Friday, October 12, 2018

Announcing new titles for 2019; Thank you to our submitters

Submissions season is over for 2018. It was a boom year for submissions and I'm grateful for the number and quality of authors interested in publishing with Upper Hand Press. I tip my hat to the many who submitted their work for my consideration and my editorial board's. It is a pleasure and an honor to be entrusted with so many writers' works and ambitions in thirty-page blocks. I am never uninterested in the people who send their work. Everything we receive is full of life; work and commitment can't fail to show. So thank you to everyone who took a risk and sent their best to Upper Hand Press and my eye.

In the upcoming months, we'll be publishing three books, two by previously published authors, and one by a newcomer. On August first, we'll bring out Nick Fowler's, My Virtuous Sister. Nick wrote A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla in 2002 and it was a hit for Random House. It got reviews in places like the Times of New York and of Los Angeles and was a best seller in the United Kingdom. His new book, like his first, is set in New York City, but is a little more melancholy in tone as a younger brother seeks his beloved big sister, a rock star on hard times, in lower Manhattan. 


In December, we bring out Alice Lichtenstein's The Crime of Being. Alice comes to us from Scribner's, where she published her novel Lost, enthused over by NPR and the Time Book Review. Her earlier novel was Genius of the World, published with the late, lamented literary press, Zoland Books. In The Crime of Being, Lichtenstein cooly visits the hot territory of a hate crime's effects on juvenile perpetrator and victim, their families, the judicial system and population of the small town where it happens.

William Cass's illustrated book Sam will open 2020 for us. This exquisite story sits in a comfortable chair that children and adults will share. The story is about a young girl who lives with her mom and plays by herself and the lonely, elderly man who can see her outside his window. Their friendship is told with warmth and penetrating insight into each generation. Young readers will love it; younger children will love to hear it; any adult will be happy to give it voice. Cass is a retired elementary principal, with many literary credits in fine journals.

Keep up with our home page to see the details about these books as they are posted. It's exciting to have designers deliver us the new covers and to begin preorders. My Virtuous Sister is already up, so take a look, and be sure to visit the music website of our only rock-and-roll author: Nick Fowler's music.

--Ann Starr, Publisher