, which are also rumors of dreams, which are also rooms filled with atmosphere and oxygen, and exactly the reason they are hard to inhabit, and exactly why you should hold them close and inhale.”-Chad Redden, Dream Guides podcast“This book-made me question if I know what my face actually looks like-gave me a hard time remembering what my face looks like-made it hard for me to remember the qualities of my face-may have removed my face completely and replaced it with a new one.The morning after reading WEATHER / OR / NOT, I remembered every single one of my dreams.”-Sarah Jean Alexander, author of WILDLIVES

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About the author

DALTON DAY is the author of two books, most recently Exit, Pursued (Plays Inverse). His poems have been featured in The Offing, Matador Review, Shabby Doll House, and The Art Institute of Chicago. He is the recipient of a James A. Michener poetry fellowship. He lives in Atlanta.

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