Jason DeYoung 44 pages The Cupboard Pamphlet (Volume 42, 2020)
Read this if you like: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Carmen Maria Machado, character-driven apocalyptic horror
tl;dr summary: Three people survive together during a quiet apocalypse
See the book on The Cupboard’s website
Brandon O’Brien 64 pages Interstellar Flight Press (2021)
Tl;dr summary: Eldritch horror meets pop culture meets Blackness meets black humor, all mixed together and with line breaks
Read this if you like: Elwin Cotman, speculative poetry, hip hop culture
Corey McCullough 326 pages 2018 (Self-published)
Read this if you like: The Chronicles of Narnia, Dragonlance, Wheel of Time
tl;dr summary: Western PA teenager is pulled into a magical alternate dimension in a good-vs-evil-quest meets coming-of-age adventure.
V. Castro 141 pages Creature Publishing (2021)
Tl;dr summary: Teenage girl gets possessed by sin-eating Aztec goddess
Read this if you like: Mesoamerican mythology, folk tales and fairy tales, spiritual horror
Toshikazu Kawaguchi 272 pages Hanover Square Press (2019)
Tl;dr summary: Intersecting stories of the employees and patrons of a café with a time travel seat.
Read this if you like: Haruki Murakami, Twin Peaks, magical realism
Elwin Cotman 89 pages Nomadic Press (2023)
Read this if you like: mythic fantasy, punk poetry, Haruki Murakami tl;dr summary: Combination poetry collection and story about a galaxy-traveling wizard
Virginia Woolf 329 pages Mariner Books (1928)
Read this if you like: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, magical realism, literary satire
tl;dr summary: 16th-century aristocratic English teenager grows up into a 19th-century British woman and has many adventures along the way.
Roberto Bolaño 607 pages Vintage Español (1998)
Read this if you like: David Foster Wallace, Jack Kerouac, Mexican culture and literature
Tl;dr summary: Two young Mexican poets go on a road trip that turns into a 20-year flight around the world.
Multiple authors (anthology) 302 pages Air and Nothingness Press (2022)
Read this if you like: Dr. Who, non-humanoid aliens, speculative short fiction
tl;dr summary: Interdimensional librarian has adventures, loans books, preserves knowledge across the multiverse.
See the book on the Air and Nothingness Press website
Vanessa MacLaren-Wray 138 pages Paper Angel Press (2020)
Read this if you like: Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdez, Isaac Asimov, Vernor Vinge
tl;dr summary: Alien poet/trust fund child adopts an injured human and manages not to kill her in his attempts to help her.
