Category Archives: small press

Query Tips: Give Us a Road Map

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Laura Stanfill

Our editors at Forest Avenue Press are continuing to receive submissions that don’t include a paragraph about the manuscript in the query letter. In these cases, there’s usually no introduction either. No introduction means the author couldn’t be bothered to personalize a letter, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Publishing, small press, Writing | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Poets & Writers

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Laura Stanfill

I have always, always wanted to pick up a copy of Poets & Writers with my name in it. Of course I’ve had several dreams like this that seem to be coming true in ways I never expected lately. One was … Continue reading →

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The One-Title Year

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Laura Stanfill

This has been a wild year, and also a quiet one. I finished my eight-years-in-progress novel, The Serinette, after reading Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and seeing how her short chapters worked so successfully. With a big-voiced, many POV novel, and … Continue reading →

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The Handmade Approach to Publishing

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Laura Stanfill

When we started talking about making origami cranes for the cover of Kate Gray’s Carry the Sky, our fall release from Forest Avenue Press, I piped up to say I knew how. The designer, Gigi Little, asked me to make some. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, small press, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Guest Post: Steve Denniston on Mixing Comedy with Tragedy

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Laura Stanfill

This is the second guest post in an occasional series by authors of short stories collected in my press’ newest release, The Night, and the Rain, and the River, available at your local bookstore or online in paperback and ebook formats. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Guest Post, small press, Writing | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Now Available: The Gods of Second Chances

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Laura Stanfill

Wow, March 1 is here. More than a year ago, when sifting through submissions for Forest Avenue Press, I found a story about a fisherman raising his granddaughter on a small Alaskan island, while struggling with the death of his … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, small press, Writing | Tagged , | 9 Comments

2014 Fellowship and Other Good News

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Laura Stanfill

Wow. My press received a 2014 Oregon Literary Fellowship! You can see the full list of winners here, as well as the finalists for the Oregon Book Award, all just announced this morning. Thanks to Literary Arts for their recognition. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Community, Fiction, small press, Writing | 14 Comments

Toward or Towards

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Laura Stanfill

I’m pretty much a stickler for grammar rules. My newspaper background included drilling on AP Style rules, and because none of the papers I worked for had the budget to buy its reporters copies of this guide, I bought my … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, small press, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , | 19 Comments

Quiet Novels

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Laura Stanfill

Yesterday author Suzy Vitello very kindly highlighted my Late Night Library interview and, in particular, my definition of a quiet novel on her blog, Let’s Talk about Writing. And she used those things as a springboard to ask her blog … Continue reading →

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My Publisher Hat

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Laura Stanfill

My life-long goal has been to write novels and, secondarily, have someone want to publish them. But last night, on the phone, a college sophomore called requesting to update my information. I told her I don’t work in the newspaper … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Publishing, small press, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments