 Join Lucy Ferriss, award-winning author of The Misconceiver, and historian of reproductive rights Rickie Solinger for an important conversation on reproductive justice in the wake of the Supreme Court's rulings affecting Roe v. Wade. Ferriss' novel, originally released in 1997 and republished this year by Wandering Aengus Press, is a chilling tale of survival in a post- Roe v. Wade world. Ferriss is donating proceeds from sales of the book to benefit reproductive justice. Don't miss this crucial, pre-election conversation hosted by the Sister District Project. Registration is free, and with a $25 donation, you'll receive a signed copy of Lucy's "prescient, epochal novel."
Wednesday, October 19, 2022, 8-9:00 pm EDT Click here to learn more and register.
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 After the Supreme Court's decision earlier this year regarding Roe v. Wade, several savvy readers, including The Washington Post's book reviewer Ron Charles, remembered Lucy Ferriss' novel, The Misconceiver, released in 1997 and set in a post Roe-v.-Wade United States. Praising it as a "startling novel," Charles writes, "As a consequence, The Misconceiver isn’t merely a polemical recitation of misogynist horrors – although it includes plenty of those horrors. Instead, the novel offers a challenging exploration of one woman's struggle to work through the profound moral dilemmas of her life."
The Times of London describes The Misconceiver as a tense thriller. "The Misconceiver is primarily a powerful novel of dystopia. Ferriss has taken seriously the threats of the religious fundamentalists, pessimistic economists and anti-feminists . . . living in the shadow of the backlash against feminism. How much support can women give to each other now? And can women be trusted to stick together in such a misogynist climate? Ferriss is a fine writer, and in this dark and starkly realistic tale, she answers all her own questions, pulling no punches." Wandering Aengus Press is honored to re-release this title, which the editors feel offers an even-handed treatment of the personal, medical, and legal issues surrounding abortion, and envisions a dystopian future that looms ever closer. A must-read, no matter where you stand on the issue of abortion.  Wandering Aengus Press is delighted to share the cover of Steven Harvey's forthcoming essay collection, The Beloved Republic. Winner of the Wandering Aengus Book Award, the collection has already garnered attention. Scott Russell Sanders writes, "In the hands of a skillful writer, the essay allows for the posing and pondering of life’s essential questions without settling for easy answers. Steven Harvey is a consummately skillful writer, as he demonstrates in each of these searching, often wrenching essays, whose subjects range from racial divides to his mother’s suicide, from mountain music to the mystery of consciousness. These pages reveal the truth of his claim that an author’s voice 'can bring the solace of comradery to a reader.' We are not alone, he assures us, in our fear, bewilderment, or wonder."
 The talented writer and dancer Renée E. D’Aoust has written a tender and insightful review of Tarn Wilson's In Praise of Inadequate Gifts for Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction. D'Aoust and Wilson both spent time as growing up on islands in the Salish Sea off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. D'Aoust draws correlations between both writers' experiences while providing insights into Wilson's narrative as well as the deep compassion in her writing.
D'Aoust's own writing is highly acclaimed. She is the author of the memoir-in-essays Body of a Dancer from Etruscan Press, a Foreword Review Book of the Year Finalist. Six of her essays have been named "Notable Essays" in the Best American Essays series, and she has received many other awards and accolades for her poetry, fiction, journalism, and, of course, book reviews.
Wandering Aengus and Trail to Table each released a book of poetry this spring with poems to remind us what's important and worth protecting in this world. The poet Jane Wong writes of Japanese-American Michael Schmeltzer's book, Empire of Surrender, "Full of visceral lyricism and tender epistolaries, Schmeltzer dives into the intimate depths of war, violence, familial history, empathy, and lineage. This is a book that is not afraid to ask: how and why do we hurt each other? What is lost in such acts of cruelty? And how can we cling to kindness as resistance?"
Alison Hawthorne Deming writes of Andy Gottlieb's Tales of a Distance, "Poetry can speak most resonantly at those times when the distance between our lives and death shrinks, times such as when a parent dies, and we relearn what intimacy in a family context can mean. Such is the beautiful intensity of Andrew Gottlieb's poems in this collection, written with crystalline images and mindful presence. I'm especially captured by how rivers, animals, and landscapes of the American West inhabit the poems as talismans for the inseparability of mind and nature. And for the mystery of how we find beauty while living on the edge of peril." We're delighted to usher these two important works into the world. Empire of Surrender won the Wandering Aengus Book Award, and Tales of a Distance was our editors' choice for the Trail to Table 2021 open reading period.  It wasn't easy, but the Wandering Aengus Editorial Board selected three winners for this year's Wandering Aengus Book Award. Keep an eye out for these books, which will probably be published in early 2023...
Lucy Ferriss' Meditations for a New Century (nonfiction) Steven Harvey's The Beloved Republic (nonfiction) Christopher Martin's Firmament (poetry) The following author's manuscripts were all named as finalists. If we had enough budget and time, we would publish every singe one of these gems... Caitlin Cowan, Happy Everything Benjamin Cutler, Wild Silence Peter Ludwin, Medicine Crow Anne McDonnell, Breath on a Coal Cate McGowan, Cherry Bomb Jed Myers, Lastness Daniel Simpson, Inside the Invisible Amelia Williams, Kitchen in the Cave of Dawn Emily Wolahan, Bitter Bright Andy Young, Museum of the Soon Departed As always, we're grateful to all the writers who submitted their manuscripts to the contest, and honored to be able to read their fine words.  We're thrilled to announce the release of Tarn Wilson's second book, In Praise of Inadequate Gifts, a memoir in essays. Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic and Desire, and editor of Brevity, writes the essays are told "with a clear-eyed sensibility and a belief in the power of redemption," and calls the essays "honest, powerful, and necessary." Brenda Miller, author of An Earlier Life, says, "The true gift of Tarn Wilson’s In Praise of Inadequate Gifts is this author’s compassion—toward herself, her family, her students, and the world. In a voice both companionable and smart, Wilson shows us how we can tell the stories that matter, even when our hearts have broken." Scott Russell Sanders praises Wilson's "rich collection," and compares her approach to essay writing with the work of scientists who ask "hard questions while refusing to settle for easy answers."
Rebecca McClanahan's description of In Praise of Inadequate Gifts perhaps captures it best: "Despite a childhood with a depressive mother who could descend into 'quicksand darkness,' an absent father, the death of both parents within a year, and the dissolution of her own long marriage, Wilson holds on for a 'sweeter' life. The gifts she offers her lucky readers are hardly inadequate. Whether her subjects are mountain lions or wisdom teeth or an old laundromat where she discovers 'that strange, alternate universe which is grief,' her essays remind us that finally it is love that holds our world together, a 'love that gives without even the memory of it, like breath.'” You can find In Praise of Inadequate Gifts at most online bookstores (links available here) or ask your favorite indie bookstore to order it for you. And you can learn more about Tarn Wilson and her writing here.  Nautilus Books, whose mission is to bring attention to "Better books for a better world," has honored Jessica Gigot's poetry collection, Feeding Hour, with the Nautilus Silver Award in Poetry. Congratulations to Jessica!
About FEEDING HOUR: Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil says she's "smitten" with these poems and how the collection "deftly reimagines motherhood and devotion in the most tender of ways." Author Todd Davis writes that Feeding Hour is "a poetry of hard-earned joy sewn in the fertile soil of motherhood and farming. A shepherdess, Gigot speaks with authority about the sacrifices of care, the shared happiness and grief that braid like an old rope around the life she has chosen."  Zoom in to hear these phenomenal writers share their latest works. Plus, our editors will share tips on what they're looking for during this month's open reading period for Trail to Table Press.
Hosted by Jill McCabe Johnson Saturday, March 6, 1:00 pm PST https:// us02web.zoom.us/j/83633294971?pwd=Q3owV0xiaXhEV3pNN3dldW92Q2JiQT09  The 2021 Artsmith Salon Series in partnership with Darvill's Bookstore features an impressive line-up of eleven authors, including poets Matthew Daddona and Jessica Gigot. Matthew will read from his debut poetry collection, House of Sound, plus his current fiction work in progress, along with Brenda Miller and Donna Miscolta on Thursday, February 11. Jessica will share poems from her new poetry collection, Feeding Hour, along with Ian Boyden and Margot Kahn on Thursday, March 11. Both readings take place 5:00-6:30 pm Pacific via zoom. Get details at http://orcasartsmith.org/salon-series.html, and be sure to check out their April Poetry Month offering with Jasmine An, Quinn Bailey, Keetje Kuipers, Jory Mickelson, and Rena Priest.
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