EDITORIAL PROJECTS

SAD GROWNUPS BY AMY STUBER

A neighborhood of picturesque content-creation houses perched on too-green lawns in a California desert; a meandering stampede of unleashed dogs on the streets of San Francisco; a skein of snow geese alighting in a state park in Missouri; an uncanny fundraising auction at an upscale suburban-DC prep school.

Inhabiting these worlds of disconnection and dislocation are the “sad grownups”: a middle-aged queer couple arguing over whether to have children, a college professor dying from cancer, two recent high school graduates plotting a robbery, a sixty-year-old counselor at a boys’ summer camp sheltering herself from the realities of life—all connected more closely to the landscapes around them than to other people.

In her powerful debut, Amy Stuber explores the search for joy in a dying world, where being an adult means performing narrow versions of acceptability on repeat. In each story, a roadmap for release from the strictures of American consumerism, gender roles, and the strain of living through climate crisis. To read this collection is to follow each character as they search fervently for liberation, understanding, and even happiness, wherever and however they might be found.

 “Each story took me to the joyfully complex, lovingly hated yet adored world as it is today, and did so with some of the funniest and saddest characters I’ve read in quite some time. Reading these stories, I lost myself, and when I put the book down, I found myself anew. Sad Grownups is a remarkable debut story collection by a writer who I already want more from.”

—Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit: A Novel

 AVAILABLE now THROUGH STILLHOUSE PRESS, amazon, bookshop.org, and barnes and noble.

As the acquiring editor, I pitched this manuscript to the stillhouse board for acceptance, ENGAGED IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONs, ASSEMBLED THE EDITORIAL TEAM, and provided early feedback on marketing strategy.

As the lead editor, I LED THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENTAL EDITS, COORDINATED EDITS WITH A TEAM OF EDITORS, COLLABORATED ON THE PRODUCTION AND FINAL VERSIONS OF THE COLLECTION, AND ASSISTED IN THE MARKETING EFFORTS TO PROMOTE THE COLLECTION.

THE ROLODEX HAPPENINGS BY DENNIS JAMES SWEENEY

Guy Sutter Jr. thought he knew his parents. But as he flips through a seemingly innocuous Rolodex discovered among his late father’s effects, he finds the yellowing typewritten cards recount moments of play, odd joy, sexual awakening, jealousy and fear that comprise both a secret history and a startling new window into Guy’s own childhood. Whether floating a boat down a city street, staging a nap-in, or sabotaging a friend’s Vietnam War draft exam, these unforseen revelations—these “happenings”—become, for Guy and for the reader, an elusive and tantalizing set of clues pointing towards the most intimate revelations of all.

“Smart, funny, playful, Dennis Sweeney’s The Rolodex Happenings is a brilliant book from a truly original writer. Exploring the nature of protest and performance, it asks essential, timely questions about the meaning of truth and the boundaries between fact and fiction. It’s also the poignant story of a son connecting with his father by following the powerful, mysterious movement of art through our lives. This is a beautiful, intricately crafted book. You’ll want to read it over and over.”
—Keith Scribner, author of Old Newgate Road and The Oregon Experiment

available now through stillhouse press, BARNES AND NOBLE, BOOKSHOP, AND amazon.

ALSO AVAILABLE AS PART OF A THREE-BOOK BOX SET WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.

AS THE ACQUIRING EDITOR, I pitched this manuscript to the stillhouse board for acceptance, ENGAGED IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONs, ASSEMBLED THE EDITORIAL TEAM, and provided early feedback on marketing strategy.

SUPER NORMAL BY JOSH DENSLOW

As they grapple with unemployment, their mother’s terminal illness, and their father's death, Beth, Taylor, and Denise find themselves back in their childhood home after years of being apart. When a precocious fourth-grader discovers Denise’s superpower and then goes missing, it’s up to these three floundering siblings to bring him home. Their unique abilities have never, ever helped them before—can they make a difference now? 

“Josh Denslow has done something remarkable here. Super Normal is a beautiful novel about what it takes to love and accept ourselves and each other, written with real care and big-heartedness and attention to what makes us human.”
-Matthew Salesses, author of The Sense of Wonder

AVAILABLE NOW FROM STILLHOUSE PRESS, AMAZON, BOOKSHOP, AND BARNES & NOBLE.

AS THE ACQUIRING EDITOR, I pitched this manuscript to the stillhouse board for acceptance, ENGAGED IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS, ASSEMBLED THE EDITORIAL TEAM, AND PROVIDED EARLY DEVELOPMENTAL EDITS TO THE AUTHOR.

FINDING MEANING IN THE AGE OF IMMORTALITY BY T.N. EYER

In a strange and troubled near future, a cure for mortality has been discovered, one that comes with a sky-high price tag and requires vast quantities of human blood to manufacture. As society schisms into have and have-nots, mortals and Immortals, two very different families confront the new reality. The Hudsons, once homeless, now swap their blood for food, shelter, and the dream of a better life, while the Davenports turn on each other over an inheritance large enough to secure Immortality for only one of them.    

When scandal brings the Hudsons and Davenports together, they form a fraught and unlikely partnership, grappling with their own fractured family dynamics while facing the ever-present threat of ruin and death. In T.N. Eyer's propulsive, thoughtful debut, meaning and purpose are elusive goals in a world shorn of the usual understandings of empathy and obligation.  

"Thoroughly thought-provoking, Eyer's innovative novel explores immortality in a way that will live on in the reader's mind for quite some time."
— Liam Callanan, When in Rome

AVAILABLE FOR NOW THROUGH STILLHOUSE PRESS, AMAZON, BOOKSHOP, AND BARNES & NOBLE.

AS THE ACQUIRING EDITOR, I pitched this book to the stillhouse editorial board, ENGAGED IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS, ASSEMBLED THE EDITORIAL TEAM, AND PROVIDED EARLY DEVELOPMENTAL EDITS TO THE AUTHOR.

How to Bury a Boy at Sea by Phil Goldstein

In How to Bury a Boy at Sea, poet Phil Goldstein is the architect of his own unburdening, offering a rare and unflinching glimpse into the effects of child sexual abuse from the male perspective. Equal parts fury and calm, Goldstein’s poems contemplate family, faith, masculinity, and survival, delivering a powerful account of recovery through verse, from silence and shame to healing and rediscovered intimacy and agency.

“To read this collection is to discover a beautiful voice, a generous and courageous voice that speaks to childhood sexual trauma, its aftermath, and the transcendent power of love to heal. Both expansive and intimate, it takes us to places of wonder and places of pain, from the forest to the synagogue, from the therapist’s office to the bedroom, from the bottom of the ocean to the shore. I celebrate Phil Goldstein and thank him for this gift.”
—José Antonio Rodríguez, author of This American Autopsy

Available now through Stillhouse Press, Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes & Noble.

As an editorial assistant, I contributed to content- and structure-based developmental edits.

Shapeshifting by Michelle Ross

The fourteen spellbinding stories in Michelle Ross’s second collection invite readers into the shadows of social-media perfectionism and the relentless cult of motherhood. A recovering alcoholic navigates the social landscape of a toddler playdate; a mother of two camps out in a van to secure her son’s spot at a prestigious kindergarten; a young girl forces her friends to play an elaborate, unwinnable game. With unflinching honesty and vivid, lyric prose, Ross explores the familial ties that bind us together—or, sometimes, tear us apart.

"Shapeshifting suggests that the struggle to know how to love children and how to let them go may feel similar at the pediatrician, in an abandoned laboratory, or trapped in the life you've chosen, but Ross renders those settings and the characters who inhabit them in such vivid detail that each story feels like its own new world."
—Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections

Available now through Stillhouse Press, Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes & Noble.

As THE ACQUIRING EDITOR, I PITCHED THIS MANUSCRIPT TO THE STILLHOUSE EDITORIAL BOARD FOR ACCEPTANCE AND RAN AUTHOR RELATIONS THROUGHOUT THE ACQUISITIONS PROCESS.

As assistant editor, I provided detailed developmental edits through multiple rounds of revision. I ALSO Provided copy edits AT BOTH THE MANUSCRIPT AND GALLEY STAGES and aided in marketing development. I Supported the lead editor with author communication, meeting deadlines, and developing a marketing plan.

Our Last Blue Moon by Kris O’Shee

In Our Last Blue Moon, dancer Kris O’Shee, widow of Alan Cheuse, the novelist, beloved teacher, and literary commentator known as the “voice of books” on NPR’s All Things Considered for over thirty years, tells the story of the loss of her husband after he sustained injuries in a car crash in the summer of 2015. O’Shee chronicles the days in the Northern California hospital, the bedside vigil after Cheuse lapsed into a coma, and ultimately, his death.

In her publishing debut, O’Shee writes in engaging and honest prose, in a memoir that is deeply personal and self-aware, without any self-pity or cliché. This is a story vivid in language, awash in love, and honest in reflecting on twenty-five happily shared years with the love of O’Shee’s life. Reeling from Cheuse’s death, O’Shee was thrust into widowhood. Rattled by grief, she eventually wrote her way to a new stage of life.

“At once passionate, playful and profound, O'Shee’s creation Is a warm, funny testament to what ultimately endures in a life lived together and apart.”
—Susan Richards Shreve, author, most recently, of the novels You Are the Love of my Life and More News Tomorrow, and the memoir Traces of a Childhood

Available now through Watershed Lit Books, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble in both hardback

as a marketing assistant, I managed marketing and publicity in advance of the book’s release. Post-publication media inquiries should be direct to the contact form found here. kris continues to be interested in events, so please reach out if you are interested in coordinating.

You Will Never Be Normal by Catherine Klatzker

One afternoon, during a routine meditation, a strange tingling grips Catherine Klatzker, followed by an explosion of voices crowding out her thoughts. Soon these voices, or "parts," begin to emerge more distinctly in her mind, accompanied by persistent insomnia and bouts of mortifying incontinence.

Fearing for her sanity, Klatzker turns to a meditation teacher and psychotherapist. What follows is one woman's unflinching excavation of years of repressed sexual and emotional abuse, manifested many decades later as Traumatic Dissociative Identity Disorder. A daring and unafraid debut memoir, You Will Never Be Normal delivers an arresting examination of the emotional toil-and toll-required to be made whole again.

"You Will Never Be Normal is a beautifully rendered account of personal integration and survival. Klatzker's personal detective work, vulnerability, and intelligence create a compelling story, skillfully told, that invites the reader into a struggle to map the after-effects of trauma and complex resilience."
—Sonya Huber, author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys

Available now through Stillhouse Press, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

As THE ACQUIRING EDITOR, I PITCHED THIS MANUSCRIPT TO THE STILLHOUSE EDITORIAL BOARD FOR ACCEPTANCE AND RAN AUTHOR RELATIONS THROUGHOUT THE ACQUISITIONS PROCESS.

AS assistant editor FOR THIS PROJECT, I provided detailed developmental edits through multiple rounds of revision I ALSO provided copy edits through multiple rounds including manuscript and galley proofs, and helped compile marketing materials to solicit blurbs and book reviews. I SUPPORTED THE LEAD EDITOR IN HER EDITORIAL VISION FOR THE BOOK.