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RSS and Updates
Forthcoming
Small Beer Press
150 Pleasant St., #306
Easthampton, MA 01027
413-203-1636
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North American Lake Monsters
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Nathan Ballingrud July 2013 trade cloth · 9781618730596 | trade paper · 9781618730602 | ebook · 9781618730619 “It’s Raymond Carver territory, beautifully written and right on target for today: construction work, waitressing, tattoos, and white supremacists. And shattering each story is the luminous, the terrifying, the Lovecraftian otherness that reveals what it really feels like to be alive in this [...]
Spider in a Tree
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Susan Stinson October 2013 · 9781618730695 · trade paper · 336pp | 9781618730701 · ebook Jonathan Edwards is considered America’s most brilliant theologian. He was also a slave owner. This is the story of the years he spent preaching in eighteenth century Northampton, Massachusetts. In his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Mr. Edwards [...]
Tyrannia and Other Renditions
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Alan DeNiro trade paper · 9781618730718 | ebook: 9781618730725 In these 11 stories—and the weird spaces in between—people of all kinds struggle to free themselves from conventions and constraints both personal and political. Places ranging from the farthest reaches of outer space to the creepy abandoned farmhouse in the middle of nowhere become battlegrounds for change and growth—sometimes [...]
Current BooksCurrent Zine
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Death of a Unicorn
Peter Dickinson“Mr. Dickinson has a nice dry wit and a talent for deft characterization.”
—New York Times -
A Stranger in Olondria
Sofia Samatar“Samatar’s sensual descriptions create a rich, strange landscape, allowing a lavish adventure to unfold that is haunting and unforgettable.”
—Library Journal (*starred review*) -
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 28
Michael Penkas · Krista Hoeppner Leahy · Kevin Waltman · Erica Hilderbrand · Brian Baldi · Andrea M. Pawley · Kamila Z. Miller · Helen Marshall · Nicole Kimberling · John McKernan · Junyi Wu
Chuntering On and On
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One Story Debutante Ball Sat 25 May 2013
Small Beer Press is happy to be one of One Story magazine’s sponsors. Every year they have a big party, the Literary Debutante Ball: A Celebration of Emerging Writers, and this year it’s in Brooklyn at Roulette on June 6th, 2013. As sponsors we receive some tickets for the ball and yesterday we offered them to LCRW subscribers. The three lucky winners [...]
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Celebrating Death of a Unicorn Wed 22 May 2013
As noted yesterday, this month published a new edition Peter Dickinson’s excellent sort-of-mystery Death of a Unicorn. Death of a Unicorn is one of those English novels which at some point you realize is all about inheritance. Lady Margaret, who goes by Mabs, is older than her twin sister Penny by twenty minutes. Those twenty minutes [...]
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Updatery Tue 21 May 2013
Q. Is Nathan Ballingrud’s North American Lake Monsters at the printer? A. Yes! Review copies are going out and we are getting ready to receive complaints and plaudits. It is scary! Q. Gavin, are you asking yourself questions? A. You have no idea. Q. So where can I get Nathan’s book signed? A. Readercon, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh and Malaprop’s, both in [...]
Latest Eruption of Fiction Into the Universe
Death of a Unicorn
May 2013 · trade paper · $16 · 9781618730404 | ebook · $9.95 · 9781618730411
For bestselling author Lady Margaret, the past is no longer a pleasant memory. Her first lover’s mysterious death and the seeming inevitability of her inheriting the family’s stately home are cast in new light by secrets unwillingly revisited in Dickinson’s wonderful novel of family and friends, work and duty, and above all, love.
Reading Group Questions included.
“Mr. Dickinson has a nice dry wit and a talent for deft characterization.”
—New York Times
“Everything here is exactly right.”
—New Yorker
“Peter Dickinson is my own chosen demigod in the pantheon of crime fiction.”
—Laurie R. King
“The Tolkien of the crime novel.”—H.R.F.Keating
Death of a Unicorn is the first in a series of reprints of Peter Dickinson’s mysteries from Small Beer Press. This classic British mystery will win fans currently engrossed in Downton Abbey.
From Peter Dickinson’s Timeline:
“When the youngest member of the five-strong editorial staff of Punch (founded 1843) turned 40 the editor, Kenneth Bird (the cartoonist Fougasse) had written to a don he knew at Cambridge to ask him to find someone younger to train up. On his way to the interview for the job Peter was knocked down by a tram and arrived covered with blood and dirt, but they gave him the job because he was the only candidate. A lot of his novel Death of a Unicorn is based on the seventeen years he spent there.”
Peter Dickinson OBE has twice received the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger as well as the Guardian Award and Whitbread Prize. His latest book is Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Big Mouth House). He lives in England and is married to the novelist Robin McKinley.
Praise for Peter Dickinson:
“Marvellous.”
—Rex Stout
“He is the true original, a superb writer who revitalises the traditions of the mystery genre . . . incapable of writing a trite or inelegant sentence . . . a master.”
—P. D. James
“He sets new standards in the mystery field that will be hard to live up to.”
—Ruth Rendell
“He has an eye and a mind and a voice like no other.”
—Donald E. Westlake
“A fresh triumph . . . a simultaneous insight into kids and their minders, and emerging nations, and the concept of freedom – all done with consummate story-telling skill.”
—Peter Lovesey
“Read this book carefully. It’s a jewel.”
—The New York Times Review
“Brilliantly imaginative first detective story . . .wonderfully convincing.”
—The Observer
“Mr Dickinson is the most original crime novelist to appear for a long, long time.”
—The Guardian
“Brilliantly original, as always.”
—Times Literary Supplement
“Wry, witty, irresistible.”
—The Financial Times
“A literary magician controlling an apparently inexhaustible supply of effects . . . Craftsmanship such as this makes for compulsive reading.”
—Penelope Lively
“Dickinson tops all his prizewinners with this stunning psychological thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly
Peter Dickinson: Peter Dickinson OBE has twice received the Crime Writers’ Association’s Gold Dagger as well as the Guardian Award and Whitbread Prize. His latest book is Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Big Mouth House). He lives in England and is married to the novelist Robin McKinley.
More Books
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The Unreal and the Real: Where on Earth
Ursula K. Le Guin“There is no better spirit in all of American letters than that of Ursula Le Guin.”
—Slate -
The Unreal and the Real: Outer Space, Inner Lands
Ursula K. Le Guin“Her stories will pass into legend, to touch many generations to come.”
—The Guardian -
Errantry: Strange Stories
Elizabeth Hand“Each phrase and each sentence carefully shaped and laid in place to create the singular diadem that is a Hand story.”
—Romantic Times Book Review -
Earth and Air
Peter Dickinson“These six new stories are provocative in both variety and ideas. . . . and with Dickinson’s usual command of imaginative imagery and beautifully tooled language, this is a fitting capstone to the series.”—Horn Book
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The Shimmers in The Night
Lydia MilletThe Shimmers in the Night is the second thrilling novel in the Dissenters series following The Fires Beneath the Sea.
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At the Mouth of the River of Bees
Kij Johnson“Johnson’s long-awaited first collection is full of thought-provoking and often emotionally wrenching stories that traverse the spectrum of speculative fiction.”—Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2012
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Under the Poppy
Kathe KojaNow available in paperback. Gaylactic Spectrum Award winner. Longlisted for the IMPAC Award.
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The Fires Beneath the Sea
Lydia MilletIncludes a sneak preview of the second book in the Dissenters series, The Shimmers in the Night.
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Fountain of Age
Nancy Kress“Kress’s depiction of science is much like her characters’ experiences with love: by turns glorious and terrible, and always a little disturbing, even in triumph.”
—Publishers Weekly -
The Serial Garden
Joan AikenThe first complete collection of Joan Aiken’s beloved Armitage stories including four new, unpublished stories.
The Serial Garden was also the debut title for Big Mouth House our imprint for readers of all ages. -
An A–Z of the Fantastic City
Hal DuncanPublished in limited signed and numbered hardcover and perfectbound trade paperback editions.
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Three Messages and a Warning
Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris. N. Brown, editors“Langorous, edgy, sumptuously beautiful by turns.”
—Debra Castillo, Cornell University -
The Liminal People
Ayize Jama-Everett“A damn good read. It’s a smart actioner that will entertain you while also enticing you to think about matters beyond the physical realm.”
—Annalee Newitz, io9 -
A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2012
Available in two spiralbound or PDF ebook editions. Standard Edition, 134 pages: — order the print edition ($13.95) — ebook: Weightless ($3.99) / Lulu ($3.99) Almanac Edition which includes all the prompts, exercises, reading lists, and articles from the two previous editions, 182 pages: — order the print edition ($15.95) — ebook Weightless ($4.99) / [...]
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The Freedom Maze
Delia Sherman“Adroit, sympathetic, both clever and smart, The Freedom Maze will entrap young readers and deliver them, at the story’s end, that little bit older and wiser.”
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Out of Oz -
After the Apocalypse
Maureen F. McHugh“Incisive, contemporary, and always surprising.”
—Publishers Weekly Best Books 2011: The Top 10 -
A Slepyng Hound to Wake
Vincent McCaffrey“Henry is a character cut from Raymond Chandler: a modern knight on a mission to save those, and what, he loves.”
—Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen -
Paradise Tales
Geoff Ryman* “Often contemplative and subtly ironic, the 16 stories in this outstanding collection work imaginative riffs on a variety of fantasy and SF themes”—Publishers Weekly (*Starred Review*)
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The Child Garden
Geoff RymanWinner of the John W. Cambell and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.
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The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories
Joan Aiken* “Wildly inventive, darkly lyrical, and always surprising . . . a literary treasure.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Solitaire: a novel
Kelley EskridgeA New York Times Notable Book, Borders Original Voices selection, and Nebula, Endeavour, and Spectrum Award finalist.
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Stories of Your Life and Others
Ted Chiang“Shining, haunting, mind-blowing tales”
—Junot Díaz (author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) -
What I Didn’t See and Other Stories
Karen Joy FowlerA moving and elegant new collection from New York Times bestseller Karen Joy Fowler. Locus and Shirley Jackson Award finalist.
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Meeks
Julia Holmes“One of the most original and readable novels that’s come my way in a long time.”—The New York Times Book Review