Welcome to Atticus Books Publisher Assistant Editor Publicist
Dan Cafaro Libby O’Neill Lacey N. Dunham
ABOUT ATTICUS BOOKS Atticus Books is an independent publisher of genre-busting literary fiction based in Kensington, Maryland. Our mission at Atticus Books is to deliver a first-class experience to the reader. Period. What keeps us up at night is the goal of making that unforgettable voice known to the general public. It’s the goal of believing in what we’re doing and knowing that our efforts are not wasted. It’s the goal of procuring work worth preserving and helping to create a legacy. It’s the goal of discovering an inventive mind and tapping far enough into it to reveal a treasure worth possessing.
ABOUT US Page
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OUR 2012 BOOKS Page
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RECENTLY PUBLISHED Page 10
February 2012 THREE WAYS OF THE SAW Stories MATT MULLINS
A startling new voice in traditional storytelling that carves out a territory all its own. “There’s a brooding, raw, rustbelt, jazzy, Motown energy that informs the sensibility and sound of this writer, fuels his prose, and gathers this collection into a compelling whole.” – STUART DYBEK
The vibrant prose of this debut collection—ranging in both style and length from experimental and realistic to flash and longer form fiction—searingly probes and dissects the idea of connection and alienation with one’s self, the world and others. Always gritty, often cruel, yet quietly insightful, this jagged chain of vignettes is for readers who try to hold their thoughts together with duct tape while never quite grasping the things they just can’t seem to name. Prepare your senses for aches, echoes, and arrivals at the moment of departure. Welcome to a work of literature that doesn’t shy away from the human condition—it embodies it.
Matt Mullins is a writer, musician, experimental filmmaker and multimedia artist. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Mid American Review, Pleiades, Hunger Mountain, Harpur Palate, Descant, Hobart, and a number of other print and online literary journals. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Ball State University (BSU) where he is a faculty fellow with BSU’s Emerging Media Initiative. His recent works of interactive/digital literature can be found at lit-digital.com. $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original | 230pp | 5.25 x 8 | Fiction/Stories | ISBN-13: 978-0-9832080-6-8 Publication date: February 29, 2012 3 3
April 2012 KINO A Novel JÜRGEN FAUTH A literary thriller about a legendary German filmmaker’s flight from the Nazis and his granddaughter’s attempts to separate fact from fiction in post 9-11 America. “Kino is a fast, complex, exhilarating roadster ride through history and time. It is the story of a woman who becomes obsessed with her grandfather, a visionary film director, [and] the powerful bindings of family, the sweet, dark loam of loss, and the highvoltage current of pulp fascism. Kino is an intoxicating Euro-brew, written with enormous skill and dedication.” - FREDERICK BARTHELME
When the long lost, first-ever silent film from legendary director Kino arrives mysteriously on his granddaughter Mina’s doorstep, Mina’s mission to discover the man she barely knew begins. As Kino’s journals plunge the reader into the depraved glamour and infectious panic of 1920s and 30s Germany, Mina finds her mission may be more dangerous than she’d imagined. With a cast of characters that includes Joseph Goebbels, Fritz Lang and Leni Riefenstahl, Kino is the tragic story of a silent film director in Nazi Germany and his granddaughter’s quest to redeem him. At what cost to identity, family and sanity should an artist pursue his vision?
Jürgen Fauth is a writer, film critic, translator, and co-founder of the literary community Fictionaut. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and received his doctorate from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. He lives with his wife, writer Marcy Dermansky, and their daughter Nina. Kino is his first novel. Follow him on Twitter at @muckster. $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original | 230 pp | 5.25 x 8 | Fiction | ISBN-13: 978-0-9832080-7-5 Publication Date: April 17, 2012 4
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June 2012 THE LAW OF STRINGS Stories STEVEN GILLIS
From the winner of the IPPY Silver Medal for Literary Fiction and the founder of 826Michigan comes a collection of stories that examines the human condition with an existential yelp.
"[T]his story collection hooked me from story one and continued to captivate to the end. Expert dialog and movement and resolution in each piece...This is a book you could read in a sitting or two. The pace is that swift; the stories are that good." – STEPHEN DIXON, two-time National Book Award finalist
Between the college town and big city life lie the loaded questions: What are we doing here? Why is it so hard? In these fifteen stories, Steven Gillis reveals a world in which quantum mechanics are used to solve moral quandaries and the line between reality and absurdity is wonderfully blurred. From a tightrope walker abandoning his trade to an Immovable Girl learning to levitate, The Law of Strings explores in surreal fashion what happens at the crossroads in our lives and how we decide what matters most in a world defined by chaos. Steven Gillis is the author of Walter Falls, The Weight of Nothing, Giraffes, Temporary People, and, most recently The Consequence of Skating (winner of the 2010 Silver Medal for Book of the Year Literary Fiction from the Independent Publishers IPPY). His stories, articles, and book reviews have appeared in over four dozen journals, and his books have been finalists for the Independent Publishers Book of the Year Award and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year. Steven is the founder of 826Michigan and the publisher and cofounder of Dzanc Books. $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original | 5.25 x 8 | Fiction/Stories | ISBN-13: 978-0-9832080-8-2 Publication Date: June 20, 2012 5
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September 2012 APOSTLE ISLANDS A Novel TOMMY ZURHELLEN
The wildly inventive sequel to the present-day retelling of the Messiah begun in Nazareth, North Dakota.
Sam Davidson is now a man, but growing up to be the Messiah is one thing; being the Messiah is something different altogether and Sam knows salvation can only come through his own death. However, Sam's mission to change the world can't happen alone. On the shores of Lake Superior, he finds the loyal followers who will become his fishers of men and the one who will ultimately betray him. An allegory of the New Testament set at the end of the twentiethcentury, Apostle Islands is a story about love, remorse, betrayal, and the consequences of the choices we all make in our lives. PRAISE FOR NAZARETH, NORTH DAKOTA “Zurhellen’s masterful dialogue often makes for gripping scenes that sustain these characters for decades.”- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “More than just a clever reimagining of the New Testament, Nazareth, North Dakota is an epic tale in its own right.”- NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS
ALSO AVAILABLE: Nazareth, North Dakota | $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original ISBN-13: 978-0-9845105-6-6 | April 2011 Tommy Zurhellen was born in New York City and is the author of Nazareth, North Dakota. He teaches at Marist College in upstate New York. $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original | 5.25 x 8 | Fiction | ISBN-13: 978-0-9832080-9-9 Publication Date: September 3, 2012 6
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October 2012 THE TALL TALE OF TOMMY TWICE A Novel NATHAN LESLIE
An imaginative novel about wayward outsiders, eccentric family, and growing up.
Photo credit: Emergency Break
“Nathan Leslie delivers a dark and scathing portrait of contemporary American society...Rants and Raves offers nothing less than a portrait of hell, a picture of an America about to implode." – AMAZON.COM on Rants and Raves
Fourteen-year-old Tommy Twice’s family is a wayward group of outsiders, an eccentric crew whose self-desires run deeper than blood ties. Forced to bounce from one bizarre home to the next, Tommy joins the ranks of orphaned vagabonds occupied by Tom Sawyer and Oliver Twist, with misadventures to match the best of them. A story as wide as it is tall, the mythological leanings of The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice will delight your funny bone and make any stray family outing seem like a trip to the amusement park by comparison.
Nathan Leslie is the author of seven books and fiction editor at Pedestal Magazine. Nathan’s short fiction has appeared in Boulevard, North American Review, Slab, Gargoyle, Dos Passos Review and Red Rock Review. He teaches full-time at Northern Virginia Community College. $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original | 5.25 x 8 | Fiction | ISBN-13: 978-0-9840405-0-6 Publication Date: October 31, 2012 7
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November 2012 AN END TO ALL THINGS Stories JARED YATES SEXTON
Emotionally wrenching stories about the complexity of blue-collar lives from a Pushcart Prize nominated writer.
“We got to making smart comments and butting heads. It built up and built up and something ridiculous sent us over the edge. Something to do with me changing channels on the television and she was up and cussing me out and telling me she had a good mind to cut me.” –from YOU NEVER ASK ABOUT MY DREAMS
Photo credit: Adrian Boliston
Economic recession defines the landscape of middle America and the hard-working people of so-called “Main Street.” Surrounded by loss, people throw their lots into Tea Parties, state-sanctioned torture, and the tenuous relationships shared with each other. An astounding debut of working-class lives in post-9/11 America, Jared Yates Sexton introduces us to the hardscrabble, everyday heroes in our lives. At turns realistic and pulpy, minimalist and fantastical, these are stories of modern America without the spin. Jared Yates Sexton was born to a working-class family in Linton, Indiana. He has an MFA from Southern Illinois University, where he studied with Pinckney Benedict. He currently serves as managing editor at BULL: Fiction for Thinking Men. $14.95 | Trade Paperback Original | 5.25 x 8 | Fiction | ISBN-13: 978-0-9840405-1-3 Publication Date: November 23, 2012 8
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Recently Published THE GREAT LENORE A Novel JM TOHLINE Meet Lenore, a ravishing, deceptive young Brit who orchestrates her death to see the response of her two-timing husband and money and booze sodden in-laws. An elegant, charming debut where lives collide, secrets thicken, and dreams unravel in the heady morning hours on Nantucket Island.
$14.95
Trade Paperback 204pp | 5 x 8 Fiction June 2011 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-5-9
“A page-turner that introduces the literary world to an author with a clear and profound appreciation for the American literary canon.” - SMALL PRESS REVIEWS JM Tohline grew up in a small town just north of Boston. He lives in a quiet house on the edge of the Great Plains with his cat, The Old Man And The Sea. The Great Lenore is his first novel. You can find him online at www.JMTohline.com.
THE SNOW WHALE A Novel JOHN MINICHILLO
When John Jacobs, a mild-mannered suburban office worker, takes a DNA test and discovers that he is part-Inuit, he embraces his new identity and declares it his Inupiat tribal right to set forth on a whale hunt.
$14.95 Trade Paperback 204pp | 5 x 8 Fiction July 2011 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-9-7
So begins this postmodern satire, a seriocomic, quirky adventure that re-examines identity, race, and our connection to nature, all while poking fun at our contentment with heated socks in an era defined by global warming. “Reader, beware: Many serious issues are pretty much trampled here, but the result is wry, dry, pure hilarity all around.” –THE LOS ANGELES TIMES “The funniest book we reviewed all year. A retelling of Moby Dick that takes on the absurdity of identity and authenticity.” –HEY SMALL PRESS John Minichillo lives in Nashville with his wife and son. This is his first novel. 9
Recently Published TRACKS A Novel-in-Stories ERIC D. GOODMAN They are the strangers we encounter every day: a soldier returned from war, a traveling salesman, a computer geek, a Holocaust survivor, a couple in love, a poet, a hit man. On a train from Baltimore to Chicago, our lives intersect with theirs, altering the path ahead and casting past experiences and choices in new light.
$15.95 Trade Paperback 316pp | 6 x 9 Fiction June 2011 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-5-9
“Goodman is a born storyteller who weaves his tales of each individual character, and then ties them together to create a finely patterned cloth.” - NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS Eric D. Goodman has been writing fiction since he was in the third grade. His work has appeared in a number of publications, including The Baltimore Review, The Pedestal Magazine, The Potomac, Grub Street, The Arabesques Review, and New Lines from the Old Line State: An Anthology of Maryland Writers. Eric is the author of Flightless Goose, a storybook for children. Tracks is his first novel.
NAZARETH, NORTH DAKOTA A Novel TOMMY ZURHELLEN
When Roxy is left with an abandoned newborn after a shootout at the Motel de Love No. 3, there’s no way for her to know that the boy she names Sam might be her savior in more ways than one. But as Sam and his hippie cousin John soon learn, challenging the status quo in a small town is no way to get popular, whether you’re in Israel or North Dakota. Take a quirky, dirt-kicking ride through the 1980s Badlands with this splendidly funny and modern take on the story of the young messiah. $14.95 Trade Paperback 212pp | 5.25 x 8 Fiction April 2011 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-6-6
“Richly imagined and so very poignant, this novel [is] something special.” – ROBERT OLMSTEAD, author of Coal Black Horse and Far Bright Star Tommy Zurhellen was born in New York City. His stories have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Passages North, and Appalachee Review. He teaches at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. 10
Recently Published THE BEE-LOUD GLADE A Novel STEVE HIMMER
Longlisted for 3:AM Magazine’s Best Novel of 2011
$14.95 Trade Paperback 224pp | 6 x 9 Fiction April 2011 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-8-0
When laid-off office drone and daydreamer Finch responds to what he thinks is innocuous spam, he’s unexpectedly swept into the world of billionaire Mr. Crane, who offers him the job of a lifetime—to live and work as a decorative hermit in a cave on Crane’s estate. A darkly comic and refreshingly playful novel that delves deep into the nature of work, relationships, society and what happens in their absence, begging the question: Can we ever truly escape? “An allegorical novel that seems eerily contemporary. Thoreau meets Ballard, meets Huysmans and many more.” -TOM MCCARTHY, author of Remainder and C Steve Himmer teaches at Emerson College in Boston. His stories have appeared in Hobart, The Los Angeles Review, Pindeldyboz, PANK, and Emprise Review, among others. He serves as editor at Necessary Fiction.
THE ABSENT TRAVELER A Novella and Other Stories RANDALL DEVALLANCE
Charles Lime eats, breathes, and sleeps the romantic idea of leaving Small Town, USA. In reality, Charles is a dazed and bemused misfit bewitched by a girl and bewildered by a string of misfortunes. Gradually, Charles creates a parallel life filled with overseas travel, adventure and Serbian pop music—except it exists solely within in his imagination. $12.95 Trade Paperback 186pp | 5 x 8 Fiction December 2010 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-2-8
“This novella simply exudes talent from its pages…” - DEB FOWLER, National Book Critics Circle member Randall DeVallance is the author of the short novel, Dive (2004), and the short-story collection, Sketches of Invalids (2007). His stories have appeared in several anthologies and more than 30 print and online publications including McSweeney’s, Pindeldyboz, Eyeshot, and Word Riot. He lives in New York City. 11
Recently Published FIGHT FOR YOUR LONG DAY A Novel ALEX KUDERA
2011 IPPY Gold Medal Award for Best Fiction
$14.95 Trade Paperback 266pp | 6 x 9 Fiction October 2010 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-0-4
Meet Cyrus “Duffy” Duffleman, an adjunct professor who can barely afford his two-room apartment. Forget about an unfinished novel: he’d be thrilled with health insurance. Still, he gamely shuffles to four urban universities each day to teach, and works a security guard graveyard shift once a week. Cobbled together, he can almost make a living. Part A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole) and part Straight Man (Richard Russo), Alex Kudera introduces a beloved, frazzled, wholly magnetic character in this magnificent debut. Alex Kudera is a Philadelphia native, and has been teaching writing at Clemson University in South Carolina since 2007. Fight for Your Long Day was first drafted in a walk-in closet in Seoul, South Korea.
DARING TO EAT A PEACH A Novel JOSEPH ZEPPETELLO
Denton Pike is stuck: divorced, his translation work floundering, trapped inside the status quo of his life. The reappearance of an old friend sets into motion a series of watershed events and conflicting forces that will change Denton’s life forever.
$14.95 Trade Paperback 240pp | 6 x 9 Fiction November 2010 ISBN-13: 978-09845105-1-1
With an economy of language reminiscent of Raymond Carver, Joseph Zeppetello illuminates our daily struggles to interpret history and to translate the language of our relationships. “A triumphant first novel!” – FLORENCE DEE BOODAKIAN, author of Resisting Nudities Joseph Zeppetello is the Director of Writing at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He lives in the Catskill Mountains. Daring to Eat a Peach is his first novel. 12
Also Available THE SECOND MOST DANGEROUS JOB IN AMERICA STEVE HIMMER
A young man gradually loses his soul working long, dark nights of a convenience store’s graveyard shift where he sells bargain brand cigarettes, meets minor celebrities and indulges in cup after cup of bad coffee. A microcosmic meditation on work, self, and ambition set against a comic backdrop of mid-1990s fatalism. Available as an e-book exclusive for Kindle, iBooks, Nook. $1.99 E-book Fiction | Short Story January 2012
Coming soon to Indiebound and Google Books.
Steve Himmer teaches at Emerson College in Boston. His stories have appeared in Hobart, The Los Angeles Review, Pindeldyboz, PANK, and Emprise Review, among others. He serves as editor at Necessary Fiction.
GET LIT: STORIES & POEMS BY WRITERS YOU SHOULD KNOW EDITED BY KATRINA GRAY, JAMIE IREDELL AND MICHAEL MEYERHOFER
A compilation of poetry, short fiction, and flash fiction from the first four months of our companion online literary journal, Atticus Review. We’re sure many of these authors will appear on bestseller lists one day—and you can be the reader to say you knew them when. Free | E-anthology December 2011
Available FREE through our website. Atticus Review is a weekly online journal that publishes stories, poems, electric literature, and other genre-busting words of wisdom and interactive whimsy. 13
Praise for Atticus Authors THE SNOW WHALE by John Minichillo “The funniest book we reviewed all year. A retelling of Moby Dick that takes on the absurdity of identity and authenticity.” – Hey Small Press!, Best Book 2011 THREE WAYS OF THE SAW by Matt Mullins “A collection that delivers. One to the Gut. One to the Head. One to the Heart. This book knocked me out.” – Cathy Day, The Circus in Winter THE BEE-LOUD GLADE by Steve Himmer “[O]ne cleverly postmodern allegory that is a testament to Steve Himmer’s ability to write a thoughtful, funny, tender novel full of memorable characters and heart-stilling moments.” – PANK “This is the kind of book that will change how you view the world.” – New Pages FIGHT FOR YOUR LONG DAY by Alex Kudera “Alex Kudera’s novel makes lemonade out of the knowledge economy’s stingy share of lemons, eking every ounce of catharsis owed to veterans of the core curriculum’s front lines.” – Philadelphia City Paper TRACKS by Eric D. Goodman “In an age of high-speed internet, Facebook lives and thoughts that only last 140 characters, it’s refreshing to see a book with such unhurried attention to character.” – The Nervous Breakdown NAZARETH, NORTH DAKOTA by Tommy Zurhellen “[T]his debut novel reveals the hardscrabble life of normal, unguided people who put their last dollars in the juke box and don’t worry about what will happen when the song ends…Zurhellen’s masterful dialogue often makes for gripping scenes that sustain these characters for decades.” – Publishers Weekly THE GREAT LENORE by JM Tohline “JM Tohline’s tribute puts him in excellent company.” – The Washington Independent Review of Books 14
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