Abundant GraceMore Fiction by D.C. Area Women
Edited by Richard Peabody“Washington, D.C., is not a place most people associate with delicious literary fiction. But they should, and Peabody’s anthologies of fiction by D.C. area women are proof. Big, rich, and frothfully fabulous, Abundant Grace is the perfect title for this latest collection to savor—or devour!” — C. M. Mayo, author of Sky Over El Nido and Miraculous Air.“Having spent my life writing and reading in D.C., I’m thrilled at this collection of stories by some of Washington’s finest writers — women with strong voices and bold ways with the language. These stories take us both to new places and to our familiars. The unique characters on these pages are so vividly rendered, so full of surprises, we can’t help but to devour this book. You’ll find every kind of wanting, unexpected joys, difficult questions, and graceful answers.” — Anna March, Salon regular contributor.“Once again, Richard Peabody has gathered together an astounding range of talent from the Washington, D.C., area. For anyone who believes that D.C. is not a hotbed of daring, powerful writers, Abundant Grace again proves them wrong.”— Lucinda Ebersole, author of Death in Equality.Featuring the following authors and works:Gigi Amateau — Good Bean1Janna Bialek — At Seven I Had a Dad9Caroline Bock — The Critique Group14Frances Carden — Nature’s Graveyard15Bobbi Carducci — The Day Oprah Died26Shirley Graves Cochrane — The Smell of Apples29P J Devlin — Signals44Jenny Drummey — Fireflies52Alison Fairbrother — Hard Freight72Lydia Morris Fettig — For George74Jess Stork Glicoes — This Message Will Self-Destruct after Your Last Paycheck88Madelyn Glist — You Can Go Now96Jessica Claire Haney — Out of Scale103J. Howard — Who Were You When Kennedy Was Shot?115Margaret Hutton — The Heiress and the Radioman120Faith Reyher Jackson — Cedelia129Kelly Ann Jacobson — Alma’s Afgan139Sinta Jimenez — Elephants145Jeanne Jones — Spark159Dini Karasik — Ghosting on the Rio Grande174Rhea Yablon Kennedy — Digging to Switzerland180Caroline Langston — The Silent Stars Go By194Barbara F. Lefcowitz — The Pink Suit205Fiona J. Mackintosh — Penitentiary211Caron L. Martinez — Black Ice221Cynthia Matsakis — In the Fable of My Life230Lily Meyer — Wellfleet239Nicole Miller — Mack’s Misery245Amanda Miska — Sam and Dee259Roberta Murphy — Shu…ush265Tanya Olson — o camerado close! o you and me at last281Abbey Mei Otis — Party Doll Surprise Attack284Virginia Pye — The Lemon Man298Pam Risdon — Sara’s Way307Madelyn Rosenberg — The Eye Doctor319Melissa Scholes Young — Oxygen in Use331Melody Schreiber — Bellyful345Dahlia Shaewitz — Leather & Lingerie353Atossa Shafaie — Professional Mourner357Debra Lattanzi Shutika — Mirrors366Karen Sosnoski — Too Sweet370M. Jane Taylor — Behave, Sissy!383Virgie Townsend — A Friend Loves at All Times401Jourdan Woo — Curl Up and Dye404Morowa Yejidé — Heathens415 Cover art by Sheep Jones.Defying GravityFiction by D.C. Area Women
From Paycock Press; Edited by Richard Peabody“Defying Gravity is a lucid tour through a world of love and terror, dementia and madness, longing and recovery — a fascinating range of the harsh realities of everyday life with a touch of the supernatural. The breath and style of the stories in this collection is as intriguing and varied as the Washington women who write them.”>— Nichole Bernier, author, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.“Tender and edgy, witty and wild: 43 DC-area storytellers — established and debut — explore vanishing babies, dream jobs, renegade parents, violence, adultery, politics and the devil’s own daughter. Even when they venture into darkness, these stories gleam.”— Dylan Landis, author, Normal People Don’t Live Like This“Richard Peabody has once again curated an eclectic menagerie of fiction written by Washingtonian women. DC is a literary city, as his devotion shows.”
— Shawna Kenney, author, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix; editor, Book LoversFeaturing works by:Malve S. Burns, Tracy Alig Dowling, Julia Dubner, Solveig Eggerz, Amani Elkassabany, Julia Elliott, Katie Pickard Fawcett, Diana Friedman, Arin Greenwood, Elizabeth Word Gutting, Shelby Settles Harper, Melanie S. Hatter, Cathy Hostetler, Shelagh Powers Johnson, Trasi Johnson, Stephanie Joyce, Jacqueline Jules, Brooke Kenny, p. m. korkinsky, A. Levy-Lavigne, Veronica Li, Katharine A. Lorr, Kate Lu, Mary Claire Mahaney, Jocelyn McCarthy, Barbara Moore, Brighid Moret, Kathryn Murphy, Lisa Nanni-Messegee, Allison Nichol, Judith O’Neill, Maggie Nye, Bethanne Patrick, Valerie O. Patterson, Eena Ruffini, Adrienne Benson Scherger, Anne Sheldon, Julie Shields, Marija Stajic, Suzanne Stroh, Mary Switalski, Sally Toner and Krista Waple Cover image: “Copper Head,”
by Sheep Jones$18.95 464 pp
ISBN 9780931181351Amazing GracesYet Another Collection of Fiction
by Washington Area Women
From Paycock Press; Edited by Richard Peabody”There is nothing parochial here in Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women. Not in terms of place nor of gender. This is quite simply a remarkable collection of contemporary fiction dense with real life and more. Dive in!!!!”—Frances Driscoll, author of Talk to Me and The Rape Poems“Amazing Graces is absolutely consuming. I was transported by the worries of a teenage girl in a tough inner-city school, a woman desperate to break up with her therapist, someone who loses his sight and makes sense of the world. These stories are raw and inviting, painful enough to read, yet often endearingly funny. A mother in ‘Floating’ says, ‘You know, honey, there’s something I want to tell you, but I don’t want to upset you. Do you think you’ll be upset?’ It’s a question I might ask the reader of this collection. You are going to go to a wig shop in these pages; you are going to walk into a room of Kennedy lookalikes, and people wearing Sarah Palin masks. Take nothing for granted and get ready to be surprised.”—Marti Leimbach, author of Dying Young and The Man From Saigon“In this amazing anthology, you will find depth and range in stories taking place from Brazil to New Orleans, London to New York to L.A., from Maryland’s Eastern Shore to the other side of the grave – and, of course, Washington. You will find humor, irony, rage, sorrow, ghost stories and love stories. You will find kids who rebel and grow, and kids who don’t. You will find women who face pregnancies, abortions and adoptions; mothers who love their children and mothers who drive them crazy; wives who cope with adultery, and wives who confess it. Mostly, you will find real people made of flesh and blood, bone and heart. What you will not find is politics, or politicians (except for a fantasized Dick Cheney in retirement). Thus, this is a guide to the real capital, stretching far beyond the Capitol dome into the real world and beautifully rendered by gifted Washington women with art, intelligence – and grace.”—Joanna Biggar, author of That Paris YearFeaturing the following authors and works:Julie Vosburgh Agnone—Snake Stick
Jonetta Rose Barras—Martyna
Patricia Bartlett—One of a Kind
Catherine Bell—Witness
Arielle Bernstein—Things Poor People Eat
Emily Bliss—Floating
Laura Bogart—Your Name is No
Rae Bryant—Skin
Ellen Campbell—Peripheral Vision
Celeste Crenshaw—from “After the Dance”
Caitlin Cushman—After Words
Meghan Dombrink-Green—Blurry
Michelle Dove—A Well-Made Wig
Verlyn Flieger—Igrayne After Tintagel
Beth Frerking—Watching the Dead
Alessandra Gelmi—from Who’s Afraid of Red
Jennifer Howard—Mercury Rising
Esther Iverem—“The Sidewalk” (from a novel in progress)
Beth Konkoski—Mercy
Bettina Lanyi—Burrow
Tara Laskowski—Every Now and Then
Susan Lennon—Chicken Foot Leak
Patricia Morningstar—A Little Monkey Business
Donna Moss—Jockey Days
Teresa Burns Murphy—Halloween Gift
Jennifer L. Napolitano—A Recipe for Banana Bread
Priscilla Nemeth—Three Hundred Dollars
Lorine Kritzer Pergament—Smell the Roses on Your Own Time
Denise V. Powers—The Best Years
Eman Quotah—London Fog
Colleen Kearney Rich—The Five of Cups
Kim Roberts—The Worst Itch
Gabriela Romeri—Raining Men
Charlotte Safavi—Aphrodite’s Eggs
Barbara Scheiber—Diagnosis
Susan Sharpe—White Days
Katherine R. Smith—Frost
Amber Sparks—As They Always Are
Eugenia Tsutsumi—Of Chicken and Love
Linden von Eichel—Havoc
Wanda Warner—Help Wanted
Gina Welch—Dick at Home
Kathleen Wheaton—Aliens
Constance Witherspoon—Pimping
Pamela Woolford—Pleasant People
Cover by Sheep Jones.400pp
ISBN 978-0931181306Gravity DancersEven More Fiction by Washington Area Women
From Paycock Press; Edited by Richard Peabody“Gravity Dancers honors a diverse and gifted group of women writers from the Washington, DC, area. The voices presented in this anthology range from tender and whimsical to passionate and political. These writers offer an imaginative variety of narrative, and break the stereotype of ‘women’s fiction’ as either narrowly angry or sentimental. I relished the range of experience and tone in this rich collection, and the willingness of each of these writers to sing her own distinctive, honest and resonant song.”— Joyce Reiser Kornblatt, author of
White Water and The Reason for Wings“No angels tread among the writers in Gravity’s Dancers No chicks, either. Instead, there are earth-bound scrappers, vixens, female word-wizards, and flagrant myth-makers for our troubled times. Their themes are war, sex, love, parenthood, friendships, relationships, and politics. One retells Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” Another advises us to “take time to find a dream or two, and have the guts not to lose them.” Connected only by the geography of one highly idiosyncratic place on the planet, these magic miniaturists speak in many tongues, write in many styles. Guaranteed: worlds made of words, and well worth the ride.”— Jeanne Schinto, author of Children of Men and Shadow Bands“From a city of paradoxes, here are stories that punch, whisper, charm, disturb, and thrill. Gravity Dancers is a stunning collection.”— Leni Zumas, author of Farewell Navigator
Original fiction (only 3-4 reprints) by: Summer Blais, Elizabeth Bruce, Maud Casey, Laura Costas, Katharine Davis, Shayla Davis, Therese Droste, Julie Eill, Nan Fry, Virginia Hartman, Ellen Herbert, Helen Hooper, K. M. Huber, Elizabeth Huergo, Kyi May Kaung, Rachel Korr, Dylan Landis, Raima M. Larter, Cynthia Lollar, Alyce Lomax, Jennifer Makowsky, Sharon Morgenthaler, Molly Woods Murchie, Julee Newberger, Donna Oetzal, Denise Orenstein, Lisa Page, Maria Padhila, Meredith Pond, Julie Reilly, Elisavietta Ritchie, Carly Sachs, Laura E. Scott, Terri G. Scullen, Deena Shehata, Lynn Stearns, Lisa M. Tillman, Judith Turner-Yamamoto, Michelle von Euw, Paula Whyman, Joyce Winslow, Susi Wyss, Rebekah Yeager, and Laura Zam. Cover by Sheep Jones.
ISBN 0-931181-25-9Electric GraceStill More Fiction by Washington Area Women
From Paycock Press; Edited by Richard Peabody“They may all be from Washington, but they fling their fiction far, imagining medieval torture – how like love! – cocktails in dog parks, old flames, gangsters, pregnant wives – the many possibilities of female life.
“This is a rich and varied anthology – in tone, in pace, in setting.”— Martha Tod Dudman, author of Augusta, Gone and the forthcoming novel, Black Olives“Electric Grace is a marvel, a glorious humming party-line of voices. Bend your ear to the wire and have a listen. You won’t be disappointed.”— Ann Downer, author of Hatching Magic and The Spellkey Trilogy“The unique voices in this collection, with a winning combo of freshness and maturity, perfectly capture the impact of the everyday in the way that only the best fiction can…Revealing how certain moments, both great and small, can disturb us all the way back to ourselves—our true selves.”— Cara Haycak, author of Red Palms“Although some purists could possibly be upset that it took a man to introduce women writers of the district to the world, Richard Peabody is no ordinary man … it might even make sense that Peabody–who is married with two daughters–would possess the familiarity of and distance from the female perspective to produce a volume of enchanting, thrilling work by DC-area women.
“At any rate, Peabody has pulled it off not once, but three times. Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women is the third volume from Gargoyle imprint Paycock Press … It seems improbable that, in less than four years, 1206 pages of writing by 117 different women could be published and even more improbable that so much of it would be so good.
“Yet, if the third volume is any indication of the first, I’d have to say Peabody exceeded beyond his wildest expectations. …”— Jen Michalski, author of Close Encounters and Cross Sections, and editor of City Sages: Baltimore
Featuring: Teresa Bevin, Jody Lannen Brady, Michelle Brafman, Laura Brylawski-Miller, Maxine Clair, Brenda W. Clough, Merle Collins, Julie Corwin, Janet Crossen, Rosemarie Dempsey, Mary Doroshenk, Cynthia Folcarelli, Barbara Goldberg, Corrine Zappia Gormont, T. Greenwood, Catherine Harnett, Jamie Holland, Susan Kellam, Eugenia SunHee Kim, Randi Gray Kristensen, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Sarah Grace McCandless, Faye Moskowitz, Barbara Mujica, Jessica Neely, Sarah Pleydell, Vicki Popdan, Joy Reges, Jessie Seigel, Debra Sequeira, Sheryl Stein, Amy Stolls, Mary L. Tabor, Julia Thomas, Sheila Walsh, Riggin Waugh, N.C. Weil, Mary-Sherman Willis, Robyn Kirby Wright, Hananah Zaheer, Anna Ziegler, and Christy J. Zink.
Cover art by Jody Mussoff.500pp
ISBN 0-931181-20-8Enhanced GravityMore Fiction by Washington Area Women
From Paycock Press; Edited by Richard Peabody”Enhanced Gravity is proof of the variety of talents and passions to be found in DC. With its takes on sex, death, birth, love, the pains of youth, the pains of old age, infidelity, abiding fidelity, this anthology has something for every mood, and reading the stories together provides a deepened sense of the interior and exterior contours of this city.”— Aurelie Sheehan, author of Jack Kerouac is Pregnant“What do women write? These stories shout, Everything, from as many points of view. Think potluck of pungent diversity. Think rough-edged visions, as opposed to neatly hemmed samplers from Culture, Inc. Enhanced Gravity surprises and entertains; it horrifies and hurts. And it enlightens, by modeling a rich, inclusive world.”— Mollie Best Tinsely, author of Throwing KnivesThis collection captures our many longings in vivid, gut-deep prose. The stories call to us, beckon us like Stephanie Allen’s “pile of coats, [their] riot of textures from silk linings to poplin serge to wool, waiting for us to dive in and roll around in them.”— Nicole Louise Reid, author of In the Breeze of Passing Things
Featuring: Stephanie Allen, Christina Bartolomeo, Kate Blackwell, Hildie S. Block, Lisa Boylan, Carole Burns, Susan Coll, Jennifer Cutting, Ramola D., J. H. Diehl, C. M. Dupré, Herta Feely, Robin Ferrier, Sara Fisher, Lee Fleming, Amy Fries, Dorothy Hickson, M.H. Johnson, Alma Katsu, Wendi Kaufman, Susan Land, E. J. Levy, Meena Arora Nayak, Vanessa Orlando, Michele Orwin, Sibbie O’Sullivan, Saideh Pakravan, Ginger Park, Colleen Pecorelli, Suzanne Picard, Judith Podell, Liz Poliner, Judy Pomeranz, Stephanie Siciarz, Rozanne Gooding Silverwood, Julia Slavin, Rose Solari, Sally Steenland, Venus Thrash, Julie Wakeman-Linn, Sarah Louise Williams, C. Jenise Wriston, and more. Cover art by Jody Mussoff.
Cover by Jody Mussoff$14.95
ISBN 0-931181-18-6Grace & GravityFiction by Washington Area Women
From Paycock Press; Edited by Richard Peabody”When an anthology is dedicated to the great and greatly versatile singer Eva Cassidy and the much-missed artist Susan Davis, along with four other Washington women who died young, you know you’re in wise and sensitive hands. Richard Peabody has been a mainstay of the D.C. literary scene for 30 years, whether editing Gargoyle magazine or compiling collections like Grace and Gravity: Fiction by Washington Area Women (Paycock; paperback, $14.95). There are more than 30 stories in this hefty paperback, but nearly all of them possess a brash swagger and sexiness that may surprise. Isn’t Washington supposed to be staid? This volume is not only an important showcase but also a lot of fun.”— Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World, 12/5/04″Local literary fixture Richard Peabody is the editor of Grace and Gravity: Fiction by Washington Area Women. The anthology of short stories, most previously unpublished, includes Sophy Burnham, Donna Hemans, Nani Power, Mary Kay Zuravleff, and others.”— William O’Sullivan, “Just What I Wanted,” Washingtonian, 12/04″Paradoxically, the most universal thing about the stories from the seven Montgomery County authors in the “Grace and Gravity” anthology — indeed, about the stories from all 32 women included in the collection — is their diversity.”— Gwen Glazer, The Gazette, 11/23/2004Featuring works by:Doreen Baingana
Abby Bardi
Jodi Bloom
Susan Burgess-Lent
Sophy Burnham
T. P. del Ninno
Lucinda Ebersole
Barbara Esstman
Patricia Griffith
Ivy Goodman
Melissa Hardin
Judith Harris
Donna Hemans
Patti Kim
Karen J. Kovacs
Robin Alva Marcus
C. M. Mayo
Julia S. Meek
Margaret Meyers
Mary Overton
Frances Park
Carolyn Parkhurst
Sally Pfoutz
Leslie Pietrzyk
Barbara Ann Porte
Nani Power
Mary Quattlebaum
Lisa Schamess
Myra Sklarew
MaryAnn Suehle
Elly Williams
Mary Kay ZuravleffCover by Jody Mussoff |
