Rose Metal Press

Order Geoffrey Forsyth's IN THE LAND OF THE FREE

Rose Metal Press is pleased to present the winner of our Second Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest: Geoffrey Forsyth's IN THE LAND OF THE FREE. His limited edition chapbook, selected by judge Robert Shapard, will be published on July 1st, 2008 and is available for pre-order now!

“Although the collection deals with dismay, disappointment, and death, it is a symposium on love […] In the Land of the Free makes me see how a short short story chapbook can be a great thing.” —Robert Shapard, editor of Sudden Fiction

At once sad and comical, always a little magical and strange, Forsyth’s young characters stumble towards maturity In The Land Of The Free. From the night a baby is born onto a cutting board in his mother’s kitchen, to the day a rhinoceros mysteriously escapes from the zoo, to the morning a young man wakes to find his mud-covered relatives back from the grave, Forsyth’s ten very short fictions aim to capture the elusive nature of our relationships in geographies wholly recognizable to all of us. Through hallways and houses in the suburbs, through graveyards and wooded nooks, through bars and high school parking lots, Forsyth brings his youngsters to the heart of the American moment, where the pursuit of freedom inevitably begins. Order your copy today!

Labels: letterpress cover, limited edition

A PECULIAR FEELING OF RESTLESSNESS: FOUR CHAPBOOKS OF SHORT SHORT FICTION BY FOUR WOMEN

“The four brilliant chapbooks that make up A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness are disarmingly, unabashedly intimate collections by women who know how to tell a story and aren’t afraid to drag the unspoken out into the light of day.” —Pia Z. Ehrhardt

The four chapbooks collected in A Peculiar Feeling of Restlessness, three of them finalists and one of them the winner of the Rose Metal Press first annual short short chapbook contest, all revel in the succinctness of their form, the underlying tension anchored beneath each story of 1,000 words or less. These stories are peculiar; they resonate with restlessness. They are deft, they are gritty, and they are lyrical. Laughter, Applause, Laughter, Music, Applause by Kathy Fish, Wanting by Amy L. Clark, Sixteen Miles Outside of Phoenix by Elizabeth Ellen, and The Sky Is a Well by Claudia Smith (the reprint of her sold out chapboook) combine four multi-layered portrayals of beautiful uneasiness into a collection rich with wit, grace, and originality. Order yours today! And visit our website for more information about the press.

HOW TO BUILD THE GHOST IN YOUR ATTIC

With wit, dynamism, and cutting senses of urgency and humor, Iowa Prize winner Shippy tells the tale of Isaac Makepeace Watt, a melancholy man living in a Thebes that is much like contemporary America.

The House of Cadmus still rules(and will fall), but they only appear in the poem as media white noise. Isaac’s concerns are personal, his father’s illness and his own moral decrepitude. There are talking monkeys, plagues, oracles, and nano-robots—you know, the usual agoramania. If you have PayPal problems, email us at rosemetalpress [at] gmail [dot]com.

BREVITY & ECHO: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT SHORT STORIES

This collection of short shorts by Emerson Alumni was published in December 2006.

The anthology features: Derrick Ableman, Joann Avallon, Rusty Barnes, Jane Berentson, Stace Budzko, Leslie Busler, Jennifer Carr, Keith Carter, Chip Cheek, Amy L. Clark, Kirsten Culbertson, Mark DeCarteret, Erin Dionne, Denise Duhamel, Elizabeth Kemper French, Lee Harrington, Jen Heller, Chris Helmuth, Steve Himmer, Brian Hinshaw, Jacqueline Holland, Amanda Holzer, Shannon Huffman, John F. Kersey, Laurel Dile King, Mariette Landry, Molly Lanzarotta, Don Lee, Matt Marinovich, Tara L. Masih, Melissa McCracken, Sheehan McGuirk, LaTanya McQueen, Maryanne O’Hara, Janice O’Leary, Josh Pahigian, Jennifer Pieroni, Robert Repino, Ashley Rice, Matt Rittenhouse, Joe Robb, Beth Anne Royer, Brian Ruuska, Mary Saliba, Nina R. Scheider, Kimberly Ann Southwick, R. S. Steinberg, Cam Terwilliger, Terry Thuemling, and Laura van den Berg, as well as an introduction by Ron Carlson and an afterword by Pamela Painter.

THE SKY IS A WELL (Sold Out)

“Each of Claudia Smith’s short shorts is a tilted memory of love and loss […] There is a natural accuracy in these brief narratives; the stories are short; her voice is true.”
–Ron Carlson

Lyric and gritty, glowing and graceful, The Sky Is a Well & Other Shorts is a complex and compact collection from Claudia Smith, funny-sad master of the short short form. Evocative of places and times long gone or going, the ephemera of memory and emotion, youth and age, each story unfolds like a song on a concept album—the pieces can stand alone, but together they blend into a seamless whole you’ll want to hear again and again. The two-color letterpress covers of this beautiful chapbook were printed at the Museum of Printing in North Andover, Massachusetts, and each copy was saddle-sewn together by hand.

Although this edition is sold out, Claudia's book has been reprinted as part of A PECULIAR FEELING OF RESTLESSNESS, an anthology of four chapbooks of short short fiction by four women. Order it today!

Book Launch Party for Peter Jay Shippy

Rose Metal Press invites you to an event celebrating Peter Jay Shippy's HOW TO BUILD THE GHOST IN YOUR ATTIC!

Please join us on SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9 at 7:00 p.m. at Grub Street Writing Center
160 Boylston St., 4th floor,Boston, MA. Click here for directions.

The event includes a reading and brief talk by the poet, book sales and signing, drinks, light snacks, and CAKE! And it's FREE and open to the public!

Submit to our Second Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest

The submission period for our Second Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest will run from October 15th through December 1st. This year's judge will be Robert Shapard, and the winner will be published in Summer of 2008. Please email your 25-40 page manuscript of short short stories (each under 1000 words) along with table of contents and acknowledgments to rosemetalpress[at]gmail[dot]com with a $10 reading fee via check (to ROSE METAL PRESS, P.O. BOX 1956, BROOKLINE, MA 02446) or Paypal. Please write to the email address above with queries.

Claudia Smith and Tiff Holland Reading at BookWoman in Austin, Texas

On Wednesday, September 5th at 7:00pm, Claudia Smith and Tiff Holland will give a reading at Austin Texas' BookWoman bookstore at 918 W. 12th St.

Tiff Holland will be reading from BONE IN A TIN FUNNEL, a chapbook of poems from Pudding House Publications, and Claudia Smith will be reading from her collection THE SKY IS A WELL AND OTHER SHORTS, winner of Rose Metal Press's first annual short-short chapbook contest.

Upcoming Call for Prose Poetry Manuscripts

We are seeking full-length manuscripts of prose poetry for publication in 2008.

The submission period begins on August 1st and ends on September 15th. Please email your 48-65 page manuscript of prose poems to rosemetalpress[at]gmail[dot]com with a $10 reading fee via check (to ROSE METAL PRESS, P.O. BOX 1956,BROOKLINE, MA 02446)or Paypal.

The manuscripts should include a title page with the author's name and complete contact information, a table of contents, page numbers, an acknowledgements page (if applicable), and a brief author bio (optional).

Please email queries to the same address.

Second Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest

The submission period for our Second Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest will run from October 15th through December 1st.

This year's judge will be Robert Shapard, and the winner will be published in Summer of 2008.

Please email your 25-40 page manuscript of short short stories (each under 1000 words) to rosemetalpress[at]gmail[dot]com with a $10 reading fee via check (to ROSE METAL PRESS, P.O. BOX 1956, BROOKLINE, MA 02446) or Paypal.

Please write to the email address above with queries.

Order BREVITY & ECHO today!

This collection of short shorts by Emerson Alumni was published in December 2006.

The anthology features: Derrick Ableman, Joann Avallon, Rusty Barnes, Jane Berentson, Stace Budzko, Leslie Busler, Jennifer Carr, Keith Carter, Chip Cheek, Amy L. Clark, Kirsten Culbertson, Mark DeCarteret, Erin Dionne, Denise Duhamel, Elizabeth Kemper French, Lee Harrington, Jen Heller, Chris Helmuth, Steve Himmer, Brian Hinshaw, Jacqueline Holland, Amanda Holzer, Shannon Huffman, John F. Kersey, Laurel Dile King, Mariette Landry, Molly Lanzarotta, Don Lee, Matt Marinovich, Tara L. Masih, Melissa McCracken, Sheehan McGuirk, LaTanya McQueen, Maryanne O’Hara, Janice O’Leary, Josh Pahigian, Jennifer Pieroni, Robert Repino, Ashley Rice, Matt Rittenhouse, Joe Robb, Beth Anne Royer, Brian Ruuska, Mary Saliba, Nina R. Scheider, Kimberly Ann Southwick, R. S. Steinberg, Cam Terwilliger, Terry Thuemling, and Laura van den Berg, as well as an introduction by Ron Carlson and an afterword by Pamela Painter.

Order your copy today!