Illinois Authors

In the novel An Untimely Frost, or The Authoress, set in 1830s London, American author Jefferson Wheelwright seeks out the reclusive English novelist Margaret T. Haeley, creator of Dunkelraum's monster and widow of the poet Stephen Haeley. The story is inspired by Washington Irving's rumored courtship of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. The book also includes the author's essay

When uncanny events happen in an isolated Midwestern village, the village questions whether the events are divine or demonic. Central to the events is the crowlike figure of Plague, who haunts the villages, especially the children.

Twelve Winters Press 2023

These twenty stories and twelve sonnets by award-winning author Ted Morrissey are collected here for the first time. Arranged chronologically, they trace his literary development over four decades, beginning in the early 1990s and including work produced within the last few years. Among the earliest stories are "Fische Stories" (published in Glimmer Train Stories) and "Mix" (Paris Transcontinental); transitional stories include "Communion with the Dead" (The Chariton Review) and "Melvill in the Marquesas" (the opening section of his novella Weeping with an Ancient God, named a Best Book of 2015 by Chicago Book Review); and there are three previously uncollected Crowsong stories, extensions of his multi-award-winning 2017 novel Crowsong for the Stricken (which Kirkus Reviews called "strange and beautiful" in a starred review and named a Best Indie Book of 2017). The sonnets are his Laertes Sonnet Sequence (appearing in such journals as Bellevue Literary Review, Grand Little Things and Prime Number Magazine), written in apostrophe to his father Vince, who passed away suddenly in 2012. The collection begins with the author's newly written introduction "Delta of Cassiopeia" in which he shares lessons learned from a lifetime of writing and teaching writing as well as anecdotes about some of the collected material. The introduction also discusses the state of the publishing industry and the reasons why most writers have difficulty establishing a devoted readership.

Figures in Blue is the story of Esteban Espiritu, a young Spanish artist who is commissioned to paint the portrait of Kristena von Lichtenberg, an elderly Baroness living in a deteriorating mansion that overlooks a provincial German village. However, Esteban uncovers a local mystery regarding the disappearance of her brutish husband, the Baron. The novelette is set in the beginning of the twentieth century and references classical mythology.

Story of Russian journalist Hektr Pastrovich, travelling to the frontline of his country's long-standing war to report on the war and gather lurid details for some sensational stories to be published by a rival publisher. In particular, Hektr is searching for a vagabond, who referred to himself as the Prince of Ithaka. Enroute Hektr meets a mysterious woman he calls Helena, who is also travelling to the front. After time, he begins to wonder if they both are searching for the Prince of Ithaka.

Twelve Winters Press 2018

Margaret Saville's husband has been away on business for weeks and has stopped replying to her letters. Her brother, Robert Walton, has suddenly returned after three years at sea, having barely survived his exploratory voyage to the northern pole. She still grieves the death of her youngest child as she does her best to raise her surviving children, Felix and Agatha. The depth of her brother's trauma becomes clear, so that she must add his health and sanity to her list of cares. A bright spot seems to be a new friendship with a young woman who has just returned to England from the Continent, but Margaret soon discovers that her friend, Mary Shelley, has difficulties of her own, including an eccentric poet husband, Percy, and a book she is struggling to write. Margaret's story unfolds in a series of letters to her absent husband, desperate for him to return or at least to acknowledge her epistles and confirm that he is well. She is lonely, grief-stricken and afraid, yet in these darkest of times a spirit of independence begins to awaken. Mrs Saville begins where the novel Frankenstein ends.

Twelve Winters Press 2020

he Artist Spoke is a love letter, a eulogy, and a hymn of hope. Avant-garde author Elizabeth Winters has died en route to Revelation, a literary event for her readers who have volunteered to be part of her latest (and final) novel without knowing what their participation would entail. Christopher Krafft has traveled to Revelation hoping all will be revealed and that he will be revitalized by the event. The author's death affects everything, however, especially the lives of the 753 "Logos" who are devoted to Elizabeth Winters and her work. The experience of Revelation takes another turn when Chris meets Beth Winterberry, a Logos to whom he is immediately attracted. The Artist Spoke is about the love of literature, the death of reading, and the hope that books will rise again. The novel is illustrated with the author's color photography (six images plus the cover image).

[publisher not identified], [Place of publication not identified] : 2013.

This book opens a new line of inquiry into the Old English poem, specifically trauma theory, which attempts to map the psychological typography of an author and his or her culture, that is, when the text appears to be wrought of traumatic experience. Indicators of a

Twelve Winters Press 2024

It's 1907, and a terrible snow storm rages across the Midwest, burying a rural community but also revealing its citizens' closely guarded secrets. Two farm families - the Johnsons and the Fryes - struggle while their women fight to give birth during the storm. The only midwife must decide which mother and which baby to help, if she is able to make it through the deepening snow at all. The difficult and dangerous births force a host of people to risk going out in the storm, which has turned the familiar countryside into a strange and confusing landscape. Meanwhile, the snowstorm has emboldened a band of coyotes that normally stays close to the mysterious and forbidding Hollis Woods, where thirty years before the Hollis children disappeared one by one without a trace. Their ghosts haunt the woods still, say locals. But it turns out everyone has a past that haunts them, and the relentless storm provides the perfect canvas for painting memories and images best left forgotten. The Strophes of Job is a prequel to multi-award-winning Crowsong for the Stricken, a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of 2017 ("strange and beautiful," starred review).

Twelve Winters Press 2021

Trauma Theory As an Approach to Analyzing Literary Texts investigates the hypothesis that cultural trauma affects a society’s literary production (really, its artistic production as a whole), resulting in a narrative voice we have come to call “postmodern” since midway through the twentieth century (set in motion, perhaps, by the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima). A theoretical framework is established based on the work of pioneers in the field of psychoanalysis, like Freud and Lacan, and refined by contemporary trauma theorists (Caruth, Di Prete, Whitehead, et al.). In order to bolster the claim that cultural trauma leads to a “postmodern” narrative style, the Anglo-Saxon Period of English history is examined, and especially the poem Beowulf. Meanwhile, several twentieth-century postmodernists are discussed (Pynchon, Gaddis, Vonnegut, etc.), but especially the work of William H. Gass. In addition to a thorough discussion of literary trauma theory, there is also a chapter on trauma writing, and its practice in the classroom and classroom-like settings. This edition is updated and expanded beyond its related 2016 publication, including a new introduction, notes, and four readings by the author. Special attention is paid to the fiction of William Gass, particularly his novels The Tunnel and Omensetter’s Luck, and the novellas “The Pedersen Kid” and “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country.” Like the book’s 2016 counterpart, Trauma Theory As an Approach to Analyzing Literary Texts includes a Foreword by Robert L. McLaughlin, a leading scholar in the field of American postmodernism.

Twelve Winters Press, Sherman, Ill. : 2014, ©2011.

A novella set in the Marquesas Islands in the summer of 1842 were the protagonist, Melvill, has jumped ship from the whaler Acushnet into a wild, savage and exotically beautiful land. Melvill contemplates his dangerous present, his sad past and his wholly uncertain future on an island teeming with cannibals.