Absence by Issa Quincy (Two Dollar Radio, Bookshop): Fiction reviewed by D.W. White ("Much of the book centers on the ways in which the slippery workings of memory might be wrestled down into the linguistic real. It is, probably, impossible—but that shouldn’t stop us.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025 (previously).

All Empires Must by Mia Kang (Airlie Press, Asterism): Poetry. An abstracted narrative concerns the fortunes of Rhea Silvia, the mythical mother of Romulus and Remus, whose story is either a romance or a romantic violation; in any case, she’s dead.

American Animism by Jamey Gallagher (Cornerstone Press, Bookshop): A short story collection featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Although my heart was often pounding as I read these tense explorations of fear, grief, and loneliness, I was also touched by Gallagher’s compassion for his characters who are often beautifully rendered girls and women."

American Graphic by JoAnne McFarland (Green Linden Press, Asterism): Poetry. Winner of the Wishing Jewel Prize for Poetic Innovation. With candor and insight, American Graphic confronts personal and cultural pasts. Juxtaposing historical documents—recipes from the first cookbook published by a Black woman in the States, reward posters for people fleeing enslavement—with intimate moments from the present, the book’s magic is to bend time so we see that the past’s rivers flow through us into the future.

Anarchy in the Big Easy: A History of Revolt, Rebellion, and Resurgence by Max Cafard and Vulpes (PM Press, Bookshop): Graphic nonfiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "From its indigenous origins and maroon communities to the work of modern mutual aid organizations in the face of COVID, time seamlessly rolls from one revolutionary act to another, painting an engaging saga…"

The Archivist by Ti Mikkel (City Owl Press, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): "a page turner with a fresh and original take on time travel, and all the mystery and romance a reader could want." —George R. R. Martin

Bad Language by So Mayer (Peninsula Press, Asterism): There is no such thing as a safe word. In Bad Language, So Mayer blends memoir and manifesto as they explore the politics of speech, while looking at how language has been used – and abused – in their own life.

The Barefoot Followers of Sweet Potato Grace by Megan Okonsky (Lanternfish Press, Bookshop): Fiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "This is gay Bridget Jones meets Chocolat…in Texas. Add a dash of dead-cat-grief and some communal post-pandemic scarring to the mix, and you’ve got a funny, voicey, vulnerable romp that manages to stay light and bubbly, championing queer joy even as it confronts some all too familiar societal conflicts."

The Blue Door by Janice Deal (New Door Books, Bookshop): Literary fiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " Fairy tales and other stories Flo has been told are woven through Flo’s anxious search for her Dog, while she waits for her daughter, Teddy, to come back."

Bonk On Head: Some Photos of Colorado Punk Bands from the 1980s by Tom Banger, photos by Patrick Barber (Impeller Press, Asterism): Coming at you like a burst of on-camera flash, Bonk On Head is part personal zine, part historical document. In 1986, Patrick Barber made a series of photos as part of a school project documenting the local punk scene. Writer Tom Banger, who promoted punk shows in Denver during the same era, provides an essay rich with his own personal history and experience.

The Brittle Age by Donatalle Di Pietrantonio, trans. by Ann Goldstein (Europa Editions, Bookshop): Literature in translation reviewed by Catherine Parnell ("marries fact with fiction to create a novel driven by secrets that must be relinquished and failings that must be acknowledged") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.

Canaries by Alex Makepeace (Elsewhen Press, Bookshop): Science fiction/fantasy. Bryan and Philip are living a comfortable life with their adopted children in London and barely give a thought to how the change of government might affect them. But little by little the family and their friends - gay and straight - begin to discover their way of life is under threat. When the family are forced to go on the run from the authorities, they are faced with impossible choices, and soon find out who their true friends really are.

Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks (Dundurn, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Nonfiction. A jarring portrait of a deeply unequal Canada and how a wealth tax could rein in the destructive power wielded by today’s billionaires.

The Caterpillar Woman by Nadia Sammurtok, ill. by Carolyn Gan (Inhabit Media, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Fiction ages 6-8. Based on a traditional Inuit story. Piujuq is a kind young woman who loves to take long walks on the tundra and dance by her favourite lake surrounded by butterflies. But one day, she encounters a stranger on her walk. When this person asks a favour of Piujuq, she happily obliges, and that kindness leaves Piujuq stuck in the body of a caterpillar.

Coop: A Novelette by Nida Sajid (Hajar Press, Asterism): Fiction. Lena is a part-time bookseller in a bougie design studio in Oxford Circus. In between minimum-wage work under a politically hostile boss and strained communications with her parents, her days are shaped by a fraught relationship with food, ambiguous experiments in creative writing, and mounting pressure to find a ‘proper’ postgraduate job.

Costs of Living: A Whisper House Press Horror Anthology ed. Steve Capone Jr. (Whisper House Press, Bookshop): Horror featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " A fine return to the scary story genre that acknowledges that just as many horrors can inhabit a McMansion in the burbs as a manor on the moor."

Cow Stomach and Mother Fat by steve halle (Veliz Books, Asterism). Poetry. Steve Halle interrogates how our innermost selves emerge from time immemorial to navigate conditional economies of being.

The Dead Dad Diaries by Erin Slaughter (Autofocus Books, Asterism, Bookshop): Creative nonfiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " an exploration of a daughter’s grief after her father was murdered by her stepmother… a quick, wild read you can knock out in one or two sittings and feel like you’re just hanging with her voice."

Demons of Eminence by Joshua Escobar (Publication Studio): Literary fiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Written in vivid unapologetic tones Escobar’s novel is set against the backdrop of the early days of Covid and narrated by a travel nurse whose own lack of self-protection borders on alarming. The novel is refreshingly open about sexuality, hookup culture, modern loneliness all set in Inland Empire as the virus rages on in the background."

Depth Control by Lauren W. Westerfield (Unsolicited Press, Asterism): Hybrid/essays, an experimental exploration by an essayist, aiming to make sense of and reflect on personal identity, belonging, and the choices that shape us.

Distress Cries of Animals by James A. Fuerst (Spaceboy Books, Bookshop): A mystery featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " Lazaro Mato lives in a dystopian New York City defined by sea-level rise and compulsory social media engagement. As the Haves pursue extreme body enhancements and the Have-Nots trade away their mental health to survive, Laz follows a noir-ish mystery that will peel back the onion layers of his own life… poetic, prescient, and terrifying."

#evolutionarypoems by Mihret Kebede, trans. by Anna Moschovakis (Circumference Books, Asterism): #evolutionarypoems is a translation of Mihret Kebede’s Amharic poem sequence by Anna Moschovakis and the author. #evolutionarypoems is part of a collaboration between Kebede and Moschovakis that began when they met in Addis Ababa in 2009. #evolutionarypoems is a record of Ethiopia’s recent and current socio-political conditions in a critical voice of a poet and her friend. #evolutionarypoems is incomplete. #evolutionarypoems is resistance in silence.

Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue by Yoko Tawada, trans. by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda (New Directions, Bookshop): Creative nonfiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " Yoko Tawada (a Japanese native who now lives in Germany) explores the experience of living and writing in languages learned later in life… Personal anecdotes are mixed with broader observations on language’s intersections with status, colonization, and migration."

The First Peoples by Maika Harper, ill. by Kaja Kajfež (Inhabit Media, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Based on an ancient Inuit traditional story, this beautifully illustrated picture book tells of the appearance of the first humans on earth, and how from them all the peoples of the earth emerged.

Fly, Mama, Fly! by Anna McGregor (Scribe Publications, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): A board book about a magical nocturnal journey with a mother flying fox and her adorable pup.

Forget the Camel: The Madcap World of Animal Festivals and What They Say about Being Human by Elizabeth MeLampy (Apollo Publishers, Bookshop): Creative nonfiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "‘Have humans no shame?’ asks lawyer and animal advocate MeLampy… In lucid and haunted prose, she sharply questions our animal narratives, making us feel what we’re too embarrassed to admit."

Forage Like a Bear by Chris Fink, ill. by John Porcellino (Bored Wolves, Asterism): Chris Fink’s collection of short prose, Forage Like a Bear, contains a whole lot: whistling acorns, scribbling clams, gossipy geese, technicolor ducks, turkeys (including human ones), roving bands of chipmunks, chimneys, fires, chainsaws, lice, thin ice, approximately 30,000 blueberries, cars rolling uphill, the leaves of a mulberry tree drifting down, Peace Trail meanders, and maybe just maybe, a holy grail morel.

Frontier: A Memoir & A Ghost Story by Erica Stern (Barrelhouse Books, Bookshop): Hybrid featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "a researched history of birth’s industrialization and a second, fictional birth story set in the Wild West that asks: What if there had been no doctors?"

Habitat by Case Q. Kerns (Black Lawrence Press, Bookshop): Reviewed by Joeann Hart ("In this delectably creepy novel-in-stories, set slightly in the future, late-stage capitalism plays itself out in the worst possible ways. Education requires a corporate sponsorship (read: indenture), and those who aren’t sponsored have only their bodies to sell, for sex or parts.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.

Hide and Sikh: Letters from a Life in Brown Skin by Sunny Dhillon (Wolsak & Wynn, Bookshop): Memoir. In 2018, Sunny Dhillon resigned as a journalist with the Globe and Mail. His blog post announcing his departure went unexpectedly viral. In this sharply funny memoir, shaped as a series of letters to his daughter, Dhillon shares his journey so that his daughter will not have to struggle through the lessons he took too long to learn, so that she will know who she is and be proud.

Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyen (Catapult, Bookshop): Romance featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " This is a book for the cynical romance reader, for someone who wants to see characters’ obsessive and jealous tendencies and how we tear each other apart online for likes. With its addictive social media lingo, you won’t be able to stop reading about the relationship between Six and Green, two trans women playing in the competitive and ruthless male volleyball league."

Hunkeler’s Secret by Schneider Hansjörg, trans. by Freuler Astrid (Bitter Lemon Press, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Mystery. Hunkeler, now a retired inspector of the Basel police force, is hospitalized following an operation. He’s sharing a room with cancer patient Stephan Fankhauser, an old acquaintance and former head of Basel Volksbank. One night, a groggy Hunkeler witnesses something that makes him question his senses: a young nurse is administering an injection to his friend.

I Can Fix Her by Rae Wilde (Clash Books, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Horror featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "As Wilde slyly reveals that Johnny’s love may tilt toward obsession, the couple’s world becomes bizarre and threatening. The book’s unseen narrator offers Johnny an escape from the torturous emotional push-and-pull of this relationship. But Johnny’s response (and the revelation of the narrator’s identity) provokes a compelling quandary: does being in love call off our better angels?"

In the Circle of Ancient Trees by Valerie Trouet, ill. by Blaze Cyan (Greystone Books, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Nonfiction. From the Giant Sequoia to the Bald Cypress, this captivating book explores the stories of 10 species of ancient trees, their unique environments, and what they have to tell us about the history of our world. Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

Information Age by Cora Lewis (Joyland Editions, Asterism): Literary fiction. Named a 2025 Best Book of the Year by the New Yorker. The narrator of Information Age is a journalist at an online news site reporting on technology, the economy, and politics in the late 2010s. Told in vignettes and dialogue—overheard and divulged—Information Age is spare, funny, and attentive, a playful blurring of public and private life.

It’s Too Late. Do It Anyway!: A Book about Being a Cultural Worker in the Apocalypse + a Hologram Starter Kit eds. Cassie Thornton and Magdalena Jadwiga Härtelova (Thick Press, Asterism): Nonfiction. Two books in one, created for cultural workers who want to get off the racial capitalist high-speed-train-to-nowhere and start structuring revolution through collective care.

Journey to the Edge of Life by Tezer Özlü, trans. by Maureen Freely (Transit Books, Bookshop): ** Literature in translation** featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " At once a road novel, a meditation on literary influence, and a mash note to off-the-beaten-path Europe, this book—published originally in Turkish in 1982—was among my favorites this year."

Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest by Nick Mamatas (Clash Books, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): In this futuristic Shakespeare retelling, Kalivas, the last free-range human, is pressed into completing dangerous and menial tasks on the Master’s behalf. The new regime is disrupted when a great storm brings more cyborg mainlanders to the island shores. Can Kalivas finally break free and reclaim his islands, or will his affection for M keep him tied to the Master forever? (Full disclosure, I know Nick Mamatas slightly online.)

A Larger Reality by Ursula K. Le Guin, ed. Conner Bouchard-Roberts (Winter Texts, Asterism): A beautiful compilation of poems, stories, essays, talks, and illustrations by Ursula K. Le Guin. Edited and designed by Conner Bouchard-Roberts. With additional essays on Le Guin’s thinking and craft by: adrienne maree brown, Isabelle Stengers, Moe Bowstern, Lola Milholland, Nisi Shawl, David Naimon, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Margaret Killjoy, Julie Phillips, and Harold Bloom.

Letters From an Imaginary Country by Theodora Goss (Tachyon Publications, Bookshop): Science fiction/fantasy short story collection featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: ". Imaginary countries, begun as school projects, come to life. Vampires aren’t evil and the women they supposedly stalked no victims. An immigrant meets the version of herself who never left home… lyrical stories from the past fifteen years, ones that turn Victorian fantasy on its head and make you wonder what the present is actually about…"

Lion by Sonya Walger (New York Review Books, Bookshop): Literary fiction reviewed by D.W. White ("Autofiction is a term of near-unbelievable controversy; this novel succeeds because its author is a skilled, daring, and intuitive artist.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.

A Little Book of Self-Care for Caregivers ed. Sara Spees Addicott (Flashpoint Books, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Self Help. Caregivers need and deserve the chance to process their feelings and find moments of peace and calm.

Living in Your Light by Abdellah Taïa, trans. by Emma Ramadan (Seven Stories Press, Bookshop): Literature in translation reviewed by Diane Josefowicz ("This novel is French-Moroccan gay writer Abdellah Taïa’s unforgettable portrait of an indomitable woman modeled on his mother.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.

Making Amends by Nisi Shawl (Aqueduct Press, Bookshop): ** Science fiction/fantasy** reviewed by Nancy Jane Moore ("Not quite a novel, but more than a collection, these nine connected stories about a prison planet and the people banished to it for unspecified crimes give us the truth of right now. The AI overseeing the trip to the planet can upload people into digital format and download them into bodies that belie who they are, but it cannot keep them from creating a new very human reality.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025. (Full disclosure: I published some of Shawl’s short fiction in the past, but had nothing to do with this book.)

Manga Alphabet by Beck Feiner, ill. by Beck Feiner (Alphabet Legends, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): From Goku and Naruto to Sailor Moon and Totoro, this comic takes you on an epic journey through the vibrant world of manga and anime.

Mother, Daughter, Augur by Mary Simmons (June Road Press, Asterism): In the spirit of a Victorian naturalist’s collection, this book brings together found elements from nature, folklore, mythology, ballet, and oral tradition, crafting a strange, kaleidoscopic beauty and complicating inherited definitions of femininity. As these poems blur dichotomies—maiden and witch, mother and daughter, friend and lover—they reach for a new vision of womanhood beyond the bounds of roles and expectations, one that is mystical, ethereal, a little dangerous, and inherently queer.

My Mother’s Boyfriends by Samantha Schoech (7.13 Books, Bookshop): Short story collection featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "True to the title, many of Schoech’s stories focus on the intimacy of mother-daughter relationships... Sharp and well-plotted..."

My Animal Kingdom by Rebecca Brown, ill. by Levi Hastings (FrizzLit Editions, Asterism): Memoir. Squirrels are just some of the furry creatures that count the novelist Rebecca Brown as a friend. My Animal Kingdom, a brilliant and hilarious new memoir, tells the story of what happened when a cat dragged an injured squirrel into the house.

***Mycocosmic *** by Lesley Wheeler (Tupelo Press, Bookshop): Poetry featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Mycocosmic wins a blue ribbon for most elegant handling of death to the underworld of mushrooms, the living beings that turn death into sustenance, and into new life again."

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, trans. by Ruth Martin (Scribe Publications, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran.

No Offense by Jackie Domenus (ELJ Editions): Memoir in essays featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "From the minefield moments of planning a gay wedding to convincing a car dealership salesman that they’re the one buying a vehicle (and not their father), No Offense takes a microscope and a skewer to the many awkward assumptions and outright hostilities endured by LGBTQ+ folks."

Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry by The Capacitor Collective (Common Notions, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Nonfiction. A theory-driven account of the stakes and knowledge-building practices of the resurgent labor movement from organizers across the gig economy and tech industry.

The Old Man by the Sea by Domenico Starnone, trans. by Oonagh Stransky (Europa Editions, Bookshop): Literature in translation featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Caught up in the intrigues of small-town life south of Rome, Nicola ponders and conflates the memory of his unconventional mother and her influence and the town’s cabalistic doings, only to strike out on his own in a dangerous adventure."

One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (Psychopomp, Bookshop): Science fiction/fantasy featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " Through four connected stories set in the same world—about soldiers exhuming the souls of dead enemies, a family that builds bone gallows to execute prisoners, a soldier that deserts his unit, and a deadly ancient ceremony—readers are introduced to the cruelties and demands of an empire and the people trapped within it. Dark, eerie and thought-provoking, these stories show the importance of even the smallest acts of resistance." (Full disclosure: I also know Premee from having published some of her short fiction, but have no connection to any of her books.)

And while we’re talking about Premee Mohamed, the third installment of her amazing Annual Migration of Clouds trilogy is out: The First Thousand Trees (ECW Press, Bookshop).

Optional Practical Training by Shubha Sunder (Graywolf, Bookshop): Literary fiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " We meet the protagonist as she begins her first year of OPT, a U.S. employer-sponsored work-experience visa for recent international student grads… an intimate, finely-detailed collage of voices and perspectives on difference, privilege, and belonging in contemporary America."

Oscar Wilde’s Crucifix by Maarten Asscher (Four Winds Press, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): History. In 1876, Oscar Wilde presented a girl he was courting with a love gift of a golden crucifix. Two years later she married Bram Stoker. Dutch writer Maarten Asscher uses that crucifix as a fulcrum to examine Wilde’s early development as an artist, from a seminal trip to Greece to his whirlwind tour of America and beyond, including real-life encounters with Walt Whitman and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Other Shane Hintons by Shane Hinton (Burrow Press, Bookshop): Literary short stories featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " A playmate’s deadbeat father who may or may not be Satan. An abusive stepdad reincarnated as an undercooked turkey carcass. The ghost of a pet goat who gives surprisingly sage advice. The grotesque and memorable characters that inhabit Shane Hinton’s darkly funny new collection feel perfectly suited to the otherworldly Florida they call home."

The Order of the British Vampire by Simon Kewin (Elsewhen Press, Bookshop): Fantasy. Having revealed and removed the mole in the Office of the Witchfinder General, Danesh is a hero – but also a target. The fourth story of His Majesty’s Office of the Witchfinder General. (Full disclosure: I know Kewin slightly from having published a short work of his. No connection to this project.)

Paletas by Aaron Bowersock (Lil’ Libros, Bookshop): Featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "a bilingual board book that celebrates the iconic Mexican frozen treat."

Papercuts: A Year of Cutouts by Melinda R. Smith (Tofu Ink Arts Press, Asterism): Hybrid art/memoir. "I landed on an idea: It would be a Christmas gift for my nephew’s new baby, my father’s namesake, Daniel: a diptych of a lion and a tiger. I learned the craft as I went, and I was very pleased with the results. But even as I worked on my jungle scenes, I conceived of the real phase of the work, what I would do when I returned to Los Angeles. I was excited and couldn’t wait to get to it. I would take the childlike visuals of the colorful cutouts, not unlike Colorforms in their way, and apply one of my favorite themes to them: female despair."

People with No Charisma by Jente Posthuma, trans. by Sarah Timmer Harvey (Scribe Publications, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): From the International Booker Prize– shortlisted author of What I’d Rather Not Think About comes a darkly humorous novel about multigenerational family dynamics and individuality in Dutch suburbia.

Precious Rubbish by Kayla E. (Fantagraphics, Bookshop): Graphic novel reviewed by Jesi Bender ("a beautiful but devastating debut from artist Kayla E., who uses bright, nostalgic graphics to juxtapose the harsh realities of its protagonist. An exploration of a young girl’s turbulent childhood, this book reads like an open wound, something beatific, at once holy and haunting.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.

procession by Katherena Vermette (House of Anansi, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Poetry. Bestselling novelist and Governor General’s Award–winning poet Katherena Vermette’s third collection presents a series of poems reaching into what it means to be (at once) a descendant and a future ancestor, exploring the connections we have with one another and ourselves, amongst friends, and within families and Nations.

Redundancies and Potentials by Dominique Dickey (Neon Hemlock Press, Bookshop): Science fiction/fantasy featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " Two sisters are given an important mission: stop an insurrection from happening decades in the future to save the world… a defiant story about sisterhood and justice…"

Reef Mind by Hazel Zorn (Tenebrous Press, Bookshop): Horror featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Earth’s coral is growing out of control, wreaking havoc on the natural world and dethroning humans from their position at the top of the evolutionary pyramid. Worse: the coral is sentient."

The Revolution Will Not Be Rated G by Keya Chatterjee (Green Writers Press, Bookshop): Romance featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " If you longingly look back to the 2010s dystopian craze, you’ll be glad to know it’s back. For those who were teenagers during this time and are looking for something more adult with an emphasis on romance, this is the perfect read. A queer Romeo-and-Juliet tale set in 2042 Upland and Lowland US, where segregation is back, and hurricane Eamon is set to destroy all with the help of the richest."

The River People by Liz Kellebrew (Unsolicited Press, Bookshop): Literary hybrid novel featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Kellebrew imagines the lives of her westward-migrating ancestors, including her third great grandmother, Marilla, who came west on the Oregon Trail. Like a chef who deconstructs a dish at a Michelin-starred restaurant, Kellebrew takes the ingredients that go into the making of a traditional historical novel—stories, journal excerpts, historical texts—and reassembles them into something poetic, dramatic, and surprising at every turn."

Rock Notes by Clark Coolidge and Tom Clark (Lithic Press, Asterism): Poetry. A collaboration between Clark Coolidge and Tom Clark, Rock Notes was written over a five-year period beginning in 1966. Enamored with the burgeoning rock scene, they shared thoughts and notes, using the energy of the music as a way in to riff and muse upon what these wild sounds were creating in their minds and in the world.

Ruins and Other Poems by Samer Abu Hawwash, trans. by Huda J. Fakhreddine (World Poetry, Bookshop): Poetry. In these poems, Samer Abu Hawwash stands upon ancient and modern ruins, engaging with the archetypal Arabic qasida and its echoes in the present, set against a backdrop of exile, displacement, and genocide.

Sidework by Sasha Hom (Black Lawrence Press, Bookshop): Literary novella featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "Sasha Hom’s wry, crackling intelligence marks every page of this novella that deftly punches and asks how does one survive fire, homelessness, and an economy that favors the rich and hastens climate change."

Sixty Seconds by Steven Mayfield (Regal House, Bookshop): ** Literary fiction** featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: " This kaleidoscopic novel takes place in the course of one minute as the lives of nine characters intersect the day before the end of the Second World War in Europe."

So We Blush Less When the Phone Rings by Mark Wagstaff (Anvil Press, Asterism): Literary fiction. Winner of the 45th Annual 3-Day Novel Contest. In a future hotter than today, people meet their needs through tailored forms of intelligence. From the cyborg security at the food mart to the ever-learning, ever-loving forms that can effectively — and acceptably — be a life partner. The processing nous of an AI spouse is all the more valuable in a world where everything’s a game. An actual game. And even a respectable, happy married couple, once they step outside the game, find themselves talking to bullets.

Stuck on the Slopes by Jessica Salina (Conquest Publishing, Bookshop): Romance featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "This is for lovers of classic romance novels with lovable side characters—including an adorable service dog…. As someone with chronic pain, the disability representation made me feel seen… see this pair fall in love while evading paparazzi and blowing new life into a Colorado ski lodge."

Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie by Steve Wasserman (Heyday, Bookshop, Indie Pubs): Memoir/essays. An exhilarating journey through the world of books, ideas, and activism and a finalist for the Foreword Reviews INDIES Editor’s Choice Prize for Nonfiction.

That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film by Payton McCarty-Simas (Luna Press Publishing, Bookshop): Nonfiction. Through historical analysis and dozens of case studies, Payton McCarty-Simas demonstrates how the cinematic witch’s evolution across decades reflects major shifts in how feminism is perceived politically and interpreted (counter-)culturally in America.

Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Haymarket Books, Bookshop): Creative nonfiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "The experience of reading this book is like floating down a river, as science, storytelling, and Indigenous knowledge carry you along on a journey that, by the end, will leave you feeling more grounded, connected, and prepared to face what lies before us."

Thirsty Creek by Jennie Bricker (Unsolicited Press, Asterism): Thriller. an ecological disaster rooted in a failed attempt to grow trophy-sized salmon devastates the fish population of a Pacific Northwest lake, intertwining environmental and human tragedies. Forty years later, biologist Jess MacKinnon arrives in the town of Still Lake to investigate the collapse and explore the possibility of recovery, only to uncover deep-seated secrets and a murder that puts her life at risk.

Underground Barbie by Masa Kolanovic, trans. by Ena Selimovic (Sandorf Passage, Bookshop): Literature in translation featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "An entertaining, haunting read, first published in Croatian, complemented by delightful small illustrations. Readers may miss some historical/political allusions to the 1990s Balkan wars, but any child who has navigated the world of desirable and not-quite-as-desirable toys can understand the narrator and her friends with their Barbies and Barbie knock-offs."

Unrest by Jurijs Tatarkins (Fieldmouse Press, Asterism): Chapbook. Wry and uncompromising, Latvian cartoonist Jurijs Tatarkins meditates on the uncomfortable, nagging realization that modern life is rotting at its core; his poetic ruminations in Unrest are funny and at times heart wrenching.

Vessel: The Shape of Absent Bodies by Dani Netherclift (Assembly Press, All Lit Up, Indie Pubs): An evocative, lyric bricolage of memoir, literature, history, and translation that wrestles with the shape death takes.

The Voices of Adriana by Elvira Navarro, trans. by Christina MacSweeney (Two Lines Press, Bookshop): Literature in translation reviewed by Catherine Parnell ("Divided into three sections, each with mini-chapters or narratives, the novel wends its way through Adriana’s life as she struggles with Lady Death and Lady Manipulator—the death, that of her mother and maternal grandmother, and the manipulator? Who’s to say.") for 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025.

The Weather Report by Andrew Ross (Common Notions, Bookshop, Indie Pubs). Nonfiction. From acclaimed public scholar Andrew Ross, groundbreaking reporting on climate change and the horizons of a just future from Palestine, UAE, Arizona, and China.

Wedding of the Foxes by Katherine Larson (Milkweed Editions, Bookshop): Creative nonfiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "poet and ecologist Larson… imagines non-binary alternatives to despair in nineteen gorgeous lyrical essays that are powerfully intimate and tenderly universal."

Who Would Have Thought It? by María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, ill. by Megan Mulholland (Quite Literally Books, Asterism): Fiction. It’s the eve of the U.S. Civil War, and Dr. Norval has just returned home to New England from his travels out West, bringing two big surprises for his family: Lola, a ten-year-old orphan entrusted to his keeping, and Lola’s immense fortune. In no time, the pious and upstanding Norvals are lusting for Lola’s riches in a most unbiblical way, and their true feelings about her dark skin and parentage reveal that their commitment to their abolitionist beliefs doesn’t run even skin deep.

With A Needle and Thread by Jennifer Stemple and Libi Axelrod (Kalaniot Press, Bookshop): Children’s literature featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "This book is a loving, sun-drenched visit to the Jewish community of Santiago de Cuba. The story is a version of the folktale “the clever tailor,” in which the hero repeatedly turns a worn-out item of clothing into something else."

Wrongful by Lee Upton (Sagging Meniscus, Bookshop): Mystery featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "In this smart romp, celebrated mystery novelist Mira Wallacz disappears from a conference held in her honor—but when she’s found dead, no one is especially broken up about it."

Your Name Here by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff (Dalkey Archive Press, Bookshop): Literary fiction featured in 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025: "by a large margin, the most intensely metafictional novel I’ve ever encountered... DeWitt and her fictional analogue, reclusive author Rachel Zozanian, plan to write a book with tabloid journalist Ilya Grid