BOOKS
Gray, Allen, Overwatch, Grey Sparrow Press, November 1st, 2011, Hardcover and Paperback. ISBN-13:978-0983553007. Poet Allen Gray gives us an intimate view of war; a compendium of poems written with brevity and elegance. His words generate the power of an IED exploding the landscape of war. Available here.
Fox, Hugh, Approaching: Poems of Brazil, Portuguese and English, Grey Sparrow Press, October 16, 2011, ISBN-13:978-1466440562. Poetry Monograph. Poet Hugh Fox said, “Thirty plus years ago my wife, Bernadete, opened the door into Brazilian culture and never closed it.” Fox’s poems reflect the trends and times, written with a certain joie de vivre, even as he battles final stage cancer. In Portuguese and English. Available here.
Owens, Joseph Michael, Shenanigans! Grey Sparrow Press, February 1st, 2012, Finalist for the 2012/13 Canadian Indie Book Awards, Hardcover and Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-0983553014. Owens’s first book finds Benjamin “Benji” Palko simply trying to get by, flying under life’s radar. Recurring random events happen to those he cares about most. It makes him question what he thinks he knows along the way. At work, Ben gets entangled in a strange and humiliating coffee debacle that results in a trip to the Emergency Room. Later, Ben has a standoff with his dog over a routine toenail trimming. A bike ride in the Rocky Mountains turns into a learning experience in dressing climate-appropriately. Ben’s nunchucks-wielding neighbor provides an odd sense of calm in the wake of a rash of home invasions. Available here.
Stobierski, Timothy, Chronicles of a Bee Whisperer, River Otter Press, October 25, 2012. Hardcover and Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-0983553021. Stobierski’s first book offers a compendium of poems honoring all the ways that love comes to us. Available here.
Atkinson, David. Bones Buried in the Dirt, River Otter Press, January 2, 2013, Hardcover and Paperback. ISBN-13: 978-0983553038. Atkinson’s first book features a young boy named Peter. Ranging from ages four to twelve, his stories focus on the moments in childhood that get buried in the mind but never get fully absorbed, the moments that constantly come to the surface later in life and shape identity, presenting a sonar picture of the individual Peter will become. Available here. In 2017, Atkinson won the Nebraska Book Award for Not Quite So Stories, published in 2016 by Literary Wonderlust.
Hawley, Luke, The Northwoods Hymnal, River Otter Press, February 6, 2013, Hardcover and Paperback received “Honors” from the Nebraska Book Awards in 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0983553045. Luke Hawley, a man of prodigious gifts, offers us a collection of twice-told tales: stories written once in music and once in prose that warms the reader through the cold winter months. Available here.
Singer, Ron, Look to Mountains, Look to Sea, River Otter Press, July 21, 2013, Hardcover and Paperback. ISBN-13:978-0983553052. Look to Mountains, Look to Sea chronicles Ron Singer’s summer sojourns in Maine since 1969. The thirty-one poems are set in two very different milieu; Deer Isle on Penobscot Bay and Weld in the western mountains. The reader will enjoy Singer’s vivid sense of place and his mimicry of Maine’s acerbic, funny voices. Available here.
Perchik, Simon, Almost Rain, River Otter Press, September 1, 2013, Hardcover and Paperback. ISBN-13:978-0983553069. Monograph published for Snow Jewel. “Perchik is the most widely published unknown poet in America. Though his untitled, idiosyncratic lyrics have been consistently appearing in magazines as diverse as The New Yorker and Exquisite Corpse for decades, his books have been hard to find… a poet who may well be our era’s Emily Dickinson…Often dense, often difficult, Perchik’s poems nevertheless lead to strange, unanticipated conclusions that usually reward the pursuit.” Library Journal. Available here.
Kon, Desmond Zhicheng-Mingdé, Singular Acts of Endearment. Jointly published by Grey Sparrow Press and Squircle Line Press. October 1, 2014. It won the Beverly Hills International Book Award (for poetry and visionary fiction). The book placed with Silver for Inspirational Fiction at this year’s Living Now Book Awards in the US and was listed as a finalist for the Eric Hoffer awards. Listed by Asymptote’s Lee Yew Leong as his Favorite Book of the Year on the portal Singapore Poetry. Paperback. ISBN: 978-981-09-1341-0. Called “utterly engrossing” and “exhilarating” by Pushcart Prize recipient Valerie Sayers, Singular Acts of Endearment is an epistolary novel, authored by inaugural Gardens by the Bay writer-in-residence Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé. These are the letters of Jasmine Lee-Heschel, who watches her Ah Gong slowly die of liver cancer. A caretaker at a plant nursery, Ah Gong is bent on building a garden for their HDB flat. Jasmine’s caregiver task? To take Ah Gong to what small enclaves of nature still exist in Singapore. There’s, of course, a boy. And there’s Nina, who saw an angel. But everything stands still, like a tree in the middle of a pasture. This book was chosen as 2014’s Favorite Book by Lee Yew Leong, editor of Asymptote. Available here.
Whittingham, Katy E., The Serial Killer Served Pound Cake & Other Sufficiently Slanted Tales, Grey Sparrow Press, September 1st, 2015, Paperback. ISBN: 978-0-9835530-9-0. Whittingham’s folk tales take place in a seemingly normal realm, but quickly grow strange. From a reluctant Snow White making a way for herself in modern day New England to a dying woman who has an interesting take on motherly duties, the characters are both familiar and other worldly, ordinary, and extraordinary. Morals are tested when a man confronts haunting memories and a split second life/death decision and when a father and husband fights a losing battle with his own ego and unrealistic expectations. Questions of identity arise when an unassuming widow finds difficulty in reconciling her reality and dream life. Like a good campfire story, this brand of storytelling jolts you out of that comfortable state and keeps you guessing about where that sound came from or who is behind that tree. Available here.
Upreti, Bhisma, What if the Sky Falls, a poetry chapbook, published March 29, 2016, reprinted September 1, 2017, Grey Sparrow Press, Paperback. ISBN: 978-1544838441. Khem K. Aryal said of Upreti’s poetry, “Bhisma Upreti’s poems are a superbly delicate reflection of a compassionate human being. The poems revel in humanity and its uncompromising faith in rivers, hills, the sky, the Mother Earth, and the world beyond. Deeply rooted in life experience from the Himalayan country of Nepal, Upreti’s poems are an assiduous search for meaning in questions like “What if the sky falls?” and inspire moments of illuminating meditation. Available here.
Holder, Doug, Last Night at the Wursthaus, New and Selected Poems, Grey Sparrow Press. Grey Sparrow Press, September 1, 2017, Paperback. ISBN: 978-1974606269. Gloria Mindock, Editor of Červená Barva Press, said of Holder’s poetry, “The landscape has changed but the memories have not. Take a walk with these poems that bring back the old Harvard Square, Boston, and the Bronx. In one poem Holder writes, “I used to strain to hear bits of wisdom.” There is no strain here. Step back in time with the characters Doug Holder describes, all contemplating their dead ends and new beginnings.” Available here.
Editors Smith, Diane and Schriefer, Natalie, Grey Sparrow’s Thirteen-Year Anniversary Anthology: Catch the Moon, Grey Sparrow Press, December 31, 2020, Paperback, ISBN: 9798588188296. Grey Sparrow Press, in this landmark book, cherishes the sweet voices of national writing treasures Robert Bly, Michael C. Keith, Jules Nyquist, Khem Aryal, Marie Sheppard Williams [posthumously,] Doug Holder, Momila Joshi, William Woolfitt, Robert Wexelblatt, Thomas Smith, M.J. Iuppa, John Roche, and more. The Press was formed two years prior to its non-profit 501[c]3 incorporation, May 11, 2009 for promotion of writing and the visual arts. Available here.
Editors Aryal, Khem K.; Lamsal, Tika; Lamichhane, Saraswoti; Baral, Raj K.; and Bhattarai, Narayan; Kayva: Representative Nepali Poetry in English, Grey Sparrow Press, 2022, Paperback. ISBN: 978-0-578-37505-2. Sanjeev Uprety, critic and author of GhanachakkarKavya, said of Kayva, the anthology “Nepal poetry in English includes works by poets who write from a hybrid, in-between world, traced by the traditions of Nepali and English literature, as well as the worldviews of western modernity and eastern spiritualism. The poems reveal the evolution of Nepali poetry in English from the 1950s to the present and encompass varied thematic interests, literary styles, and cultural locations. A must read for all those who are interested in the history and practice of Nepali English writing.” Available here.
JOURNALS
Grey Sparrow Journal, Quarterly, First Online Issue, Summer, June 1st, 2009 through 2015. Grey Sparrow Journal, print, January 1st, 2010 ISSN 2157-3646. Winner of the “Best New Literary Journal of the Year,” granted by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
As of 2016, Grey Sparrow Journal is published annually online. Earlier print issues are available at the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the Bancroft at UCLA, and the NY University, Buffalo Library. The Library of Congress also holds back print issues.
Snow Jewel Journal, Published sporadically as of 2023. First published, January 1st, 2010, ISSN 2157-3646. Print. Order Issues: dsdianefuller@gmail.com
Grey Sparrow Journal 