"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

Good
Vibes

"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'

Good
Vibes

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.

• Twitter
• Globe

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

Good
Vibes

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.

• Twitter
• Globe

“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