Unsolicited Press

10/01/2025

10/01/2025

In MOTHER! Summer Stewart embarks on an unflinching exploration of womanhood through poetry and essays that capture the evolution of identity from pre-motherhood to the nuanced aftermath. This collection unveils the intimate layers of loss, sexuality, and family while tracing matrilineal struggles and the shifting contours of self post-childbirth. In verses that reflect the conflict and clarity found in redefining sexuality and self-worth, Stewart’s poems resonate with anyone navigating their own legacy and lineage. Meanwhile, her essays tackle the double-edged sword of imposter syndrome, shattering professional barriers, the impact of social media on parenting, and the surprising strength in “standing back” as an act of feminist empowerment. In the process, Stewart offers a map to self-reclamation, making MOTHER! a powerful testament to resilience, family, and fierce self-advocacy.



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09/30/2025

In Thirsty Creek by Jennie Bricker, 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. As Jess delves into the strained dynamics between the Nez Perce community and the townspeople, she confronts a web of greed, arrogance, and betrayal, including her own ties to the past—her connection to the murdered Ben Fletcher and the child they shared. Aided by a quirky private investigator, Jess solves both the mysteries of the fish and the murder, uncovering truths about resilience and reconciliation. Evocative and suspenseful, Thirsty Creek is a gripping exploration of environmental reckoning, human complexity, and the unintended consequences of ambition, drawing comparisons to Where the Crawdads Sing and Chinatown.



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09/30/2025

Dear Barry Manilow: Memories of a Prep School Loser by Rachel Marbach is a raw and darkly humorous memoir that exposes the toxic underbelly of an elite preparatory academy. Through vivid recollections of alienation, cruelty, and family dysfunction, Marbach unearths the pain of adolescence while recounting surreal experiences, such as writing letters to Barry Manilow to escape the harsh realities around her. This candid coming-of-age story explores the tension between outward appearances and hidden struggles, offering a relatable glimpse into the emotional turmoil of being an outsider.

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09/29/2025

Dive into the bittersweet, beautifully peculiar world of Patricia Q. Bidar's Pardon Me for Moonwalking, a collection of short stories that illuminate the offbeat, the tender, and the painfully human. Each story offers a glimpse into the extraordinary moments of seemingly ordinary lives, from fleeting encounters with strangers to lifelong battles with identity and connection.

Bidar's characters grapple with isolation, unspoken longing, and the complex tangle of relationships in settings that range from suburban living rooms to shadowy city streets. With sharp prose, wry humor, and poignant insights, this collection explores themes of love, regret, and the elusive search for meaning in a chaotic world.

Pardon Me for Moonwalking is a literary kaleidoscope of modern life, showcasing the subtle beauty of human resilience and the power of small, unexpected connections.



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09/29/2025

09/29/2025

Set in a small island community called Hope, Alaska, this fresh and contemporary collection of linked stories drops us into the lives of a host of quirky town characters striving for freedom, meaning, and utopia in a wilderness of startling beauty and danger. It poses the culminating question: To what extent can we, should we, bury the past?



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09/29/2025

Your body never lies. It holds the scars, the joys, the aches, the beauty. Maureen Sherbondy’s THE BODY REMEMBERS explores every contour of life through fearless poetry.

📅 Drops October 14, 2025.

💌 Preorder: https://www.unsolicitedpress.com/shop/p/thebodyremembers

09/28/2025

09/28/2025

Piecework is a lively collection of intergenerational essays on how people create possibility and place through the arts, culture, and heritage. Women and children play central roles in these ethnographies and autoethnographies. Their stories and struggles, ideas and breakthroughs, affirm the exponential power of families, schools, and communities to shape their own destinies through creative action. We learn that change is a collective endeavor, shaped on the ground, with the people we know and the communities we cherish.

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09/27/2025

The Impossible Physics of the Hummingbird delves into how the impossible happens every day. The hummingbird should not be able to fly—its body too heavy for its slight wings— and yet it does. We should not be able to love, laugh, and find joy in the face of so much grief, labor, disability, and hardship—and yet we do.

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09/27/2025