Madville has made our nominations for the 2025 Pushcart Prize. The prize will be awarded in several categories for short pieces. It was a hard decision, because we published such amazing work this year. The Pushcart Prizeaccepts six nominations per small press or magazine and “any combination of poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs or stand-alone excerpts from novels.”
Our editors weighed in on their favorites, and this is what we chose:
“James and Jim Ponder Enough” by Jim Minick from his poetry collection The Intimacy of Spoons (Madville 2024).
I went to Frankfurter Buchmesse to represent Madville Publishing for the first time this past week. According to Wikipedia, “The Frankfurter Buchmesse is the world’s largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading.”
I left the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on Saturday, October 12 and arrived in Frankfurt on Sunday October 13. It’s a 10-hour flight and you lose seven hours traveling west to east to get there. This is what I wrote that Sunday as I sat for another eight hours waiting for check-in time at the hotel:
“I’m sooooo-o-o tired… I haven’t slept a wink.”—John Lennon
I binged the entire fourth season of True Detectiveon the plane, the one with Jody Foster and Kali Reis. I knew I should try to sleep, that it would be morning when I arrived in Germany, but I wasn’t tired then. It was afternoon back home. The series was almost as good as the first season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. I was blown away in that storyline by Matthew McConaughey’s performance that spanned 17 years. He displayed an incredible range. This fourth season I just watched with Jody Foster and Kali Reis was good, but I think the strength of this one was the story more than the acting. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was fine, but if the story hadn’t been strong, it wouldn’t have been special.
I spent the entire time puzzling at the piercings in Kali Reis’s cheeks wondering if the two sides connect like a bit with a chain running through her mouth. Of course that sent me on a search for information about Kali Reis. Did you know she was a professional boxer? That would explain why her character gets to beat some men all the way up in the show. It was good to see a bad ass woman taking the fight to the misogynistic bastards. But I liked the resolution. If there hadn’t been a good ending, it would have spoiled the show for me. That’s what happened in the second one. I didn’t see the third. But without a compelling finish, I leave a miniseries feeling disappointed—like I wasted my time.
So, I watched this series while flying over the ocean from Dallas to Frankfurt in preparation for my first trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair—the largest in the world, and the place to be if you want to sell foreign publishing rights. I’m nervous because I don’t know what I’m doing, and I’m sure I’ve already missed a trick or two by not scheduling meetings yet. Still… Steps one and two are completed. I rode the airplane here and found my way to the hotel. Only trouble is that I arrived at the hotel at nine o’clock in the morning and can’t check into my room until four p.m. and I haven’t slept at all. Now I need to try and stay up all day so I can sleep tonight.
The FrankfurterBuchmesse
To say this fair is huge is an understatement. Here are some photos with captions that may give you an idea of what it’s like. We made some great new friends and hopefully some important business connections. As for foreign rights deals? We’ll see. That part of the trip was more of a learning experience!
Returning from Appalachia ahead of Hurricane Helene
I write seeking to help Appalachia. As I begin to recover from the COVID I brought home with me from my three week trip to Appalachia, I’m finding it hard to discuss all the fun we just had there. I left Asheville last Sunday, September 22, 2024. The weather was fine. I had a near perfect three-day drive home. I got back home Tuesday evening. The storm hit Thursday/Friday. And just like that, those beautiful places I just got to know were devastated. I’m still reeling as I see people’s homes floating down rivers that weren’t there the day before.
I took a lot of sunrise, sunset, and high elevation photos, because for a few days, I stayed in downtown hotels in both Knoxville, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina, which allowed me a birds eye view. I found myself leaping up at all hours to rip the curtains back, ready for some fabulous view. It was my first trip to the Great Smokey Mountains, and I loved every minute of it. I’m glad Linda Parsons made me get out, because I was planning to spend the whole time writing and editing. My one big regret is that I didn’t spend the money to visit the Biltmore Estate.
The situation is so severe around Asheville, in particular, with roads washed out, even whole towns washed away, that it is still hard to communicate with some people. Information from aid organizations is slow percolating, but I’ve been able to find this link to one group who is collecting donations. [Since I wrote this post asking people to help Appalachia we’ve seen amazing resilience. Sad that sometimes a tragedy is what it seems to take to show the best of ourselves.]
We have a new review of The Monosexual by Midwest Book Review. (Have we mentioned Midwest Book Review lately? We are grateful to them for always supporting small publishers.)
The Monosexual from Madville Publishing is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.
The Monosexual by novelist Dean Monti is the story of Vincent Cappellini, an obsessed ultra-monogamist who struggles when his relationship with the love of his life abruptly ends. Twice-burned (once in love and once by the sun) Vincent faces a host of challenges to his self-appointed sense of identity. Sunburn, bad sushi, a Sinatra karaoke contest, and the road rage fury of a woman scorned are but a few of the trials Vincent will endure while facing the ultimate test to his monosexuality — a new woman in his life.
Critique:
Through his remarkably distinctive and narrative driven storytelling style, author Dean Monti raises his original and deftly crafted novel to an impressive level of literary excellence with a riveting and fun read for those with an interest in absurdist fiction laced with dark humor. While available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), The Monosexual from Madville Publishing is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.
Editorial Note:
Dean Monti started writing at age two, but nothing legible until age five. Since then, his fiction has appeared in several literary journals in print and online. His critically-acclaimed novel, The Sweep of the Second Hand, was published by Academy Chicago Publishers and reprinted in paperback by Penguin. In addition to other novels, he is the author of several full-length and one-act plays and has had works staged in Chicago and Norfolk, Virginia. His short story “Why Dogs Don’t Talk” was adapted as a stage play and short film. Additionally, Monti has also taught creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago and at College of DuPage.
