The Books
SFWP Titles
To order titles, visit the author pages below or check out our Amazon Storefront.
Moody Food, by Ray Robertson.
The Fires, by Alan Cheuse.
The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex, by Pagan Kennedy.
Fatal Light, by Richard Currey.
Moody Food
We start out with Moody Food. Moody is a gifted novel from veteran Canadian novelist Ray Robertson. A rock and roll tour of the ages – a classic journey through the music, the mystery, and the love that flowered out of the 60s.
Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Gram Parsons searched for the fusion of rock and country, fighting the giants of Nashville along the way. Johnny, Willie and Waylon made it, while Gram’s life was cut short in a whirlwind of drugs and booze. Inspired by Gram’s revolutionary vision and music, Ray Robertson’s Moody Food captures the rise and fall of an entire generation’s tragic idealism.
Read an excerpt, see what the critics are saying, and find out how to buy this title at Rayrobertson.com
The Fires
For our next book, The Fires, we decided to throw tradition to the wind and shine a light on an often overlooked artform – the novella. And who better to work with than famed literary critic and author, Alan Cheuse — the “voice of books” on National Public Radio.
We paired two novellas, following two questing souls who travel very different landscapes on their way toward new understandings of love and loss.
In “The Fires,” Gina Morgan makes a pilgrimage to Uzbekistan to carry out her husband’s final wish only to discover that, in this former Soviet republic, things are not as they used to be. And in “The Exorcism,” Jack Swanson retrieves his angry daughter from her exclusive New England college after her expulsion for setting fire to a grand piano.
The Fires is designed to be a quick read – perfect for on-the-go commuters, short flights, and anyone looking for a quick escape into the rich prose of a truly gifted artist.
Read an excerpt, see what the critics are saying, and find out how to buy this title at Alancheuse.com
Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex
We turned to creative nonfiction with The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories.
Author Pagan Kennedy, the “Queen of the Zines,” has been short-listed for the Orange Prize, is the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, recipient of an NEA Fellowship and a Smithsonian Fellowship, and was the spearhead for Dartmouth’s Creative Nonfiction writing program.
Dangerous Joy is a unique and compelling collection of Pagan’s award-winning essays, profiling American visionaries, scientists, and entrepreneurs. In the title piece, Alex Comfort, author of The Joy of Sex, reinvents himself as a sex guru in California and hatches a plan to destroy monogamy forever. In the stories that follow, a retired chemist finds a way to turn a wasteland into paradise, an aspiring tyrant tries to become the emperor of America, and an artist rigs himself up to a “brain machine” made from parts he bought at Radio Shack.
Dangerous Joy earned us our first starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, and you can read excerpts, see what the critics are saying, find out how to buy this title, and explore more details on the individuals profiled at Dangerousjoy.com
Fatal Light
Fatal Light, by Richard Currey, was our most difficult task. Originally published in 1988, and out of print after 1997, we approached Currey in 1999 to try and secure the rights. For a decade, we worked against all the odds to release the definitive version. And, like Currey’s magnificent Crossing Over, which has been in print without interruption since 1976, we’re going to make sure that Fatal Light is here to stay.
Fatal Light is a devastating portrait of war in all its horror, brutality, and mindlessness, this extraordinary novel is written in beautifully cadenced prose. A combat medic in Vietnam faces the chaos of war, set against the tranquil scenes of family life back home in small-town America. This young man’s rite of passage is traced through jungle combat to malaria-induced fever visions to the purgatory of life in military-occupied Saigon. After returning home from war to stay with his grandfather, he confronts his own shattered personal history and the mysterious human capacity for renewal.
More details, including the acclaimed study guide authored by The George School, can be found at Richardcurrey.com
Associates
Bermuda Shorts
From Alan Squire Publishing comes Bermuda Shorts by James Patterson.
That Paris Year
Also from Alan Squire Publishing, we have That Paris Year by Joanna Biggar.