fiction – Page 2 – OLD SCRATCH PRESS

By Gabby Gilliam

Author of Drumming for the Dead, Black Hare Press and founding member of Old Scratch Press

Every year, I set a goal of reading 52 books before the year ends. In 2023, I went well above my goal, and read 74 books. I’ve made it a personal goal to read more collections of poetry, and I think that helped boost my number.

One of my top reads for the year was a collection of poems, Unshuttered, by Patricia Smith. An ekphrastic anthology of poems inspired by vintage photographs of Black men, women, and children the author collected, Smith’s poems give the photographs’ subjects a voice. The collection is powerful. I highly recommend it.

The remaining books in my top five are fiction, and have at least a taste of magic in them.

When I was younger, one of my favorite Disney films was The Sword in the Stone. In high school, I read The Once and Future King by E.B. White as an assigned novel for English class. So, when I came across The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, I borrowed it from my local library.

I wasn’t disappointed. There’s magic and wit and the tangled storylines of three sisters that slowly converge. The youngest sister, Juniper reminds me of Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett’s books (who is one of my favorite witches of all time). In Once and Future Witches, Harrow gives us a feminist adventure story full of magic, and I devoured every page of it.

I only picked up Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher because I was trying to read all of the Hugo Award nominees. I didn’t expect much since it’s such a short read. The heroine of the novella is given three impossible tasks and, through stubborn determination, begins to make her way through them. What I liked about this fairy tale is that the princess didn’t wait to be saved by anyone. She didn’t even want to marry a prince. Instead, she does her best to kill one.

I’m more than a little late to the party, but I started the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan last year. I decided to give the first book a try after watching the first season of the television series. The show left me with some questions that I hoped the book would answer. I was right. And the book was so good that I decided to dive into the rest of the series, even though I suspect it will be a few years before I make it through them all since the hold list for the audiobooks is rather long.

My favorite read of the year came from one of my favorite authors, Sarah Addison Allen. Allen is a master of magical realism. While her novel, Other Birds, wasn’t my all-time best-loved book of hers (that honor belongs to Garden Spells), I still loved this story of complicated grief and the bond formed between found family.

I’ve set a goal of 52 books again for 2024. I’m off to a slow start, but I really enjoyed Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (I recommend the Graphic Audio version. A full cast really enhances the experience.).

The year is still young, and I’m looking forward to chipping away at my growing to-be-read list. What was the last great book you read? I’d love to add it to my list! Please leave a comment on this post on the Old Scratch website or on our Old Scratch Facebook page.

Hi~
Dianne from Devil’s Party Press (DPP) here.
Did you know I studied the writing of poetry when I was in college?
I love poetry, and there is a growing interest in it, but still not enough places to share it.
I reached out to some of the poets we’ve published at DPP, and asked them if they would like to do some volunteering to get a poetry imprint going, and, luckily, many of them said, “Yes!”
Poets are, by nature, generous people.
Together, I hope that we can publish good poetry. I hope that, over time, the poets will run the kitchen, cooking up new books, anthologies, opportunities, awards, who knows what all for poets!
My goal for this year is to put out a single author collection of poetry for three of the poets who are volunteering to create and run the press.
Our “poets” decided, to begin with, that poetry is as unique as the poets who create it. So they decided to make poetry include what we might consider to be a traditional poem, as well as more short-form works, mini memoirs, bits of story, and to include art, as it please the members to do so.
I think it’s going to be creative and exciting, and I cannot wait to see what they dream up.
Look for posts from the members here as we get underway on this project. I’m starting us off, but I hope they’ll soon eclipse me as they create something wonderful to which DPP becomes the helping hand.
The members of the group are:
Alan Bern
Anthony Doyle
Ellis Elliot
Gabby Gilliam
Janet Holmes Uchendu
Morgan Golladay
Nadja Maril
R. David Fulcher
Robert Fleming
Virginia Watts

And the first book from the group, A Break in the Field, by Ellis Elliot, is forthcoming from Old Scratch Press (OSP) this summer!

I wish all these wonderful authors a lot of luck with the OSP project!

And thanks to you for loving poetry, following this group, and maybe even buying a book!

Tag: fiction

What Books Are You Reading? Author Gabby Gilliam Shares Five of Her Favorites

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