It reached out one of its furry arms and put its large paw on my arm. Exactly how my mother used to. I lay down beside it, and the beast hugged me to its breast. • What can be seen in him with great clarity is that his overweening ambition was visible from an early age. His childhood was a roving and unsettled one. • I believe in the power of collecting. I believe that owning 100 copies of an unknown thing can somehow give it meaning, can turn into something signifi cant, intimate.

OUTPOST19

Original Provocative Reading February - June 2017

A worthy tree? You might say a subtle tree, a tasteful tree, with branches instead of pleated fronds. A tree that changes, with leaves that color, dry, and drop: this is what intelligent, evolved people are expected to value and cherish. • She fi nds a man standing with a beer at an intersection of kale, arugula, and what appears to be either a cabbage plant or a prop from Little Shop of Horrors. The man is wearing a backpack, a backpack made to look dude-friendly but is clearly a diaper bag, its

OUTPOST19

Ship Date: 02/01/17

Pub Date: 03/01/17

Price: $16.00 US, $18.50 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853143

Trim: 5” x 8”

Format: Trade paperback

Pages: 164

BISAC Categories: FICTION / Literary,FICTION / Historical, FICTION / Biographical

BISAC Codes: FIC019000, FIC014000, FIC041000,

The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas

Harriet Scott Chessman

A lyrical novel about what art can reveal, and a nuanced imagining of the people who influenced Edgar Degas and his work. With key roles for beloved Degas paint-ings.

Ten years after Edgar Degas’ 1872 visit to New Orleans, a lost sketchbook surfac-es. His Creole cousin Tell -- who lost her sight as a young woman -- listens as her former child-servant describes the drawings and reads Degas’ enigmatic words. It’s both cryptic and revelatory, leading Tell to new understandings of her marriage, her difficult, brilliant cousin Edgar, her daughter Josephine, and herself.

Harriet Scott Chessman is the author of the acclaimed novels THE BEAUTY OF ORDINARY THINGS (2013), SOMEONE NOT REALLY HER MOTHER (a 2004 San Francisco Chronicle Best Book, and a Good Morning America Book Club Choice), LYDIA CASSATT READING THE MORNING PAPER (1999), and OHIO ANGELS (1999). She is also the author of the libretto for MY LAI, a contemporary operatic piece commissioned by Kronos Quartet in 2015. She has taught literature and creative writing at Yale University, Bread Loaf School of English, and Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program.

Advance praise

“Harriet Scott Chessman has once again invented an utterly beguiling story in-spired by art. This time, in her novel inspired by a Degas sketchbook that may have once existed, she has given us a richly evocative and emotionally true portrait of Edgar Degas during his 1872 visit among his Creole cousins in New Orleans. With the clarity and simplicity of a piano sonata, The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas is a novel about perception, enduring love, and the complex family legacy of a great artist.”— Katharine Weber, author of The Music Lesson

“It’s a brilliant notion, to imagine what might have happened when Edgar Degas visited his New Orleans family in 1872. In this novel, we see the artist through the eyes of his cousin Tell, and while Degas is seemingly at the periphery of her story of quietly contending with blindness and with a scapegrace husband, the connec-tion between Edgar and Tell proves to be a profound and haunting one. Tell’s story illuminates her tragic mistake and his: to assume one is meant to shoulder one’s burdens in uncomplaining loneliness and so leave unspoken the words that might have meant a chance at happiness. Chessman’s lyrical language, her authoritative take on an artist’s process, and her deep compassion for her characters make this novel a compelling read.”— Catherine Brady, author of The Mechanics of Falling

“A beautiful meditation on the interplay of art, time, and memory, that is itself a luminous portrait of a woman without vision who is just beginning to see.”— Ann Packer, author of The Children’s Crusade and Swim Back to Me

“Few writers would have the courage to tell a story of one of the most famous male visual artists of all time through a blind female narrator. Harriet Scott Chess-man does it with simple grace in The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas, delivering

in Estelle Degas’ engaging voice--and in astonishingly vivid detail--1880s New Orleans, the famous artist’s lost sketchbook, and the challenges of marriage, family, and love. The result is deeply affecting, and compelling.”— Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Race for Paris and The Wednesday Sisters

“In this mesmerizing novel, Harriet Chessman gives us intimate glimpses of a celebrated art-ist’s eloquently human landscape, saturated with the dense complexities of family life in 19th century New Orleans. This nuanced story of love lost and found, wrapped around the experi-ence of seeing and being seen, is itself a masterful work of art.”— Elizabeth Rosner, author of Electric City and Gravity

“Can a single day reveal a life? It can and it does, in Harriet Scott Chessman’s incandescent new novel. New Orleans in the winter of 1883 is described by Tell, Edgar Degas’s sightless sister-in-law, in language both dazzling and lush. Yet it is the discovery of a sketchbook lost by Edgar during his visit 10 years prior, that illuminates a family’s precarious architecture. An exquisite addition to Chessman’s previous novels.”— Tracy Guzeman, author of The Gravity of Birds

“Harriet Chessman is a writer of exquisite warmth and delicacy, artful and wise. This is a beautiful and haunting novel.”— Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

“The Lost Sketchbook of Edgar Degas reveals what we see, what we refuse to see, and how beautiful and sad love is either way. Chessman brings us 19th-century New Orleans on one monumental day in which the discovery of a sketchbook leads to the reevaluation of a whole life. This novel is a profound delight from beginning to end.”— Micah Perks, author of What Becomes Us and Pagan Time

“I read THE LOST SKETCHBOOK OF EDGAR DEGAS with deep admiration for Chessman’s empathetic powers. She inhabits this sumptuous world of New Orleans with grace and a kind of heightened sensual alertness, a mystery that unravels level by level as Tell, a fetching character, comes through the oblique sketchbook of her gifted cousin to an awareness of her-self, her world, her family – a reality that has become ‘simply history’ in the best way: imagi-natively conceived and assimilated. This is a lovely novel that I would recommend to anyone.”— Jay Parini, author of The Last Station

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviewers and booksellers• Outreach to art historians and museum lecture series• National ad campaign with giveaways• Shelftalker, author Q&A, reader guide & extended excerpts at iPage• Author events at RJ Julia, McNally-Jackson, Books Inc. Palo Alto and more on the East

and West coasts

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/TheLostSketchbook

Massive Cleansing Fire

Dave Housley

A remarkable series of stories about life on the edge of a nationwide disaster, from a master of literary style and satire.

A combat photographer transitions to suburban life. An overcrowded clown car picks up too much speed. A Sara Lane Luxury Cruise takes a vindictive turn. In this series of linked stories, each one ends in fire. Woven between them are descriptions of life after a fiery apocalyptic event, something close to the end of the world.

Advance praise

“It’s time to admit what everyone knows: there’s no bolder, no wittier critic of our modern, polarizing American culture than Dave Housley, who points out the absurdities in our relationships while reminding us why we must hold on to each other.” — Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of A Curious Land

“Dave Housley has always been unparalleled in his ability to mock and embrace American pop culture in his fiction, and in his latest collection of linked stories, each ending in fire or the aftermath of an apocalyptic event, he raises the stakes, making us wonder what is scarier: the end of the world as we know it or the absurdity of the world as it is. With alternating wit and empathy, he has a deft touch in unearthing our shortcomings and also commiserating with us about them. Dave Housley is our Howard Zinn for the end times.”— Jen Michalski, author of The Summer She Was Under Water and The Tide King

“Who says compassion can’t co-exist with playfulness? Dave Housley strikes a match with these short stories that flicker between love and anxiety, life and death.”— Leslie Pietrzyk, author of This Angel On My Chest

“There are few writers who draw as nimbly, nor with as much heart, from pop culture as well as Dave Housley. His work is distinctly contemporary yet timeless. It can be cruelly accurate in its portraits, but at the same time I can’t think of a writer more compassionate in his stories. Massive, Cleansing Fire is that rare book that does the near impossible. It is hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure. Reading it is like being held fast to the ground by a heavy man in a gorilla suit who is whispering the saddest love story you ever heard into your ears and tickling you so hard you laugh until tears come to your eyes.”— Jensen Beach, author of Swallowed By The Cold

“Once again, Dave Housley has shaped a singular collection to dazzle and delight, this time with a tool as old as civilization itself: fire. In eight stunning stories and an equal number of interstitial vignettes, Housley wields spark and flame and smoke as plot device, metaphor and theme, while balancing his uproarious comic sense with an unerring glimpse into the human heart. Reader, Massive Cleansing Fire doesn’t care that the roof is aflame. It lets that motherfucker burn.”— Tom Williams, author of Don’t Start Me Talkin’ and Among the Wild Mulattos and Other Tales

Ship Date: 01/01/17

Pub Date: 02/01/17

Price: $14.00 US, $18.50 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853143

Trim: 5” x 8”

Format: Trade paperback

Pages: 122

BISAC Categories: FICTION / Short Stories (single author),FICTION / Satire, FICTION / Dystopian, FIC060000 / Humorous/Black Humor

BISAC Codes: FIC029000, FIC052000, FIC055000, FIC060000

“America is in a deep state of moral filth, and Housley’s brilliant Massive, Cleansing Fire comes at the perfect time to wash us off with heat. If you don’t love this book, you’re the problem.”— Brian Allen Carr, author of The Shape of Every Monster Yet To Come

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviews• National ad campaign with giveaways• Author events and book fairs in New England and elsewhere

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/MassiveCleansingFire

Rooted: The Best New Arboreal Nonfiction

Introduction by Bill McKibben Edited by Josh MacIvor-Andersen

From Harper’s, The Atlantic and other leading media, an anthology of nature writing, collecting a broad range of essays and reportage on trees.

With an introduction by Bill McKibben, ROOTED is rooted in our human relationship to trees, which of course is multi-faceted, messy, beautiful and selfish and symbiotic. In this collection we meet a boy who ate a tree to gain access to the Guiness Book of World Records, a tree-tethered sniper at a pot farm in California, a man who was killed by a fallen limb in Central Park, and lots of writers, both established and emerging, whose intimate connections to trees (and their losses) have found a collective home in the pulped pages of recycled forest.

Anthology editor Josh MacIvor-Andersen is an award-winning writer, teacher, and competitive tree climber. He is the author of On Heights & Hunger, a memoir (Outpost19, 2015), and lives in Marquette, Michigan with his family.

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviewers• Targeted galley mailing to selected booksellers• National ad campaign with giveaways• Shelftalker, author Q&A, reader guide & extended excerpts at iPage• Contributor events in San Francisco and Portland

Advance praise forthcoming

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/Rooted

Ship Date: 03/01/17

Pub Date: 04/01/17

Price: $16.00 US, $20.00 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853228

Trim: 5” x 8”

Format: Trade paperback

Pages: 302

BISAC Categories: LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays,NATURE / Ecology, NATURE / Plants / Trees

BISAC Codes: LCO010000, NAT010000, NAT034000

Forty-three American Boys and One Girl: Short Histories of Presidential Childhoods

Compiled by William Walsh Brief portraits of the childhoods of the US Presidents, assembled from quotes and fragments culled from over 300 hundred sources. A fascinating look at the arc of American childhood and the roots of American political power.

These are the stories of each president’s childhood—told through fragments and quotes appropriated from more than 300 children’s books, pop history books and scholarly biographies. Together, it’s also the story of boyhood in America, a series of portraits that illustrate how growing-up has changed and how the hurdles have shifted. From farm boys to aristocrats, these are America’s origin stories, the legends of our leaders—a compendium of folklore and facts about the roots of American power.

William Walsh is the author of four books of fiction and nonfiction. His texts and stories have been published widely.

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviewers and booksellers• Outreach to gift/specialty markets• National ad campaign with giveaways• Shelftalker, author Q&A, reader guide & extended excerpts at iPage• Author events in Boston

Advance praise forthcoming

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/43AmericanBoys

Ship Date: 01/05/17

Pub Date: 02/06/17

Price: $14.00 US, $18.50 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853259

Trim: 5” x 8”

Format: Trade paperback with French cold

Pages: 220

BISAC Categories: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary , BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Presidents & Heads of State

BISAC Codes: BIO007000, BIO011000

Family, Genus, Species

Kevin Allardice From an award-winning author, a satire of the pressures of modern family life, from urban organics to political tracking apps to the inscrutable rules of preschool birthday events.

At a sprawling urban farm in the hills above Berkeley, one woman’s attempt to give a birthday present to her four-year-old nephew erupts into an epic quest, increasingly surreal and violent, to survive our deepest cultural chasms. A wickedly funny look at parenting and privilege, sex and politics, set in the shadow of civil unrest.

Kevin Allardice is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Any Resemblance to Actual Persons (Counterpoint, 2014). His short stories have won the Donald Barthelme Prize and two Pushcart nominations. He was born and raised in Berkeley and Oakland.

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviewers and booksellers• National ad campaign with giveaways• Advance praise from emerging literary figures• Shelftalker, author Q&A, reader guide and extended excerpts at iPage• Strong SF/Bay Area focus with regional events planned

Advance praise

“With poignant wit, Kevin Allardice draws us into this backyard fairytale and social satire. Vee is a memorable protagonist, quirky and brave and tender. Fast-paced and suspenseful, FAMILY, GENUS, SPECIES is compelling and utterly original.”— Vanessa Hua, author of Deceit and Other Possibilities

“Kevin Allardice harnesses his great powers of description and ingenious sense of narrative for this viciously funny satire, family genus species. Laurence Sterne would have been proud to call Mr. Allardice a descendent. — Michael Kimball, author of Big Ray, Us and Dear Everybody

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/FamilyGenusSpecies

Ship Date: 04/01/17

Pub Date: 05/01/17

Price: $14.00 US, $18.50 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853204

Trim: 5” x 8”

Format: Trade paperback

Pages: 147

BISAC Categories: FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Satire, FICTION / Family Life, FICTION / General

BISAC Codes: FIC019000, FIC052000, FIC045000, FIC000000

One Million Maniacs:Beanie Babies, Killer Cars, and The Power of Collecting

David LeGault One Million Maniacs is for anyone with a box of Beanie Babies sitting in a storage unit, afraid to give them away because of their imagined value. It’s for anyone who’s paid the extra ten dollars for the Collector’s Edition or paid good money at comic book conventions... One Million Maniacs is for anyone who has tried to fix their life with stuff, for anyone who has discovered the futility in such attempts.

In One Million Maniacs, David LeGault attempts to collect one hundred copies of the 10,000 Maniacs: Unplugged CD -- a quest that frames a broader look at how we try to fix our lives with stuff. Each chapter uses a different collectible item and shows how we take internal comfort with external possession. The monetary value of Beanie Babies becomes a way to talk about the death of a friend. Baseball-card expos become an entry point into his infant daughter’s hospitalization. Photos wedged into used books become a way to investigate the lives of mysterious strangers. LeGault’s debut is a candid and often very funny look at how we seek value amidst life’s trash and chaos.

David LeGault’s work appears in Passages North, The Sonora Review, The Seneca Review, DIAGRAM, Fourth Genre, Ninth Letter, and Black Warrior Review, among others. He lived and wrote in Minneapolis, where he destroys books professionally.

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviewers• Targeted galley mailing to selected booksellers• National ad campaign with giveaways• Endorsement from 10,000 Maniacs band members + major literary figures• Shelftalker, author Q&A, reader guide and extended excerpts at iPage

Advance praise forthcoming from One Million Maniacs, Elena Passarello and Ander Monson

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/OneMillionManiacs

Ship Date: 05/06/17

Pub Date: 06/06/17

Price: $14.00 US, $18.50 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853242

Trim: 5” x 8”

Format: Trade paperback

Pages: 180

BISAC Categories: LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Parenting / Fatherhood, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary

BISAC Codes: LCO010000, FAM020000, BIO007000

Golden State 2017:The Best New Fiction and Nonfiction from California

Edited by Lisa Locascio Our fourth annual anthology about life in California is our most diverse yet. Edited by Lisa Locascio, recent fiction and nonfiction by major and emerging authors provide a vivid portrait of California today.

New writing about life in California, collected from established and emerging authors, representing incredibly diverse perspectives on life in The Golden State. Novelist and critic Lisa Locascio edits our fourth annual anthology, bringing together short fiction and nonfiction from acclaimed writers Elizabeth McKenzie, Anne-Marie Kinney, Diana Wagman, Sean Bernard, Alexis Landau, Gary Young, Elizabeth Hall and Micah Perks, as well as new voices from under-explored environs.

Lisa Locascio has had her fiction and criticism published in The Believer, Salon, n+1, Tin House Flash Fridays, Bookforum, Sou’wester, Santa Monica Review, American Short Fiction, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Faultline, and many other journals. She has held residencies at Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Prairie Center of the Arts and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and received honors and support for her writing from Young Chicago Authors, the National Association for the Advancement of the Arts, New York University, Western Michigan University, the University of Southern California, the Del Amo Foundation, and several other institutions.

• Targeted galley mailing to national and indie reviewers• Targeted galley mailing to selected booksellers• Launch events in LA and SF, with editor-led events in Monterey, Palm Springs,

and Fresno• Shelftalker, author Q&A, reader guide and extended excerpts at iPage

Excerpts and more at outpost19.com/California

Ship Date: 05/01/17

Pub Date: 06/01/17

Price: $16.00 US, $20.00 CAN

ISBN-13: 9781944853235

Trim: 5.5” x 8.5”

Format: Trade paperback

Pages: 302

BISAC Categories: LITERARY COLLECTIONS / General, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / American / General, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / American / Essays, FICTION / Literary

BISAC Codes: LCO000000, LCO002000, LCO010000, FIC019000

Jon RoemerSenior Editor/Publisherjon@outpost19.com

outpost19.com | @outpost19 | San Francisco

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