Catapult publishes books, produces a daily web magazine, offers writing classes, and hosts an open online writing community. From the founders of Electric Literature and Black Balloon Publishing. Catapult is headquartered in New York, NY, with a second office in Portland, OR. Have a question? Shoot us an email at [email protected] Catapult welcomes your comments and encourages you to engage in a dialogue on our page. We do reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive.
Mission: We publish fiction and narrative nonfiction stories that are alive, illuminating, stirring, and surprising. We promote diverse, unique voices—both emerging and established—from all walks of life. We produce longform, print books, ebooks, web originals, workshops, classes, live events, and digital projects. We foster writers, artists, creators, and makers. We host a community for the emerging storytellers of all kinds. We advocate for the rights of creative workers.
"You are not my Mom, I would say, already somehow understanding that one day she wouldn’t be—that one day no one would be anything. "
Angela Brussel on how the Grateful Dead helped her cope with her fear of mortality:
Angela Brussel on how listening to the Grateful Dead as an adult helped her cope with the thanatophobia, or death anxiety, she had faced since she...
"It felt as though I had been evicted from my own body, and it had been trashed in my absence. My resentment was as precise as any recipe."
Maggie Tokuda-Hall on sexual assault, abusive infertility treatments, and baking macarons:
Macarons are delicate and lovely. I can take the care with them that was not taken with my body.
"Fortunately, the recession did not affect the prices of alcohol in the way that the price of shaving cream and school fees had nearly tripled."
Alithnayn Abdulkareem on leaning into pleasure as the world around us changes:
Fortunately, the recession did not affect the prices of alcohol in the way that the price of shaving cream and school fees had nearly tripled.
"We were experiencing record poverty in tandem with record heat waves. Yet, the party continued. We lived in Nigeria, after all. What else was there to do?"
Fareeda Abdulkareem in a brilliant essay on leaning into pleasure as the world around us changes: http://ow.ly/oAdp50uwhHD
Fortunately, the recession did not affect the prices of alcohol in the way that the price of shaving cream and school fees had nearly tripled.
"When did I start to feel the need to feel pain when I eat, to push my tolerance ever higher?"
For Bad Kimchi, Noah Cho on using food to test your own tolerance:
When did I start to feel the need to feel pain when I eat, to push my tolerance ever higher?
"How do I speculate on the life of my tío Cano? How do I find the 'too much' and the beautiful possibilities within his life?"
Marcos Gonsalez on queer role models lost to AIDS, Paris is Burning, and rewriting a kinder legacy:
I want to believe that I inherited too ways of feeling joy, ways of finding pleasure, ways of being with other queers in raucous and wild ways.
"What are savings for if you can’t get yourself an occasional creature?"
The story of Ducky, the green-cheeked conure, and the woman who loves him by Laurel Shimasaki: http://ow.ly/9WCV50ugdZG
Your near-life experiences have coalesced in this momentary identity. You are a woman speeding along I-10 with a caged green-cheeked conure...
"Fifteen-year-old me wouldn’t have understood the reason for the heart pounding, but maybe...would have looked at her new school friend and something would have fallen into place."
Yuly Restrepo Garcés on Juliantina, telenovelas and queer representation: https://catapult.co/stories/juliana-and-valentina-on-amar-a-muerte-telenovela-love-queer-representation-yuly-restrepo-garces
I know that their lips are touching, and that this is the first time it’s ever happened on a free-to-air telenovela.
In search of your next great read? Mackenzie Dawson of the New York Post features FLOYD HARBOR by Joel Mowdy as 1 of the best books of the week!
One Lucky Fan Rich O’Malley (travel, Post Hill Press) Rich O’Malley had a goal: He wanted to see a home game for all 123 teams in the four major US pro sports leagues. This book — part travelogue, …
“The blind are either supernatural or subhuman, alien or animal. We are not only different but dangerous.”
M. Leona Godin on Super Blind heroes like Daredevil and the dichotomy of being seen as superhuman and not human enough to live an independent life:
M. Leona Godin on Daredevil, Star Wars, and how Super Blind characters in pop culture perpetuate the misconception that blind people have super...
Have you seen this wonderful starred review of THE UNGRATEFUL REFUGEE from Kirkus Reviews yet?!
"With inventive, powerful prose, Dina Nayeri (page) demonstrates what should be obvious: that refugees give up everything in their native lands only when absolutely necessary—if they remain, they may face poverty, physical torture, or even death. . . . A unique, deeply thought-out refugee saga perfect for our moment."
A novelist turns to nonfiction to illuminate the refugee experience, focusing mostly on her Iranian family but also reporting the sagas of many others fleeing poverty and violence.
💫Cover reveal time!💫
A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY: TWENTY WRITERS ON IMMIGRATION, FAMILY, AND THE MEANING OF HOME, edited by Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary, with cover design and illustration by Nicole Caputo Duthie.
In stores Feb. 2020!
We're excited to introduce the first published anthology of writing from our own Catapult magazine!
Twenty writers share stories of migration, family, the search for home and belonging, and what it means to exist between languages and cultures.
You can preorder your copy now—preferably from you local indie bookseller!—and support this great community of writers you've all helped to build.
bit.ly/AMapisOnly
A great review of this slim, powerful book.
"this book cements Jones as a master of the short book and a leading voice in terms of maximum impact packed into extreme economy of language. If you’re a fan of great writing, don’t skip this one." today on the blog, Gabino Iglesias reviews Cynan Jones's COVE Catapult https://pankmagazine.com/2019/05/19/review-cove-cynan-jones/
I need something that is going to tingle, tell me the food is alive. Because I want to be alive, too."
For Bad Kimchi, Noah Cho on using food to test your own limits:
When did I start to feel the need to feel pain when I eat, to push my tolerance ever higher?
"I want to believe that I inherited too ways of feeling joy, ways of finding pleasure, ways of being with other queers in raucous and wild ways."
Marcos Gonsalez addresses a figure in the film Paris is Burning in this beautiful essay:
I want to believe that I inherited too ways of feeling joy, ways of finding pleasure, ways of being with other queers in raucous and wild ways.
By leaving her job as a lawyer and taking a leap of faith to become a full-time illustrator, Sirin Thada says, “I was finally honoring a part of me that had been there all along.”
A magnificent conversation between Nicole Caputo Design and Sirin:
By leaving her job as a lawyer and taking a leap of faith to become a full-time illustrator, Sirin Thada says, “I was finally honoring a part of me...
"Who is there? I called when a spell of quiet passed, though I already had my guess, an automated sighting notice having gone out last week."
Eerie and wonderful short fiction from Scott Broker:
As they moved, the singed smell of the neighborhood fell from their cloaks.
“I loved not being dead when I was a kid.”
A gorgeous comic from Sara Lautman about what haunted Maurice Sendak, who captured the imaginations of children all over the world, as a small boy:
“I loved not being dead when I was a kid.”
Start your weekend right and with your heart full with this short story from Daniel Gene . It's got everything:
A couple seeking shelter.
A brand new Transformer just like the one you wanted as a kid.
Hope.
As fear of ICE looms, immigrant parents and their baby spend a cold night in New York.
"Am I being honest? Am I really telling the truth? Am I laying bare myself, my life?"
Classes instructor Taylor Plimpton has thought deeply about these questions. Check out this great essay on our #CatapultCommunity page--and sign up for Taylor's nonfiction workshop, too!
Nonfiction writing advice from classes instructor Taylor Plimpton
"Tango is not a thing that can be done halfway. Neither, I learned, is memoir. You’re either all in, or you’re dishonest."
Meghan Flaherty on studying the dance and writing the book that scared her:
Writing my memoir, it seems, was the last of all my tango lessons.
"I tried to put the institution of religion aside to better understand God, but the two were so inextricably linked where I grew up, it felt impossible."
Alice Lesperance on working to disentangle her faith from the bigotry of churches she knew growing up:
In Piers Plowman, everything is a metaphor for God, when God is nowhere to be found.
"Nayeri robustly challenges the perceived obligation on the displaced person to revoke or tone down their former identity; to assimilate, to be a 'good investment' for any country that has admitted them."
A great look at the UK edition of Dina Nayeri's THE UNGRATEFUL REFUGEE in the Financial Times!
The novelist’s first work of non-fiction examines what it means to be a refugee
"I went because I knew enough to hold that time for when I’d want it again... I refused to forget, to let my family forget, that this is part of who I am."
Lynn Steger Strong three ways of thinking that might help you get the damned novel done:
Check out our novel generator instructor's three ways of thinking that might help you get the damned novel done.
"I wanted to tell the story of what was happening at Hilda Glacier so that other people could understand it, too."
Sarah Boon on Hilda Glacier in Banff National Park and the generations of women explorers and scientists it has seen:
Hilda Glacier in Banff National Park has seen generations of women explorers and scientists.
"Who is there? I called when a spell of quiet passed, though I already had my guess, an automated sighting notice having gone out last week."
Eerie and wonderful Friday fiction from Scott Broker:
As they moved, the singed smell of the neighborhood fell from their cloaks.
By leaving her job as a lawyer and taking a leap of faith to become a full-time illustrator, Sirin Thada says, “I was finally honoring a part of me that had been there all along.”
A magnificent conversation between Nicole Caputo Design and Sirin Thada: http://ow.ly/G2VZ50utKeP
By leaving her job as a lawyer and taking a leap of faith to become a full-time illustrator, Sirin Thada says, “I was finally honoring a part of me...
Electric Literature
Learn to use your imagination and free up your creativity in your nonfiction writing in our partner Catapult’s workshop! Only 3 spots left. Grab yours now!
“I found myself trying to learn more about cooking, and dwelling on these parts of Korean culture, as a way to reconnect with my identity and also the memory of my mom.”
Japanese Breakfast (a.k.a. Michelle Zauner) talks with Noah Cho about family, food, grief, and identity:
Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) and Noah Cho discuss food as culture, grieving for a parent, and multiracial Korean identity.
Catapult's cover photo
"The world was spinning and I needed to white-knuckle to keep up, or fall off the ride forever."
Angela Chen on the tension between seeking the new and exciting and enjoying the already great, and how she learned she doesn't have to choose:
Remain constantly hungry, or enjoy the tried-and-true? Sometimes, I learned, it’s okay to double down on the life you have.
"How can I say that I fear I’ll never date again without feeding the monster? No one owes me their touch; I am starving for it just the same."
s.e. smith on the human need for touch, the taboo of expressing that need, and how it effects disabled communities:
s.e. smith on skin hunger, the human need to feel physical contact, and the taboo of seeking that intimacy, especially for people with disabilities.
"There’s something about knowing this, knowing that my body can withstand whatever this town tries to throw at it, that empowers me beyond just skin."
—from "How My Korean Skincare Routine Protects Me in Wintery, White Wyoming" by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
Illustration by May's Catapult artist, Sirin Thada
In this stellar Washington Post review of ROUGH MAGIC by Lara Prior-Palmer, Ellie Robins says, "This is no fresh-forged mythic hero, but rather a young woman who’s still doubting, still equivocating about her right to seek greatness . . . To her credit, the heroine of this story never claims to be flawless, nor even to be a heroine. Ultimately, the book lingers in the mind partly for its fearless prose and partly for its refusal to obey that tired old victorious arc of the journey narrative. Lara Prior-Palmer both embraces the race and disavows it. She pulls back to observe the minutiae of the moment, the marmot holes that riddle the steppe and the infinite, individual blades of grass that paint it green. She offers no easy morals on these dual modes of life and of narrative. . . . As Lara Prior-Palmer senses on her journey, reconciling the wisdom of the everyday with the instinct for timelessness and mythmaking is a life’s work—work to which “ROUGH MAGIC” is an engaging guide."
Lara Prior-Palmer surprised everyone, including herself. That’s what makes her memoir, “Rough Magic,” especially appealing.
"What is it like to have your best friend ripped out of the picture when you’re fourteen?"
Bonnie Tsui on family upheaval, near-estrangement, and how art keeps her close to her father despite the distance between them:
My father was missing. How could I put him back in the picture?
"I wanted to tell the story of what was happening at Hilda Glacier so that other people could understand it, too."
Sarah Boon on Hilda Glacier in Banff National Park and the generations of women explorers and scientists it has seen:
Hilda Glacier in Banff National Park has seen generations of women explorers and scientists.
"There’s one question I’ve been puzzling over for most of my life: Am I Korean?"
Japanese Breakfast (a.k.a. Michelle Zauner) talks with Noah Cho about family, food, grief, and identity:
Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) and Noah Cho discuss food as culture, grieving for a parent, and multiracial Korean identity.
"I think about the many invisible struggles, the empty places I have had to fill for my kids. The bridges I’ve had to build."
Katie Rose Pryal on advocating for students who are disabled and gifted:
If I don’t advocate for my kids, then who will? Still, a small part of me wonders if I’m asking too much.
"I take off the effects of the day, the echoes of wind, sleet, and snow. I pamper my skin, urge it to replenish and heal. I am asking myself to brave another day."
Jenny Tinghui Zhang on how her Korean skincare routine helps her brave every day in Wyoming:
I take off the effects of the day, the echoes of wind, sleet, and snow. I pamper my skin, urge it to replenish and heal. I am asking myself to...
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This splendid review of ROUGH MAGIC in the May 1st issue of the Library Journal is truly the bees knees! "A fresh, irreverent voice and a quick wit. . . . It's a story worthy of the best adventure writers, and Lara Prior-Palmer does not disappoint. An appealing account that will capture the imagination of a wide audience, including young adults. Readers who enjoyed Cheryl Strayed's Wild and James Campbell's Braving It will want to join Prior-Palmer on her once-in-a-lifetime trek."
Happy pub day to María Gainza and translator Thomas Bunstead. OPTIC NERVE is in stores in the U.S. today! "A highly original, piercingly beautiful work, a book you’ll want to savor." —Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Guardian “Here, art is a trellis around which life knots and overlaps, severs, climbs upward . . . Optic Nerve’s episodic iridescence—the way each chapter shimmers with the delicacy of a soap bubble—belies its gravity. Gainza has written an intricate, obsessive, recherché novel about the chasm that opens up between what we see and what we understand" —Dustin Illingworth, The Nation Order yours here! http://bit.ly/MGOpticNerve
The American Booksellers Association’s May Indie Next list is here, and guess which author and which 25 Mongolian ponies made the list? 🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇 See the full list here! https://www.bookweb.org/news/may-2019-indie-next-list-preview-571873
Thomas Gebremedhin of WSJ Magazine names Lara Prior-Palmer's ROUGH MAGIC as one of the 12 best books of the spring! "An inspirational tale of struggle—dehydration, injury and isolation—ultimately overcome through grit and sheer willpower." https://on.wsj.com/2U9kdYv
Remember, you can pre-order signed copies of Jane Alison's forthcoming Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative with our friends at Old Town Books. Reserve yours here: http://bit.ly/meanderpreorder
Same, Celeste Ng, same.
Fantastic to see a Publishers Weekly star for Shelley Jackson's RIDDANCE! "This clever, cacophonous novel of metaphysical gothic from Jackson (Half Life) teems with voices of the living and the dead. . . . Full of Carrollian logic and whimsical grotesquerie, the tale . . . is an illuminating allegory of fiction writing, for “the necrocosmos is made of language; we precipitate a world with every word we speak.” Joines is a remarkable creation in a wonderful book—an imperious, otherworldly, and damaged figure who, haunted by her childhood, devises and devotes her life to a haunted philosophy." bit.ly/RiddancePW
It's our great pleasure to announce that Nicole Chung's forthcoming ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW has been chosen as a Barnes & Noble Fall 2018 Discover Great New Writers selection! Congratulations Nicole! bit.ly/AYCEKBN
Have you seen the stunning cover for Suzanne Matson’s engrossing and intimate new novel? Ultraviolet illuminates the lives of three generations of women, each more independent than the last. Get your preorders in now!
Today, in honor of #WorldSleepDay, we're extremely proud to unveil our cover for the forthcoming INSOMNIA by Marina Benjamin. "An exquisite meditation on time, the dark hours, and the complexities of longtime love, INSOMNIA is a poetic journey into the wide-awake, generous, exciting mind of Marina Benjamin. I couldn't put it down, and my own inner world is richer for it." —Dani Shapiro, author of Hourglass Insomnia is on the rise. More than a third of all adults report experiencing it, with the figure climbing steeply among those over sixty-five. Marina Benjamin takes on her personal experience of the condition—her struggles with it, her insomniac highs, and her dawning awareness that states of sleeplessness grant us valuable insights into the workings of our unconscious minds. Although insomnia is rarely entirely welcome, Benjamin treats it less as an affliction than as an encounter that she engages with and plumbs. She adds new dimensions to both our understanding of sleep (and going without it) and of night, of how we perceive darkness. Along the way, INSOMNIA trips through illuminating material from literature, art, philosophy, psychology, pop culture, and more. Benjamin pays particular attention to the relationship between women and sleep—Penelope up all night, unraveling her day's weaving for Odysseus; the Pre-Raphaelite artists' depictions of deeply sleeping women; and the worries that keep contemporary females awake. INSOMNIA is an intense, lyrical, witty, and humane exploration of a state we too often consider only superficially. "This is the song of insomnia, and I shall sing it," Marina Benjamin declares.
Nicole Chung's forthcoming memoir ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW is so moving. No, really, IT'S MOVING! Preorder your signed copy from Powell's Books, Inc. now! http://bit.ly/NicoleChung
Oh hey, we do hardcovers now.
MEMO:
Happy pub day to Simeon Marsalis! His "visionary" nuanced novel AS LIE IS TO GRIN is in stores everywhere today! Don't miss the novel booksellers across the country are listing as one of the best of the year!
Happy pub day to Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman! Their "essential," "beautifully written" THE RUNAWAY SPECIES is in stores everywhere today! More details here: https://books.catapult.co/products/the-runaway-species-pre-order
Happy pub day to Josephine Rowe, whose brilliant A LOVING, FAITHFUL ANIMAL is in stores everywhere today! "A subtle and haunting meditation on childhood, escape, the bonds and the limits of family, and the long reach of trauma. Rowe is a serious talent, and her debut novel is both gorgeous and stunning." —Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven https://books.catapult.co/products/a-loving-faithful-animal-a-novel
Amazing! RESERVOIR 13 by Jon McGregor, Writer has just been longlisted for the The Man Booker Prize, alongside some incredible company. We're extremely proud to be publishing this deft, beautiful novel in the U.S. this fall, a book that truly deserves this recognition. Congrats Jon!
When you're the last one in the office and the publicists aren't there to guard the galleys.
Looking for a last-minute gift idea for writers? Preferably one that doesn't involve shipping? Gift cards are available for our NYC-based winter/spring writing bootcamps with these incredible instructors:
We're thrilled that Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea is one of the best books of the 2015 according to Amazon, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews!
“Postcards from Two Hotels," an interactive essay, with text by Joanna Walsh and illustrations by Roman Muradov: http://bit.ly/1m1sVDi
Lulu Miller, co-host of Invisibilia, makes her fiction debut at Catapult with "Me and Jane", a story about two horseshoe crabs, one barnacled and the other smooth. Read it here: http://bit.ly/1MUdOrb
How to create accountability for yourself—a stellar 10-second writing tip from our workshop instructor Chelsea Hodson.
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