Category: Publishing News

The publication date for A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press) is August 14, 2018. A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. is a fictional biography of Meinhardt Raabe, a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. Meinhardt wants the respect given normal people, yet his disability makes him mistrust even those who see past it. The narrative moves from Nazi Berlin through decades of social change in the U.S. to a return pilgrimage to Germany, where Meinhardt chooses between isolation and opening his heart. The book cries for justice in the face of discrimination. Meinhardt’s journey fortifies readers with the intelligence, love, and courage to follow the yellow brick road to the safe home we all deserve. // For more information about the book, see NOVELS. Pre-orders available May 2018. Check this website and the publisher’s https://alternativebookpress.com/ for updates about the book’s release, print and e-book orders, and related events.

Wilderness House Literary Review will publish my flash fiction piece “Space Cat” in its Spring 2018 issue (link to follow when the story goes online). Here’s the log line: “‘Space Cat,’” based on the true but unheralded story of Félicette, the first (and last) cat in space, is a cri de coeur for recognizing the important role of felines, and females, in science.” Please bestow belated honors upon the brave Félicette, 51 years after her sacrifice on behalf of humankind.

 

My next novel Tazia and Gemma will be published by Vine Leaves Press on May 29, 2018. I’m delighted to share the cover and book jacket description:

Spanning 1911 to 1961, Tazia and Gemma is told from the perspective of an unwed mother, whose tale moves forward in time, and her daughter, whose search for her father moves backward. Tazia, a pregnant seventeen-year-old Italian immigrant and survivor of the Triangle Waist Company fire, flees New York, leaving her married lover to think she miscarried the baby he urged her to abort. To support herself and her daughter Gemma, Tazia takes low-wage jobs as she migrates westward. Gemma, now fifty, embarks on an eastward journey to find her father, eventually tracing her roots to Italy. In the end, Tazia no longer needs to escape her history while Gemma finds that her identity leads back to her mother. The narrative illuminates the tension between assimilation versus honoring one’s heritage, and confronts the struggle for self respect in the face of discrimination and demeaning work conditions, issues both timely and timeless.

To learn more about the book, see NOVELS and REVIEWS. Here is the link to the publisher’s webpage: http://www.vineleavespress.com/tazia-and-gemma-by-ann-s-epstein.html. Please check back to find out when print and e-book versions will be available for preorder.

My article “Free Their Inner Child” is online at The Artist Unleashed as of February 14, 2018. Artists and writers are told to “free your inner child.” At the same time, we fret that the circuitry of screens has replaced the inner wonder of children today. As parents, teachers, and mentors of tomorrow’s creative class, how do we guarantee that the next generation enjoys a full aesthetic life? Learn strategies to give young children meaningful experiences across the arts (visual, music, movement and dance, dramatic, literary, plus art appreciation) and see how play can recapture and nurture the inner child in adult artists and writers as well. Read the article at http://www.theartistunleashed.com/blog/free-your-inner-child-by-ann-s-epstein. To see more of my publications on young children and the arts, visit my Amazon Author Page at http://www.amazon.com/author/asewovenwords.

 

The Historical Novel Society published a laudatory review my World War One era book On the Shore (see NOVELS) in the February 2018 issue of its magazine (Historical Novel Review, issue 83, page 44). Here’s an excerpt: “In alternating chapters, Epstein gives us a rare glimpse into a multi-generational immigrant community rarely written about—and does it with grace, sensitivity and lyricism. Her characters are recognizable and vividly drawn. … What Epstein has done in this beautiful novel is to capture a time and place, and a community undergoing revolutionary change. This is a must read for anyone interested in the American Jewish experience and an absolute necessity for people who want to understand immigrant communities.” Read the entire review at https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/on-the-shore/

I’m pleased to announce that “A Poli-Sci-Fi Whiff of Skullduggery,” my review of the satirical novel Mr. Neutron by Joe Ponepinto (7.13 Books, March 2018) has been accepted by Wilderness House Literary Review for publication in its Spring 2018 issue. Check out WHLR’s stories, poems, articles, and art work at http://www.whlreview.com/. And if you need a reason to laugh in the current political climate, read Mr. Neutron when it comes out this spring.

I’m delighted to share the news that The Madison Review will publish my short story “Golo’s Transport” in the Spring 2018 issue (see SHORT STORIES). Here’s the story’s log line: In “Golo’s Transport,” an angry old man confronts the trauma of his parents sending him away on the Kindertransport from Germany to England on the eve of WW II. Soon after I finished the story, humanitarians suggested a “kindertransport” for children of Syrian refugees, adding to the manuscript’s timeliness. Here’s the website of The Madison Review if you’d like to see what else they publish: https://www.themadisonrevw.com/.

My craft essay “The Five Percent Rule: How Much Background Detail is Essential for Authenticity in Historical Fiction?” is now online at The Artist Unleashed website http://www.theartistunleashed.com/ If you’re curious about the other 95%, the interesting details that get left out, see BEHIND THE STORY.

I’m pleased to announce that Saranac Review has published my short story “Shoot the Chute” in the Fall 2017 issue (see SHORT STORIES). Here’s the log line: In “Shoot the Chute,” an obsessive woman, whose husband doubts her maternal fitness, is fixated on adopting the smallest “incubator baby” on display at Coney Island amusement park in 1937. The journal is not online (hard copy only) but visit their website http://saranacreview.com/ to read about the fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and artwork in this issue.