We Need Your Submissions

It's a long story, but Roosevelt University's lit mag, Oyez Review, is now in the exceedingly capable hands of our managing editor, Sammi. And who knows what we're gonna do with it now.

One thing is certain, though: for a limited time only, we're looking for your submissions. That means fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction (hybrid/experimental work = welcomed & encouraged), as well as art for the cover.

There's a $2 fee to send in stuff via Submittable, but just for this month, you can also email submissions directly/for free to sammi [at] featherproof.com (with Oyez in the subject line). If you ever wanted your work in front of a Featherproof editor, this is your best chance. Guidelines are available at the Submittable link—submit by January 31st!

See You at the Chicago Book Expo!

Make sure to stop by our table at the Chicago Book Expo this Sunday, October 1. We'll have deals on most of our titles (+ freebies!) from noon to 5 pm. Info on flier below.

 

2017 CBE flier.jpg

Zachary Schomburg's Mammother is Out Today!

It's finally high time for a Pie Time!

Today, 9/26/2017, is the publication date for Mammother, poet Zachary Schomburg's first novel! If you've had a chance to crack open a copy, you already know it's about as weird & wonderful & twisty as they come. And now it's available everywhere!

gif-vers0le.gif

Here's what people are saying:

“It is impossible for me to sum up this book. But I know it shines like a gilded symbolist triumph in the desert of the real.”

-Queen Mob’s Tea House

 

“A surrealist comedy about death and a deeply human tragedy about love.”

-Willamette Week

 

“I read most of the novel in a single sitting, because Schomburg kept reeling me back in with good stingers.”

-The Portland Mercury

Snag a copy here!

FP Event: Lindsay Hunter, Leyna Krow, & Brielle Brilliant

FP Event: Lindsay Hunter, Leyna Krow, & Brielle Brilliant

Featherproof's yesterday, today, and tomorrow--all on one stacked bill!!

Please join us for a reading/chill hang featuring past Featherproof author Lindsay Hunter (2010's Daddy's), present Featherproof author Leyna Krow (2017's I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking), and future Featherproof author Brielle Brilliant (2018's SPUD), graciously hosted by Volumes Bookcafe. 

About the authors:
Lindsay Hunter's latest book is Eat Only When You're Hungry. She owes everything to featherproof.

Leyna Krow is the author of I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking. Her stories have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Prairie Schooner, Ninth Letter, and other publications. She lives in Spokane, Washington.

Brielle Brilliant is an unauthorized investigator who writes, films, and prank calls. Her first book, SPUD, will be published in 2018 with featherproof Books. 

Some praise for Lindsay & Leyna's newest releases:
"It is with Eat Only When You’re Hungry that Hunter arrives at her first masterpiece; a novel of staggering vision and tremendous heart." - LA Review of Books

"I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking will remind you of the magic just waiting to be discovered around every corner of your otherwise-mundane surroundings." - Bustle

Free

6-8 pm

Sunday 9/24

Volumes Bookcafe
1474 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago IL 60622 | 773-697-8066 | info@volumesbooks.com

Event page is here.

Facebook listing is here.

Mammother Book Tour

Mammother Book Tour

Renowned poet Zachary Schomburg, author of Scary, No Scary and three other books of poetry, is touring with his debut novel, Mammother (Featherproof Books, 2017)! 

In Mammother, the people of Pie Time are suffering from God’s Finger, a mysterious plague that leaves something inside a death hole in each victim's chest. With a large cast of characters, each struggling with their own tangled relationships to death, money, and love, Mammother is a fabulist tale of holding on and letting go in a rapidly growing world.

Tour Dates: 

Portland, OR: Saturday, Aug 19 @ OUTLET

Seattle, WA: Wednesday, Aug 23 @ MOUNT ANALOGUE

Seattle, WA: Thursday, Aug 24 @ PHINNEY BOOKS

Boise, ID: Saturday, Aug 26 TBD

Boulder, CO: Tuesday, Aug 29 @ INNISFREE BOOKS

Denver, CO: Wednesday, Aug 30 @ COUNTERPATH BOOKS (w/ featherproof author Mairead Case!)

Lincoln, NE: Thursday, Aug 31 @ U OF NEBRASKA / BAILEY LIBRARY

Omaha, NE: Friday, Sep 1 @ SOLID JACKSON

Omaha, NE: Saturday, Sep 2 @ JOHNSON DECONSTRUCTION

Bellingham, WA: Sunday Sep 3 @ Village Books https://www.facebook.com/events/300086217132807

Minneapolis, MN: Thursday, Sep 7 @ MILKWEED BOOKS

Madison, WI: Friday, Sep 8 @ Art In

Chicago, IL: Sunday, Sep 10 @ RAINBO CLUB https://www.facebook.com/events/1088823051253705/

St. Louis, MO: Monday, Sep 11 @ LEFT BANK BOOKS

Tulsa, OK: Tuesday, Sep 12 @ BOOKSMART TULSA at BLACKBIRD ON PEARL

Austin, TX: Wednesday, Sep 13 @ MALVERN BOOKS

Lubbock, TX: Thursday, Sep 14 @ TBD

Marfa, TX: Monday, Sep 18 @ MARFA BOOK CO

Los Angeles, CA: Thursday, Sep 21 @ STORIES

San Francisco, CA: Saturday, Sep 23 @ TBD

Chicago, IL: Sunday, Sep 24 @ Volumes Bookcafe https://www.facebook.com/events/823575364473898/

(East coast leg begins in November.)

 

 

FALL RELEASE PARTY!!

FALL RELEASE PARTY!!

Please join us to celebrate the release of Mammother, the debut novel by award-wielding superpoet Zachary Schomburg (author of Scary, No Scary & three other books of poetry)! Right around the corner from the Renegade Craft Fair at Rainbo Club.

Melina Ausikaitis (Joan of Arc, Aitis Music) will also perform her singular hybrid of songs and stories.

All Featherproof titles will be available for purchase at a super low discount bargain rate ya can't get anywhere else, including our newest summer release, From the Inside. 

All the literary action you need!

Sunday, 9/10

6PM

Rainbo Club

1150 N Damen Ave

Chicago, Illinois 60622

Free, 21+

Brand new books. For our brand new, totally insane world.

Featherproof Newsletter: February 3

Oh holy Cheeto Jesus—how the hell are you? We mean that for real. 'Cuz the latest in a long line of oppressors have wasted no time here, have they? And now we're smack dab in the middle of the War on Psychic Warfare to End All War Instead of Ending the World.

Don't forget that we are many, and you are not alone! But also don't forget that the many are counting on you to show up… We're in this for the long haul if you are, friends. And if you need to communicate with a real, live human being: we're here.

Actual Good News (i.e., In No Way Fake):

On February 14, we'll be officially releasing our newest book: Leyna Krow's I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking.

Shawn Vestal has described these stories as "bound by a crackling wit, an inventive vitality, a laser eye for the silent currents between people, and a sneaky emotional power."

Following in the footsteps of our debut collections from Amelia Gray and Lindsay Hunter, we're proud to now introduce you to another promising young writer.

Get I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking direct from us now, before it's available anywhere else!

The New York Times Magazine has said "Everyone on every coast and in between reads MAKE because it’s smart and cool and thoughtful and stylish and kind."

To celebrate MAKE Magazine's 10th anniversary, we're pleased to present the anthology collection MAKE X: A Decade of Literary Art.

More than a "best of," these are carefully curated selections of writing & art, featuring some of yer all-time favorite people: Eula Biss, Lily Hoang, Lindsay Hunter, Maggie Nelson, Jac Jemc, Tim Kinsella, Kathleen Rooney, Mahmoud Saeed, Valeria Luiselli, Kate Zambreno, and many, many more.

MAKE X will be officially released March 14, but you can get a copy from us right now!

Yeah, We Don't Know Either

It pains us to think about what sort of abomination we'll have to protest next week, but if you're in the nation's capital February 8–11, we will be, too.

After you inform the new administration personally about what you think of their machinations, come see us at the AWP Conference & Bookfair in the Washington Convention Center. We'll be at booth #250 with our good friends from Curbside Splendor.  

If you can't make the bookfair, shake a tailfeather over to Petworth Citizen (829 Upshur St. NW) for the AWP Small Press Party on Saturday, February 11, at 7pm. No readings. Just booze & camaraderie & revivification. Hope to see you there. 


With love, solidarity, and an itch we're sure as shit gonna scratch,
Tim & Jason & Sammi

Love Trumps Hate

Love Trumps Hate

We are gutted and terrified by the recent revelations of just how dark, small-minded, scared, and hateful the American collective unconscious can be. But we are ready to fight the long fight ahead for the basic rights and dignities of all people.

We are a small company and wish we could do more, but this is what we can do: From now through November 17, when you use the discount code LoveTrumpsHate, our entire catalog is 20% off and 100% of all sales will go directly to Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, and organizations fighting for LGBTQ and immigrant rights.

If you've ever considered buying any or all of our books, please make this week the time that you do so.
 

Summer Release Party—or, rather, PARTIES

It's all happening this weekend in Chicago...

 

Robert Ryan Book Release and Exhibition
Saturday, August 6 from 7–10pm
Great Lakes Tattoo
1148 W. Grand Ave.

Join us for an exhibition of a bunch of new work on canvas from Robert Ryan, plus new prints, new limited-edition-available-this-weekend-only T-shirts, and, of course, the release of The Inborn Absolute.

 

Live Podcast Recording with Tim Kinsella & Robert Ryan
Sunday, August 7 from 2–4pm
Chicago Athletic Association (in the Drawing Room)
12 S. Michigan Ave.

The latest edition of our Storytelling Series events in partnership with Chicago Athletic Association, which is, as always, being recorded for the Featherproof podcast.  Come sit in a comfy chair in the amazing lobby of this hotel, have a cocktail, and engage in conversation with our main man & the man-of-the-hour. Oh, and we'll also have this-weekend-only T-shirts from Robert, in addition to copies of the brand-new The Inborn Absolute (and the rest of our catalog).

 

Featherproof Summer Release(s) Party
Sunday, August 7 at 7:30
Rainbo Club
1150 N. Damen Ave.

To celebrate the release of The Inborn Absolute and The Tennessee Highway Death Chant, we're inviting all peoples of the world to converge at our home-away-from home for music, readings, and maybe a cocktail or two.  Keegan Jennings Goodman and Devin King will supply their own personal brand of linguistic magic, and Robert Ryan will be doing a solo drone set. We'll have our whole catalog there, at our usual, unbeatable prices, plus your last chance to get those limited-edition Robert Ryan T-shirts.

 

Announcing Zachary Schomburg's first novel!

We're proud to announce that in 2017 Featherproof will publish acclaimed poet Zachary Schomburg's first work of fiction, the novel Mammother. It's a fabulist tale set in the town of Pie Time, concerning a young man who takes on the job of holding the random objects born from the bodies of those who have died in the plague of God's Finger. Beneath the book's strangeness, surrealism, and absurd humor is a heavy tenderness and sincerity that explores family, mourning, loss, relationships, time, and our complicated relationship with death.

Past praise for his past work:

“With wit, humor, tenderness, and his characteristic, logic-bending surrealism, Schomburg probes into the subjects of futurity, personal history, and mythmaking.”
— Publishers Weekly
“…out of chaos, darkness, fire, and violence Schomburg builds a fearlessly balanced galaxy, a cosmos inhabited by angry mobs and bleeding trees but thick with sweetness and blossoming light.”
— The Believer
“Schomburg’s meditations on death … often seem to be a way of thinking about what it means to be present, to be breathing in the now, to be a human in a busy world.”
— Bookslut
“[His tone is] morbid, yet ironically luminous and welcoming, an opposition that creates tension and electricity, that propels a reader through the narrative with a pleasant discomfort.”
— Heavy Feather Review

 

Zachary Schomburg was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Iowa. He earned a BA from the College of the Ozarks and a PhD in creative writing and poetry from the University of Nebraska. His books include The Man Suit, Scary, No Scary, Fjords vol. 1 (which won the 2013 Oregon Book Award), and The Book of Joshua. Schomburg co-edits Octopus Books and lives in Portland, Oregon.