Astrophil Press Titles
None of this is an Invitation
A mystery and queer hauntology, None of This Is an Invitation follows Nina Morris, a young woman desperate to escape the defining event of her youth: the disappearance of her friend and love interest, Alex. One freakishly wintry night in Texas, Alex enters the woods of Bidwell Ridge, and–like the girls of urban legends–is never seen again. Nearly two decades later, after Nina’s many failed attempts to reinvent herself, Alex returns in phantasmic form beckoning Nina back to the enigmatic dreamscape of their Texas girlhood. Through the uncanny surreality of a mirror world, Nina sets out to solve the enigma of their shared past: did Nina’s older brother abduct Alex? Did Alex commit suicide? Is she still alive after all these years in Bidwell Ridge? What worldly or unworldly forces entwine their fates: a haunted hometown, a curse, or an unspoken desire?
Begat Who Begat Who Begat by Marcus Pactor
A new toilet produces gifts with every flush. A lawnmower communes with a grieving father. A man believes he’s found the cure for his son’s vision problem through the use of mechanical roaches that invade their home. Marcus Pactor’s Begat Who Begat Who Begat is a surreal collection of stories rife with black humor and heartbreak, where families are torn asunder in striking new visions of domestic life.
[…] by Ava Hofmann
At once a modern grimoire, a transition record, and a meditation on the encounter with the archive, […] employs visual techniques to reexamine that which is missing. Reimagining Old English charms in a willfully anachronistic, willful context, […] places the past and present into a conflicted conversation which finds synthesis in poems that combine delicately crafted verse forms and wildly experimental visual poetry. […] asks you to read what has not been written, and to rescue the things that have been lost.
Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth
Reissue with introduction by Isabel Quintero.
Sixteen-year-old Margueritte wants out. Out of her small town, where girls get pregnant young and end up stuck, like her mom. Out of a family where her Native American mother won’t leave her white, alcoholic, abusive father. Margueritte hopes if she and her cousin Jake sell enough weed, they can at least escape to Denver one day. That’s when Mike comes to town. Like Margueritte, he loves to read, he’s funny, and he’s Indian. A coming-of-age novel about the female, urban Indian experience, Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend is not only a gritty, unexpectedly funny, page-turning novel about a girl who just wants a little bit more–it’s an instant classic.
The Apology by Christian TeBordo
Mike Long, a.k.a. Michael Rider, a.k.a. Knight Rider—frustrated philosopher and ersatz office manager—finds himself charged with misdemeanor stalking, simple assault, and planning a terrorist attack, at the end of a very rough work week that includes late-night stakeouts of the new woman in payable, fistfights with the IT guy, pissing in the elevator, and more than one happy hour at Chili’s. This is his apology, not an expression of regret, but a justification.
Harvestman by Steve Von Till
In the tender passages of Harvestman, Von Till seeks meaning and mystical significance in the natural world, where he finds himself in the vastness of the ocean and the majesty of the forested mountain ranges. Shamanistic visions and elemental forces manifest in sparse poetic form that ripples with gothic Americana and ancient mythologies. This worldly and weathered first work of poetry and collected lyrics is a history lesson from an old punk rock musician (Neurosis) turned rural spiritual poet.
Babeldom by Talal Alyan
At the intersection of narrative and noise, the poems in Babeldom emerge to explore and translate the unheard and strange babel that surrounds our different worlds. These poems grasp at the hurried and ephemeral conversations within and outside of us that stretch from the quiet hours we spend alone to the anonymous faces that we pass on our daily commutes. Babeldom is the exploration of all of this, this kingdom of babel, that we all wake and sleep in, in which the muffled noise you hear from across the street might be the prayer or indignation or defeat of another protagonist in different story.
Buckskin Cocaine by Erika T. Wurth
Erika T. Wurth's Buckskin Cocaine is a wild, beautiful ride into the seedy underworld of Native American film. These are stories about men maddened by fame, actors desperate for their next buckskin gig, directors grown cynical and cruel, and dancers who leave everything behind in order to make it, only to realize at thirty that there is nothing left. Poetic and strange, Wurth’s characters and vivid language will burn themselves into your mind, and linger.
The Whitmire Case by Joanna Ruocco
Joanna Ruocco’s The Whitmire Case, is a dark comedic work in the tradition of Samuel Becket. With musical, digressive sentences that probe the odd logic of the mystery at foot, The Whitmire Case is an investigation into a community where sheep seem more logical than people and chaos seems to grow with each attempt the characters make to gain control.
The Strangers Among Us by Caroline Picard
Artist and Author Caroline Picard has a lot on her mind. In her slender book, The Strangers Among Us, Picard locates us in a world where a love for cats, philosophy, and people intertwine in surprising and emotional ways. Picard seamlessly weaves the personal and the academic in an essay that skips through time using cats as the yarn that brings memories of love, scholarship, and art together in a most impressive tapestry.
The Botanical Garden by Ellen Welcker
In Ellen Welcker’s debut collection The Botanical Garden, she meditates on the boundaries of nations, of worlds, of oceans as well as the complexities of motherhood. Welcker’s long poems ask us to think about the way in which bodies occupy space, ontologically, physically, and emotionally.
Sleeper’s Republic by David Gruber
In Sleepers’ Republic, we are asked to question love, to question politics, to question why we engage with these subjects the way we do. In poems that sometimes feel like songs from dreams long forgotten, David Gruber guides us through a world that is often upended by disappointment and we, lost in these musical poems, find beauty in that which we cannot control.
Brutal Synecdoche by Mark Tursi
In Brutal Synecdoche, Mark Tursi transcends static genre markers of poetry and prose. Brutal Synecdoche moves through different registers; there are language oriented poems, narrative poems, comical poems, and lyrical poems. Tursi has the ability to write through these modes with confidence. In these compelling pages, Tursi has something for everyone.
Downstream From Trout Fishing in America: A Memoir of Richard Brautigan
In Downstream From Trout Fishing in America, Keith Abbott paints a portrait of Richard Brautigan as a lovable and whimsical friend. Abbott explains the writer's dedication to the art of fiction and his quest to break beyond the pop culture, hippie label that haunted him until his suicide in1984. Brautigan's tight prose inspired authors such as Haruki Murakami, and his experimentation with the line won him accolades from authors like Ishmael Reed, Raymond Carver, and Michael McClure. His work is highly influential and Abbott draws a clear connection between Brautigan's life and his writing. This book is essential for anyone who is interested in the work of Richard Brautigan. As Raymond Carver wrote, "Truly the best thing I've ever seen written of the man."
The Procession of Mollusks by Eric E. Olson
Eric E. Olson’s The Procession of Mollusks, is a psychological detective story that follows an investigator as he tries to solve the mystery surrounding the death of marine biologist. As he descends into the picturesque town of Newport Bay, things begin to get slippery for him, very slippery. As humans begin acting like mollusks and the static boundaries of the world and symbolic order begin to dissolve, the story slithers into a psychedelic world that has as much in common with the work of David Lynch as it does Paul Auster. The Procession of Mollusks is study on slippage and will not disappoint.
Contagion and Other Stories by Brian Evenson
One of Brian Evenson’s most lauded collections, Contagion and Other Stories, is a collection of short stories that ripple with psychological horror and philosophical dilemmas. In stories like the O. Henry Award-winning "Two Brothers," Evenson takes his readers into a world that is at once apocalyptic, dark, observant, and grotesque and always awe inspiring. Contagion and Other Stories shows Brian Evenson at his best—taut sentences, sharp dialogue, and deep psychological subtext. A must have for any fan of contemporary fiction or fans of Brian Evenson.
Swerve byVincent James, Rowland Saifi, and McCormick Templeman
Swerve is a dreamscape detective novel caught up in a multiversal calamity. Swerve jostles and hums. Swerve might be Galileo's cousin, Margaret Cavendish’s niece, and Stephen Hawking’s step-child. Swerve is a once in a generation book that tells the story of three distinct detectives who move across the United States and beyond, uncovering pieces of a mercurial puzzle spanning space and time. Come join the mystery—Swerve will not disappoint.
Leopold’s Labyrinth by Mike Corrao
Leopold’s Labyrinth puts the reader at the center of a story where they take shape as a recluse residing in the digitally-constructed environments of the future—the cybergothic landscape of the 2020s. It is Sunday evening and they just have begun their pilgrimage into a holy labyrinth, in the hopes that they will come upon new artifacts that radiate a simultaneously corporeal and astral aura. The reader is a miner who mines this place for its meaning. Leopold’s Labyrinth is a funhouse turned videogame for readers. They must interact with textual artifacts, deduct meaning, and grapple with the complex human issues turned upside down and inside out. You will perhaps not read a more interactive and fascinating novel this year.
