Poetry: Jeff Steudel Author of Foreign Park

Expanding the Community Garden by Jeff Steudel Kale raised in cedar boxes between the SkyTrain pillars. The propinquity of corn along boulevards. A dream of zero emissions for the wheat leaning beside highways. And from the rooftops, fields next to airstrips. Golf courses. Freedom Space Station Grow-ops and the back of a Dodge Ram. Bush […]

Feature: Success
 by Jake Kerr

my self-publishing journey Entering September of 2015, Tommy Black and the Staff of Light had sold less than 200 books and was sputtering along with no real hope for a future. Book two, Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility, was delayed to a January 2016 release, and I had a final plan to kickstart the […]

Excerpt: The Making of the American Essay edited and introduced by John D’Agata

About the Book: For two decades, essayist John D’Agata has been exploring the contours of the essay through a series of innovative, informative, and expansive anthologies that have become foundational texts in the study of the genre. The breakthrough first volume, The Next American Essay, highlighted major work from 1974 to 2003, while the second, The Lost Origins […]

Interview: Sara Majka Author of Cities I’ve Never Lived In: Stories

Sara Majka’s debut collection of connected stories is a haunting, mesmerizing dreamscape.  Shelf Unbound: Your style is sparse and dreamlike. How did you decide on and create this style? Sara Majka: This answer could probably work for most questions, in that it just sort of happened that way, because of the experiences in my life and […]

Interview: George Singleton Author of Calloustown

Persevering against hard knocks and strife, the residents of Calloustown are rendered with humanity and humor by short story master George Singleton.  Shelf Unbound: How did you come up with the book’s title and what does it mean? George Singleton: Calloustown, the setting, appeared in my head as just one of a hundred or so […]

Interview: Mary Volmer Author of Reliance, Illinois

Richly rendered characters populate Reliance, Illinois, which examines the lives of women in the late 1800s.  Shelf Unbound: How did you come up with the name of the imaginary town, Reliance, Illinois? Mary Volmer: I titled the book Reliance after Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance.” I remember loving the essay in college. It still moves me. […]