#arsenal pulp

[joannemerriam]

Book covers for:

There Is Only the Sacred and the Desecrated by Mary Buchinger (Lily Poetry Review): Paul Nemser Book Prize, Honorable Mention. “A Book of Hours chronicling moments that mesh the physical with the spiritual. . . She penetrates the growth of a tree in good years and hard years by reading the formation of its rings as readily as she reaches into the life of Francis of Assisi, illuminating his understanding of the sacred, his ailments, and his love for and ministering to animals as well as people.”- Jennifer Barber. Poetry by the author of Navigating the Reach (Salmon Poetry, Honors, 2024 Massachusetts Book Award). https://lilypoetryreview.blog/lily-poetry-review-press/there-is-only-the-sacred-and-the-desecrated-by-mary-buchinger/

& Super Castle Fun Park by Daniel Zomparelli (Arsenal Pulp): The dead want to speak to you. But are you ready to hear their words? Super Castle Fun Park explores a group of people tending wistfully to their precarious lives. Dario is an aimless pessimist staying at a themed hotel who is tasked with the care of his aunt at the end of her life. Jeremy is Dario's anxious boyfriend who is trapped in his home, plagued by disturbing visions. Chelsea is an ornery medium who spends her free time on her phone trolling a group of misfits in an online game. Each of them is at the precipice of change, and the people they are interconnected to, including the dead, will be there when it happens. https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/S/Super-Castle-Fun-Park

[joannemerriam]

Book cover for The Lost Century by Larissa Lai (Arsenal Pulp): Lambda Literary Award winner Larissa Lai (The Tiger Flu) returns with a sprawling historical novel about war, colonialism, love, and loyalty during Japan's occupation of Hong Kong in World War II. Emily's marriage - three times - to her father's mortal enemy causes a stir among three very different Hong Kong Chinese families, as well as among the young cricketers at the Hong Kong Cricket Club, who've just witnessed King Edward VIII's abdication to marry Wallis Simpson. But the bickering around the scandal of Emily's marriage is violently disrupted by the Japanese Imperial Army's invasion of Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941, which plunges the colony into a landscape of violence none of its inhabitants escape from unscathed. https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/T/The-Lost-Century

[joannemerriam]

Book cover for Super Castle Fun Park by Daniel Zomparelli (Arsenal Pulp): The dead want to speak to you. But are you ready to hear their words? Super Castle Fun Park explores a group of people tending wistfully to their precarious lives. Dario is an aimless pessimist staying at a themed hotel who is tasked with the care of his aunt at the end of her life. Jeremy is Dario's anxious boyfriend who is trapped in his home, plagued by disturbing visions. Chelsea is an ornery medium who spends her free time on her phone trolling a group of misfits in an online game. Each of them is at the precipice of change, and the people they are interconnected to, including the dead, will be there when it happens. https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/S/Super-Castle-Fun-Park

[lotuslandcomics]

The Story of Congo’s History Comes Alive in POSTCARDS FROM CONGO

The Comprehensive Graphic Novel Sheds Light on Congo’s History Not Widely Known to Western Readers

Featuring a Foreword from Historian and Professor of African History Didier Gondola

Author and illustrator Edmund Trueman explores the fractious story of Congo in the comprehensive graphic history POSTCARDS FROM CONGO. Featuring a foreword by historian Didier Gondola, Professor of African History at John Hopkins University, POSTCARDS FROM CONGO brings Congo's history — not widely known to Western readers — vividly alive through deft illustrations and storytelling. Readers see how Congolese musicians have spread their language across Africa by creating some of the most popular music on the continent, and how Congolese women have spent decades sidestepping sexist legislation to become leaders in local business. From resistance against colonialism to the fight for independence and the self-determination to make a life in an almost stateless place, Postcards from Congo depicts how the Congolese people have resisted and survived in order to take control of their lives and the country they call home.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the second-largest country in Africa by area, has a fractured and bloody history, variously undone by decades of colonialism, civil war, corruption, and totalitarian rule. The country has played a crucial role in the economic growth of the Global North — but in doing so has suffered immensely. So many seminal advances in technology were possible only through the extraction of materials from Congo, from rubber to copper to uranium to coltan. In each case, the Congolese people paid a great price exacerbated by the weight of colonial exploitation and dictatorial rule.

POSTCARDS FROM CONGO will be published by Arsenal Pulp Press on October 25, 2022.

[blacknerdproblems]

Search for a Better Life in ‘The Blue Road: A Fable of Migration’ Graphic Novel Review

1 Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn SMS Email The Blue Road – the first graphic novel by acclaimed poet and writer ...

The Blue Road – the first graphic novel by acclaimed poet and writer Wayde Compton and illustrator April dela Noche Milne – explores the world from a migrant’s perspective with dreamlike wonder. We are introduced to one Lacuna, she without a proper home. She’s also without much in this world: no family, no prospects, no past and seemingly not much of a future. The swamp has always been her home, and she’s just barely managing to survive from day to day. It’s not quite living and thus thriving, but it is sadly, all she’s known. This setup means the readers get a feel for the adventure and journey to come as Lacuna will need all her wits, hopes, and her ingenious nature to get her through each obstacle time and time again.

Wayde Compton spins a tale of someone looking for a place to call home, for a place to belong that is fantastic as it has seeped into the realm of fantasy. Not much is lost in the sauce narrative-wise as readers follow Lacuna, I, myself was able to follow her plight with each new obstacle and the parallels people in the real world can and do face. She’s a vital part to the story with her observations and understandings on how this new part of the world she’s entering works and how she can proceed. She doesn’t just move forward–she makes it so for those who may follow behind her, in an attempt to better their lives–can do so with more ease.

She works to make that road to finding a home and better options easier, so no one gets trapped, lost, or falls into the cracks again. In the second half of the book towards the end, using her ingenious nature, she later makes life much easier for herself and many others–totally disrupting a system in place that is a disservice to those like her. She even acknowledges her privilege in doing so when she learns that she can live a better life while some who were previously in her steps can not at the current moment. The ending and the surprising epilogue is a thing of beauty, showing us a character arc of a girl well developed, who has matured and continually brings revolution in her everyday life.

Read on here. [x]

[howyoutalktostrangers]

So, My friend Shawn posted the cover of his upcoming collection Nothing Looks Familiar on Facebook the other day.

You can read about his book, which will be released in October, on Arsenal Pulp's website HERE.

Stoked for this.

The Literary Goon

[wordbookstores]

A Bookseller's Friday Night Adventure!

   Secret superhero/bookseller Simone Goldenberg writes: "On Friday night, I took the train to Crown Heights with an invitation to a dinner and celebration of chef Mèrida Anderson's new cookbook Vegan Secret Supper. The four-course meal was served in the front room of a restored and renovated three-story classic Brooklyn gem whose owners had been fans of the previous New York run of Mèridas' dinner gatherings. The guests sat at cloth-covered tables under dark wood trim and a chandelier of repurposed milk jars. In the beautiful open kitchen, Mèrida meticulously plated treats for the collected booksellers and food writers to ooh and ahh over and then, thankfully, to devour. Each course was introduced by the winsome chef, and many of the recipes could be found in the cookbook. I left charmed and curious about getting from Point A -- a list of wholesome, mostly familiar ingredients -- to Point B -- fabulous (and picture worthy!) vegan entrees and appetizers that were so much more than a sum of their parts. And finally, hats off to Mast Brothers Chocolate for our final course, which made my ride home so much sweeter."