Sci-fi book club
We got lotsa easy ways to join any Stanza book club!
Buy the book at Stanza(book club members get 10% off book club books!)
Get the book from your local library
Get your audio book from Libro.fm
Then just RSVP on our site and come ready for great discussion!
Hazel was a Good Girl
Join Dr. Jerry C. Drake and Leza Cantoral for an in depth discussion about CLASH’S new book HAZEL WAS A GOOD GIRL. Then, stay and commune with Hazel herself!
After the reading and discussion with Dr. Jerry C. Drake, Francesca DeCapita will channel the spirit of Hazel Drew — a young woman whose mysterious murder in 1908 still echoes through the woods of Sand Lake, NY. As a psychic medium with over 10 years of practice, she will open herself to receive messages, impressions, and energy from Hazel’s spirit, with the goal of unearthing spiritual messages that may still linger in the veil between life and death.
Hazel’s energy deserves to be witnessed, not just as a mystery—but as a woman, a soul, and a story still unfolding.
Purchase of the book is your invitation to this special session.
Friendly reminder: no outside books for signing at Stanza events.
HAZEL WAS A GOOD GIRL
The tragic and mysterious death of Hazel Drew that inspired the cult hit TV show Twin Peaks, is finally solved by Dr. Jerry C. Drake.
The legend of Hazel Drew spread through stories of her ghost haunting the woods where her body was found. It was a hot summer day in July 1908 when the body of a young woman was found floating in a mill pond in Upstate New York. Hazel Irene Drew was murdered. Her death captured headlines across the nation and around the world, but after a whirlwind investigation lasting less than thirty days, the District Attorney abruptly closed the case.
Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, with clippings and photographs from local Troy and Albany newspapers from 1908, Dr. Jerry C. Drake parses out the facts from the legend through back alleys and dark mountain forests, in pursuit of Hazel Drew's killer, in this engaging, historical investigation of a tragic American story.
With firsthand accounts from locals dreaming of clues, tabloid journalists, railroad Robber Barons and political bosses, psychic investigators, and even a mysterious hypnotist, the tabloid sensation is debunked and the real woman is finally revealed. This is the definitive story of Hazel Drew, whose ghost can finally rest, knowing that her killer has been exposed.
Dr. Jerry C. Drake
Dr. Jerry C. Drake is a career civil servant, former professor of history, all-around amateur detective, with a wide-ranging educational background to include degrees in anthropology and United States history. This is his first foray into true crime. His short stories have appeared in CLASH Books anthologies; Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana Del Rey & Sylvia Plath and Walk Hand in Hand into Extinction: Stories Inspired by True Detective.
Leza Cantoral
Leza Cantoral is publisher/publicist at local Troy based press CLASH Books and author of Cartoons in the Suicide Forest and Trash Panda.
Francesca DeCapita
Francesca is a psychic medium, tarot reader, and spiritual life coach based in New York City. She helps people find clarity in love, career, and life purpose through grounded spiritual insight and energy work. Known for her no-fluff, intuitive approach, Francesca empowers clients to reconnect with their truth, shift their energy, and confidently move forward.
Feel Good book club
We got lotsa easy ways to join any Stanza book club!
Buy the book at Stanza(book club members get 10% off book club books!)
Get the book from your local library
Get your audio book from Libro.fm
Then just RSVP on our site and come ready for great discussion!
Dark Fiction book club
We got lotsa easy ways to join any Stanza book club!
Buy the book at Stanza(book club members get 10% off book club books!)
Get the book from your local library
Get your audio book from Libro.fm
Then just RSVP on our site and come ready for great discussion!
Ecstasy author event
Friendly reminder: no outside books for signing at Stanza events.
ECSTASY
A deliciously dark horror reimagining of a Greek tragedy, by Ivy Pochoda, winner of the LA Times Book Prize.
Lena wants her life back. Her wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. Lena lands in Naxos with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son's, pet project--the luxurious Agape Villas.
Years of marriage amongst the wealthy elite has whittled Lena's spirit into rope and sinew, smothered by tasteful cocktail dresses and unending small talk. On Naxos she yearns to rediscover her true nature, remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was, but Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the hotel, demanding that she fall in line.
Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the Agape. She can feel their drums at night, hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she'll find that an ancient God stirs on the beach, awakening dark desires of women across the island. The only questions left will be whether Lena will join them, and what it will cost her.
Ecstasy is a riveting, darkly poetic, one-sitting read about empowerment, desire, and what happens when women reject the roles set out for them.
Ivy Pochoda
Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, These Women, and Sing Her Down which won the LA Times Book Prize. She won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France, and has been a finalist for the the Edgar Award, among other awards. For many years, Ivy has led a creative writing workshop in Skid Row Los Angeles where she helped found Skid Row Zine. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. She lives in Los Angeles.
in conversation with
Elizabeth Crane
Elizabeth Crane is the author of the memoir This Story Will Change (Counterpoint, 2022) and six works of fiction, including the story collection Turf (Soft Skull, 2017) and the novel The History of Great Things (Harper Perennial, 2016). Her stories have been translated into several languages and appear in numerous publications, including Guernica, Catapult, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Fairy Tale Review, Huffington Post, Chicago Reader, The Believer, and air/light, and the anthologies Love in the Time of Time’s Up (Tortoise, 2022), The Best of the Web (Dzanc, 2008 and 2010), and The Best Underground Fiction (Stolen Time, 2006). Her work is performed regularly as part of NPR’s Selected Shorts and has been adapted for film and stage, most notably with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre. She teaches in the low-residency MFA program at UC Riverside–Palm Desert and is a recipient of the Chicago Public Library’s 21st Century Award.
Charlie Rauh and David Rothenberg
David and Charlie have played together for many years, and often combine reading and music in their performances.
We’ll have copies of Charlie’s and David’s books on hand for sale and signing.
Friendly reminder, no outside books allowed at Stanza events.
simply, patiently, quietly
(String Letter Publishing). Simply, Patiently, Quietly combines a songbook of original notated lullabies for solo guitar and choir with insightful prose on the exploration of intentional creativity and beautiful pen and ink artwork by Christina Rauh Fishburne. With a focus on appreciating the nuanced and the small over the fleeting and the distracting, this brief multidisciplinary offering is meant to engage readers wherever they may be. "An inspired and multi-faceted read on how to channel and access creativity of all sorts, and a great reminder to quiet the daily noise and get back to what matters."--Mary Halvorson, MacArthur Fellow and Guitarist/Composer
Charlie Rauh
Composer/author Charlie Rauh has been artist in residence for organizations including the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Louisiana State University’s School of Veterinary Medicine. He is the author of “Simply, Patiently, Quietly” from String Letter Publishing - a combination of essays on creative approach, illustrations by Christina Rauh Fishburne, and a songbook of original compositions for solo guitar and choir. Rauh’s work has been featured in Ploughshares, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and The Advocate. He has given artist talks for music and literature departments at institutions including Louisiana State University, University of Tennessee, and New Jersey institute of Technology.
David Rothenberg
Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg wrote Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful and many other books, published in at least eleven languages. He has more than forty recordings out, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent House which came out on ECM, and more recently Just Leave It All Behind and Lost Steps. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, Suzanne Vega, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Umru, Iva Bittová, and the Karnataka College of Percussion. In 2024 he won a Grammy Award as part of For the Birds, in the category of Best Boxed Set. Whale Music and Secret Sounds of Ponds are his latest books. Nightingales In Berlin and Eastern Anthems are his latest films. Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
STANZA Children's Book Festival
Friendly reminder: no outside books allowed for signing at Stanza events.
The Aviator and the Showman
Books will be for sale at the event. Friendly reminder, no outside books allowed at Stanza events.
All sales are final. There are no refunds for this event.
Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York, The Daily Beast, Lapham’s Quarterly, Slate, Aeon, The Forward, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her documentary film awards include an Independent Spirit Award for directing IFC’s Keep the River on Your Right, and an Emmy nomination for HBO’s Finishing Heaven. Shapiro is the 2021 winner of Best NYC Essay or Article from the GANYC Apple Awards, the 2021 winner of the Damn History Award for “The Improbable Journey of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes” for The New Yorker and gold medallion winner in the People Profiles category for the Silurian Press Club’s 77th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards. The Stowaway (Simon & Schuster) was her best selling first full-length work of nonfiction, and was an Indie next selection. Her next nonfiction book will be The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, for Viking Books. She is an adjunct professor of journalism at The NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in the graduate program.
Adam McKible
Adam McKible is Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is the author of Circulating Jim Crow (2024) and The Space and Place of Modernism: The Russian Revolution, Little Magazines, and New York (2002). He edited and introduced Edward Christopher Williams’s When Washington Was in Vogue (2004), a previously lost novel of the Harlem Renaissance, and he co-edited the collection, Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches (2005).
Rachen Harrison - PLAY NICE
THE 7PM EVENT FILLED UP QUICKLY. But fear not, Rachel and Dennis are doing a SECOND event at 8:30PM the same night. RSVP below.
Friendly reminder: no outside books for signing at Stanza events.
PLAY NICE
A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty.
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.
After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.
Rachel Harrison
Rachel Harrison is the USA Today Bestselling author of SO THIRSTY, BLACK SHEEP, SUCH SHARP TEETH, CACKLE, and THE RETURN, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection BAD DOLLS.
Dennis Mahoney
Dennis Mahoney is the author of Fellow Mortals, a Booklist Top Ten Debut; Bell Weather, an Indie Next pick; Ghostlove; and My Heart Is Full of Blood. He lives in Troy, NY, with his wife, son, and dog.
Rachen Harrison - PLAY NICE 2
THE 7PM EVENT FILLED UP QUICKLY. But fear not, Rachel and Dennis are doing a SECOND event at 8:30PM the same night. RSVP below.
Friendly reminder: no outside books for signing at Stanza events.
PLAY NICE
A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Black Sheep and So Thirsty.
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.
After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, a sinister presence in the house manifests, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.
Rachel Harrison
Rachel Harrison is the USA Today Bestselling author of SO THIRSTY, BLACK SHEEP, SUCH SHARP TEETH, CACKLE, and THE RETURN, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection BAD DOLLS.
Dennis Mahoney
Dennis Mahoney is the author of Fellow Mortals, a Booklist Top Ten Debut; Bell Weather, an Indie Next pick; Ghostlove; and My Heart Is Full of Blood. He lives in Troy, NY, with his wife, son, and dog.
Fantasy book club
We got lotsa easy ways to join any Stanza book club!
Buy the book at Stanza(book club members get 10% off book club books!)
Get the book from your local library
Get your audio book from Libro.fm
Then just RSVP on our site and come ready for great discussion!
What My Father and I Don't Talk About
Friendly reminder: no outside books for signing at Stanza events.
What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About has become a rare gem in the literary world. Both a viral sensation online and chosen by Oprah Daily as one of the best nonfiction books of the past two decades, it is an essential collection that dives into the personal and poignant topics we often struggle to discuss with those who are meant to know and love us best.
This captivating follow-up, edited by Michele Filgate, tackles the intricate and challenging relationships we have with our dads, breaking the silence around these vital connections. Andrew Altschul reflects on the life-altering experience of becoming a father and how it reshaped his view of his own dad’s parenting. Isle McElroy shares memories of weekends spent tagging along as their father fixed up the homes of their wealthier neighbors. Jaquira Díaz delves into her father’s history in 1970s Williamsburg, uncovering the roots of their shared restlessness. Tomás Q. Morín paints a raw portrait of an absentee father, while Kelly McMasters portrays a loving and dedicated one. Maurice Carlos Ruffin insightfully captures a father who communicated through his integrity rather than words. Jiordan Castle reveals how we can love our fathers from a distance and Susan Muaddi Darraj explores the particular challenges of “eldest daughter syndrome” as a daughter of Palestinian immigrants.
With moments that are both humorous and deeply moving, this anthology is the second act that many have been eagerly waiting for.
Contributions by Michele Filgate, Andrew Altschul, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Dylan Landis, Jaquira Díaz, Kelly McMasters, Isle McElroy, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Tomás Q. Morín, Robin Reif, Heather Sellers, Jiordan Castle, Nayomi Munaweera, Joanna Rakoff, and Julie Buntin.
Books will be available for purchase and signing. Friendly reminder, no outside books allowed at Stanza events.
Michele Filgate
Michele Filgate is the editor of What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About and What My Father and I Don’t Talk About. Her writing has appeared in Longreads, Poets & Writers, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Paris Review Daily, Tin House, Gulf Coast, Oprah Daily, and many other publications. She received her MFA in Fiction from NYU, where she was the recipient of the Stein Fellowship. She teaches at The New School.
Photo credit: Sylvie Rosokoff
Robin Reif
Robin Reif was awarded the 2023 Jeffrey E. Smith nonfiction prize from The Missouri Review and was honored as a Notable in Best American Essays 2023 and as a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize 2025. Her work has appeared in The New York Times “Modern Love” column, McSweeney’s, The Missouri Review, and Off-Assignment, among other publications. Ayin Press published her first short fiction, and she is currently working on a memoir.
As a storytelling junkie who’s braved the stages of The Moth and The Magnet Theater, Robin will appear in an upcoming episode of the PBS series “Stories from the Stage.”
Sari Botton
Sari Botton is the author of the memoir in essays, And You May Find Yourself...Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo. For five years, she was the Essays Editor at Longreads. She edited the bestselling anthologies Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NewYork and Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York. She publishes Oldster Magazine, Memoir Land, and Adventures in Journalism.
Paula Bomer - THE STALKER book launch
Stanza will have books for signing. Friendly reminder, no outside books allowed at Stanza events.
THE STALKER
AN UNTALENTED MR. RIPLEY, A DUMB AMERICAN PSYCHO: A young man combines
boundless self-confidence with perpetual failure and ineptitude as he tries to manipulate
his way into a better life, preying on women in New York City in the early ’90s.
In the same pathologically destructive tenor and satirical edge of works like
YOU or THE SUBSTANCE, Paula Bomer’s THE STALKER is an excoriating character
study that confirms her as a contemporary master of the pitch-black comic novel.
IN THE YEARS SINCE THE #MeToo movement rose to prominence in American culture, the absurdity and horrors of (white) male
privilege have only become more brazen. Moved by the writings of radical feminists like Andrea Dworkin, the case of Gisèle Pelicot,
and much more, Paula Bomer’s new novel The Stalker offers a timely, compelling examination of sociopathy & entitlement.
In laugh-out-loud outrageous and subversive prose, Bomer captures emotional abuses in every order of magnitude through the
portrayal of an everyday predator and his unchecked pretension and privilege. From gaslighting to weaponized incompetence,
Bomer’s dissection reveals an entire playbook of coercions that her antihero Doughty carries out insidiously, often taking advantage
of the gray area between social impropriety and unlawful harm and (mostly) failing upwards despite his lack of self-estimation.
But regardless of any chuckles and groans the book might elicit, The Stalker remains both horrifically serious and darkly clever as
Bomer follows Doughty’s inflated sense of ethnocentrism and the gross distortions of his self-mythologizing, both parts of his
modus operandi.
Fans of depraved, satirically indulgent literary fiction à la Bret Easton Ellis or true crime podcasts about con men like Dirty
John and Who the Hell Is Hamish? will revel in this novel and its portrait of the sociopath as a young loser. Though set in the ’90s,
Doughty’s point of view speaks to today’s escalating violence and unrest in the United States—from Trump
Paula Bomer
Paula Bomer is the author of the novels Tante Eva and Nine Months and the story collections Inside Madeleine and Baby and Other Stories, as well as the essay collection Mystery and Mortality. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including New York Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB, Fiction, and The Mississippi Review.
HOT AIR
A joyfully unhinged story of money, marriage, sex, and revenge unspools when a billionaire crashes his hot-air balloon into the middle of a post-pandemic first date.
Joannie hadn’t been on a date in seven years when Johnny invites Joannie and her daughter to dinner. His house is beautiful, his son is sweet, and their first kiss is, well, it’s not the best, but Joannie could convince herself it was nice enough. But when Joannie’s childhood crush, a summer-camp fling turned famous billionaire, crash-lands his hot-air balloon in Johnny’s swimming pool, Joannie dives in.
Soon she finds herself alighting on a lost weekend with Johnny the bad kisser, Jonathan the billionaire, and Julia, his smart, stunning wife. Does Joannie want Jonathan? Does Julia want her husband? Or Joannie? Or Joannie’s beautiful little girl? Does Johnny want Julia? Does Jonathan want Joannie, or Julia, or maybe, his much younger personal assistant, Vivian, who is tasked to fix it all? A tale of lust and money and lust for money, Hot Air is as astonishing as it is blisteringly funny, a delirious, delicious story for our billionaire era.
MARCY DERMANSKY
MARCY DERMANSKY is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Hot Air Hurricane Girl, Very Nice, The Red Car, Bad Marie, and Twins. She has received fellowships from MacDowell and The Edward F. Albee Foundation. She lives with her daughter in Montclair, NJ.
Jackie Corley
In past lives, Jackie Corley was a reporter, a drone operator, and the publisher of Word Riot. In the current one, she's VP of Content for a radio company. Corley received an MFA from the Bennington College. Her fiction has appeared in BULL, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Redivider and Fourteen Hills, among others. She lives in the Hudson Valley but will always be a Jersey girl at heart.
Dark fiction book club
We’re trying something new! We’re renaming the horror book club to the dark fiction book club. Over the past year, we’ve mixed many witchy and gothic titles into our horror brew. So I hope renaming the club will invite in even more folks.
But don’t worry horror fans. We still have plenty of bloody good times ahead.
So, even if you’re all like: “eww, horror,” start checking out the books we choose. You may find something to love in the darkness.
Writing workshop public reading
featuring…
Maria Cuccia
Maria Cuccia started making up stories long before she learned to write. As a child she enjoyed telling scary stories to her younger cousins, leading to their parents requesting she quit scaring their kids. She now lives in New Paltz where she enjoys thrift shopping, reading Stephen King, and adores her cat, Toaster.
About the WIP
Reading an excerpt from Thief, a fairy story about a young man who was never invited to wield magic, and the consequences of taking it anyway.
Caroline Francis
Caroline Francis began her writing career at the age of 5 when she dictated her first story entitled “The Bear” to her mother. She then moved on to poetry typical of a moody teen before trying her hand at novels. When not writing about teenage vampires, she enjoys walks by the Hudson, photography, and obscure bits of history. You can find her ramblings on her substack, Female Main Character.
About the WIP
I started my work in progress in the fall of 2008, when I was 17 years old. Back then, it was a coming of age story that rapidly turned into a psychological mystery. I called it Half Crazy. Over the years it’s never quite left me alone, and it’s been through many twists and turns to get to where it is now; a YA urban fantasy novel in progress about vampires, witches, true crime obsession, and the things that we bury within ourselves.
Mark Harris
Mark is a writer and co-owner of Stanza Books. His first novel, HEKATE’S RETURN is available at the shop. In 2025, he’s releasing two novellas through Stanza Publishing. He lives in Beacon with his partner Andrea Talarico and two cats, Hank Williams and Teeny Turner. Mark is also an experience designer who focuses on storytelling in physical space. Clients include HBO, Netflix, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, and New York Life.
About the WIP
This novella is called FREE WILL IS AN ILLUSION, FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US HAS A WEAVER. It’s an idea I’ve had for a long time. In 2025, a few threads came together to make this the right time to write it. It’s a horror novella set in an alternate history Beacon. It has a cult, cosmic horror, a hard-boiled protagonist, and a character who sets herself on fire. I took Julia’s workshop to kickstart my writing practice again, and renew my daily writing habit.
Filip Nonkovic
Fil is a creative director who has designed digital products, games, businesses and brands. He lives in an orchard in the Hudson Valley with his wife, four cats, and a dove.
About the WIP
The Gigantomachy is a Homeric epic set in a speculative far future, in which an engineered race of humans rise up and challenge their creators and the Fates themselves to end an occupation that has lasted for 500 years.
Maria Ricapito
I have spent years as a writer and editor for glossy magazines such as Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle Decor, and Cosmopolitan. In my career, I have written about everything from how to apply the latest iteration of green eye shadow to what it’s like to be the daughter of a serial killer (neither from personal experience). I have documented celebrity homes in the Hamptons and Hudson Valley. I have written for The New York Times… albeit about bar carts, vampire movies, and the weird pretzel legs of people sitting in the front row of fashion shows. Recently I collaborated with a woman incarcerated for murder who wanted to write a memoir.Having done almost everything I wanted to do in journalism, I decided I wanted to write a “thriller” or crime novel just like the ones I love to read. I’ve worked on it in two writing workshops so far and find that, without the feedback and deadlines, things slow to a crawl.
About the WIP
My novel is set in the Hudson Valley, and I’ve enjoyed doing historical research on the West Point Foundry and the Civil War.I went to Yale University from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and then moved to New York City to start working in publishing. I may be the only person alive who has been a Literature major at Yale, an editorial assistant at Vanity Fair, and (a few years before that) an Arby’s employee. I live with my 90 yo mother, Carolyn, and two cats (Patsy and Dolly) and two dogs (Amber and Gabbie). I ended up in the Hudson Valley about 18 years ago and never want to leave
Kimberly Sabatini
Kimberly Sabatini is the author of a young adult novel, TOUCHING THE SURFACE, and living proof that publishing one book doesn’t make writing new stories easier. Her work-in-progress, another YA she’s titled SPARKED, is a project she’s been trying to bring to illumination for eight years. When Kim feels called to a story, it’s because she has big questions that need to be answered, and complex emotions she’s finally decided she can no longer ignore. Year after year—draft after draft—this story has poked and prodded its creator, but only recently have the pieces fallen into place. And even though the concepts and the characters are finally making sense, Kim struggled to get the words on the page. You can lose a bit of confidence in yourself when a project takes longer than you expect. Thank goodness Stanza offered this Writers Workshop! It was the perfect support at the exact right time and it re-sparked Kim’s confidence and helped her to fall in love with the project all over again. She’s excited to share a little of her manuscript with you.
About the WIP
SPARKED
By Kimberly J. Sabatini
When West Point Foundry Institute's Leadership and Peace Program recruits former best friends, Lennie and Ridley, they discover that everyone in the program suffers from rare and vivid auras. After signing a pre-curriculum, non-disclosure agreement, the girls learn their episodes aren’t a medical issue, but the real reason the Army wants to train them. Learning to manipulate the aura-causing electrical waves in the brain's cortex, the young adults at WPFI discover they each have enhanced sensory skills only experienced by animals. The girls' growing role as new-era peacekeepers energizes them as they hone their unusual abilities, but when they’re reminded that darkness surrounds every spark, they’ll have to decide whether they believe peace and power can coexist in those who lead—and what kind of leaders they will be.
The Sundowner’s Dance
The Sundowner’s Dance
Jerry Campbell just wants to be left alone. Grief-stricken over the death of his wife Abigail, the elderly widower and recent retiree is desperate for a change of scenery. When his realtor suggests a new home in Fairview Acres, a retirement community in the Poconos, Jerry figures it will be a nice place to spend the rest of his days in solitude.
Until he moves in.
Weird neighbors. Nightly block parties. Strange noises across his rooftop at all hours. Worst of all is Arthur Peterson, chairman of the Fairview Acres Community Association, who seems obsessed with coaxing Jerry into participating in neighborhood activities.
At first, Jerry shrugs off the incidents and eccentricities, telling himself he doesn’t want to be the guy who complains about everything—but that all changes one evening when Katherine Dunnally appears on his doorstep with an ominous warning: “You need to leave. The worms…they dance at nightfall…”
His neighbors all say Katherine suffers from a form of dementia called Sundowner’s Syndrome, but as the weeks progress and the strangeness mounts, Jerry begins to suspect there is something else going on in his neighborhood. Something that has to do with the huge stone in the community park…
Heartfelt and unsettling, Todd Keisling’s latest novel, The Sundowner’s Dance, propels readers through a terrifying exploration of grief, dementia, and perhaps the greatest horror of all: growing old.
TODD KEISLING
TODD KEISLING is the two-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of Devil’s Creek, Scanlines, Cold, Black & Infinite, and most recently, The Sundowner’s Dance, among several others. A pair of his earlier works were recipients of the University of Kentucky’s Oswald Research & Creativity Prize for Creative Writing (2002 and 2005), and his second novel, The Liminal Man, was an Indie Book Award finalist in Horror & Suspense (2013). He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.
He works as a freelance graphic designer under the moniker of Dullington Design Co. In 2021, he was the recipient of This Is Horror’s Award for Cover Art of the Year for his cover design of Arterial Bloom, edited by Mercedes M. Yardley and published by Crystal Lake Publishing.
Todd is an active member of the Horror Writers Association.
He is a former editor for The Self-Publishing Review, hosted Crystal Lake Publishing’s Beneath the Lake interview series, and co-hosted the popular live YouTube series Awkward Conversations with Geeky Writers alongside Mercedes M. Yardley, Anthony J. Rapino, Nikki Nelson-Hicks, Eryk Pruitt, and Amelia Bennett.
A former Kentucky resident, Keisling now lives in Pennsylvania with his family.
in convo with
Jonathan Lees
After twenty-five years working with video and film in NYC, Jonathan Lees has now materialized in the Hudson Valley to continue inscribing arcane texts for accursed volumes such as the Bad Hand Books releases, Long Division, and the Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthology, The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors, the World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award nominated, Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, and his story, "Power Out, Wind Howling" from Even In The Grave, recently received an Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen.
Lit book club
We got lotsa easy ways to join any Stanza book club!
Buy the book at Stanza(book club members get 10% off book club books!)
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Then just RSVP on our site and come ready for great discussion!
Feel Good book club
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Mystery book club
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Poetry: Mary Newell & Heller Levinson
Mary Newell
Mary Newell is the author of the poetry book ENTWINE (BlazeVox Press) as well as the poetry chapbooks TILT/ HOVER/ VEER (Codhill Press) and Re-SURGE, poems in numerous journals and anthologies, and occasional essays including “When Poetry Rivers” (Interim journal 38.3). is co-editor of Poetics for the More-than-Human-World: An Anthology of Poetry and Commentary and the Routledge Companion to Ecopoetics. Newell teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Connecticut, Stamford and intermittent online classes. She lives in the Hudson Highlands of New York.
Recording of an interview on ecopoetics with the Brooklyn Rail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIIp-pbuSjM.
Heller Levinson
HELLER LEVINSON’s most recent books are QUERY CABOODLE, SHIFT GRISTLE (Black Widow Press, 2023), THE ABYSSAL RECITATIONS (Concrete Mist Press, 2024), VALVULAR ASH (BWP, 2024), QUERY CABOODLE 2 (Sulfur Editions, 2024), with CROSSFALL (BWP) slated for a spring 2025 release. His book, LURE (Black Widow Press, 2022), won the “2022 Big Other Poetry Book Award.”
Horror book club
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Sci-fi book club
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Fantasy book club
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Fear No Pharaoh
At the Howland Cultural Center
477 Main, Beacon NY
Books will be for sale and signing at the event. Friendly reminder, no outside books allowed at Stanza events.
A dramatic history of how American Jews reckoned with slavery—and fought the Civil War.
Since ancient times, the Jewish people have recalled the story of Exodus and reflected on the implications of having been slaves. Did the tradition teach that Jews should speak out against slavery and oppression everywhere, or act cautiously to protect themselves in a hostile world?
In Fear No Pharaoh, the journalist and historian Richard Kreitner sets this question at the heart of the Civil War era. Using original sources, he tells the intertwined stories of six American Jews who helped to shape a tumultuous time, including Judah Benjamin, the brilliant, secretive lawyer who became Jefferson Davis’s trusted confidante; Morris Raphall, a Swedish-born rabbi who defended slavery as biblically justified; and Raphall's rival rabbis—the celebrated Isaac Mayer Wise, who urged Jews to stay out of the slavery controversy to avoid attracting attention, and David Einhorn, whose fiery sermons condemning bondage led to a pro-slavery mob threatening his life. We also meet August Bondi, a veteran of Europe’s 1848 revolutions, who fought with John Brown in “Bleeding Kansas” and later in the Union Army, and the Polish émigré Ernestine Rose, a feminist, atheist, and abolitionist who championed “emancipation of all kinds.”
As he tracks these characters, Kreitner illuminates the shifting dynamics of Jewish life in America—and the debates about religion, morality, and politics that endure to this day.
Richard Kreitner
Richard Kreitner is the author of Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union and Booked: A Traveler’s Guide to Literary Locations Around the World. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Nation, Slate, Raritan, The Baffler, Jewish Currents, and other publications. He lives in Beacon.
in conversation with
Rabbi Brent Spodek
Rabbi Brent works extensively with couples preparing for marriage, serves as a member of the faculty at Pardes North America and is the emeritus rabbi at Beacon Hebrew Alliance.
He has been recognized by the Jewish Forward as one of the most inspiring rabbis in America, by Hudson Valley Magazine as a Person to Watch and by Newsweek as "a rabbi to watch." He is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and a Fellow of the Schusterman Foundation.
Previously, Rabbi Brent served as the Rabbi in Residence at American Jewish World Service and was a Rabbinic Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York.
Rabbi Brent holds rabbinic ordination and a master's degree in philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was the first recipient of the Neubauer Fellowship.
Lit book club
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REKT - Alex Gonzalez book launch
Books will be for sale at the event. Friendly reminder, no outside books allowed at stanza events.
REKT
A lot of folks shun horror because they think it’s all slashers and blood and gore. But as I’ve said many times, I view horror as a direct descendent of Greek tragedy. Great horror, truly great horror, is about people. The monsters, ghosts, or otherwise beasties are symbols, metaphors, manifestations of the darkness that lives in us all.
So, I’m starting to fine-tune my horror book club to include more dark and gothic fiction, in the hopes of luring more of you in. Our current pick Hungerstone is a great example. Check out my write-up in the book clubs section.
For the launch of REKT, I’ve paired Alex with horror legend John Langan. Two radically different writers using fantastical scenarios to explore grief.
Langan’s The Fisherman imagines a man so distraught at the loss of his wife, he employs occult rituals and wrestles a leviathan for the power to bring her back.
The Fisherman is not exactly scary. It is a horrifying and awe-inspiring gaze into the darkest parts of the human heart, by a master of the genre.
Gonzalez’s REKT shows us how profound loss can drive us down the deepest rabbit holes. A stunning debut, REKT bears down with unrelenting dread and terror as the lead character spirals into the dark web.
If you’re not familiar, the dark web is a secret internet hidden from search engines, devoid of friendly domain names, and only accessible via arcane web addresses. The dark web is where criminals sell drugs, weapons, and much, much worse.
REKT takes us to the most sinister possible version of this dark web, but certainly not the version you expect. REKT will not show you child or animal abuse, or anything like that. Like the modern web itself, REKT’s terrors are personalized, tailored just for you. There are no ghosts, ghouls, or cryptids. Oh no, the monsters in REKT are the scariest of them all.
Fans of the crime fiction like, say Gillian Flynn, will find a lot to love in REKT.
The Fisherman roots itself in Hudson Valley and Catskills history, and is largely timeless. The modern sections do not rely too much on current tech or customs.
REKT is immediate. It speaks directly to the anxieties the modern web creates in us right now. Beyond being a good book, REKT is an important book to read in 2025.
I’m cooking up a range of questions to get these two authors riffing, and I hope y’all come out. It’s going to be a great night.
-Mark
Alex Gonzalez
Alex Gonzalez is a WGA screenwriter and horror fiction writer. He is the cofounder of the horror zine You Are Not Alone and has taught genre writing workshops at various magazines and institutions. Born and raised in Florida, he now lives with his wife in Beacon, New York.
in conversation with
John Langan
John Langan is the author of two novels and five collections of stories. For his work, he has received the Bram Stoker and This Is Horror awards. One of the founders of the Shirley Jackson award, he serves on its Board of Advisors. His reviews and essays have been widely published. He lives in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley with his wife, younger son, and bubbling fish tanks.
Horror book club
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Buy the book at Stanza(book club members get 10% off book club books!)
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Then just RSVP on our site and come ready for great discussion!
Mystery book club
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The Roaring 20s and the Harlem Renaissance
The Roaring 20s and the Harlem Renaissance
This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of three extraordinary events. The Harlem Renaissance became a national phenomenon in 1925, and it was also the year F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby and Edward Christopher Williams released his novel, When Washington Was in Vogue. In 1925, the Jazz Age was in full swing, flappers were challenging long-held gender norms, and artists, writers, and musicians were producing work that we still admire today. Join Eve Dunbar (Vassar College) and Adam McKible (John Jay College of Criminal Justice) for a discussion of the Roaring Twenties and a comparative look at two of the era’s most compelling novels.
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.
When Washington Was in Vogue
Nearly lost after its anonymous publication in 1926 and only recently rediscovered, When Washington Was in Vogue is an acclaimed love story written and set during the Harlem Renaissance. When bobbed-hair flappers were in vogue and Harlem was hopping, Washington, D.C., did its share of roaring, too.
Davy Carr, a veteran of the Great War and a new arrival in the nation's capital, is welcomed into the drawing rooms of the city's Black elite. Through letters, Davy regales an old friend in Harlem with his impressions of race, politics, and the state of Black America as well as his own experiences as an old-fashioned bachelor adrift in a world of alluring modern women.
With an introduction by Adam McKible and commentary by Emily Bernard, this novel, a timeless love story wonderfully enriched with the drama and style of one of the most hopeful moments in African American history, is as "delightful as it is significant" (Essence).
Adam McKible
Adam McKible is Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is the author of Circulating Jim Crow (2024) and The Space and Place of Modernism: The Russian Revolution, Little Magazines, and New York (2002). He edited and introduced Edward Christopher Williams’s When Washington Was in Vogue (2004), a previously lost novel of the Harlem Renaissance, and he co-edited the collection, Little Magazines and Modernism: New Approaches (2005).
Eve Dunbar
Eve Dunbar is an English professor at Rice University (TX). She is the author of Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction: African American Women Writing Under Slavery (U of Minnesota Press, 2024), Black Regions of the Imagination: African American Writers Between the Nation and the World, and co-editor of African American Literature in Transition: 1930-1940.
Sci-Fi book club
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