Alan Squire Publishing

A Small Press With Big Ideas

What does Patricia Bracewell have to say about "Melanie's Song"? The author of "Shadow on the Crown" and "The Price of Blood" weighs in on Joanna Biggar's new novel. "Joanna Biggar’s novel Melanie’s Song is like a sweetly familiar refrain from the not-so-distant past. Nostalgic, redolent with the sights and sounds of the sixties and seventies, it is a tale of broken hearts, healing friendships, and the tender yet powerful bonds that friendships forge. It is a bittersweet delight." —Patricia Bracewell, author of "Shadow on the Crown" Pre-Order Melanie's Song Patricia … [Read more...]

Diane LeBow Shares her Thoughts on "Melanie's Song" The President Emerita of Bay Area Travel Writers, Diane LeBow, gives her thoughts on Joanna Biggar's new novel,"Melanie's Song." "In Melanie's Song, Joanna Biggar takes you along on an amazing ride of mystery and intriguing details, combining personal turbulence masterfully set against the reality of the politics of the '60s and '70s in the USA. Her writing, both crisp and lyrical, draws you into each scene with suspense and tempting detail. Of course, there are those earlier memories of Paris. It's quite a trip." —Diane … [Read more...]

Rose Solari's Interview in The Kenyon Review Shows Us What it Means to be a Literary Citizen Kristina Marie Darling from the Kenyon Review sat down with ASP Co-Founder and poet, Rose Solari to talk literary citizenship, ASP, and editing as a career. ASP Co-Founder and poet, Rose Solari. Read the Kenyon Review's interview with Rose Solari Here The Kenyon Review recently published an interview with ASP's own Rose Solari concerning several different operational and philosophical aspects of the modern independent press. One of the questions that the interviewer, … [Read more...]

Anne Lamott and Jasmin Darznik Share their thoughts on Navigating the Divide "Bird by Bird" author, Anne Lamott, and bestselling author of "Song of a Captive Bird," Jasmin Darznik, praise Linda Watanabe McFerrin's new Legacy Book. "I have loved everything I've ever read by Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Her prose and poetry are filled with amazing women, charm, wisdom, and light. She is both soulful and precise, eloquent and full of life." —Anne Lamott, author of "Bird by Bird" PRE-ORDER NAVIGATING THE DIVIDE Anne Lamott is the author of seven novels, Hard … [Read more...]

The Contemporary Poets and Musicians on Reuben Jackson's Mind Poet and jazz scholar, Reuben Jackson, discusses three contemporary poets and three contemporary jazz musicians he admires. Saxophonist Kamasi Washington (left) and rapper/poet Tarica June (right) are among the six artists discussed by Reuben Jackson. On Tuesday we ran an article featuring two glowing blurbs for Reuben Jackson's latest poetry collection Scattered Clouds. They came from two young stalwarts of the American poetry community: National Book Award winner, Terrance Hayes, and Maryland's own Abdul Ali, author … [Read more...]

Terrance Hayes and Abdul Ali Speak out about "Scattered Clouds" National Book Award winner, Terrance Hayes, and New Issues Poetry Prize winner, Abdul Ali, give their thoughts on the newest Reuben Jackson collection, "Scattered Clouds." "Reuben Jackson's marvelous poems map the poles between ode and lamentation, politics and intimacy, sagacity and audacity. He writes for everyday neighbors, folkloric brothers, and imaginary sisters. He writes for Trayvon Martin as well as Frank Sinatra. He nimbly charts the broad spectrum of our lives and loves. I have admired Reuben Jackson's work … [Read more...]

PANK Publishes Early Review of "Scattered Clouds" by Reuben Jackson Poet Risa Denenberg describes her first experience reading Reuben Jackson in her review for his upcoming collection "Scattered Clouds" "Abashedly, I admit that I had not read Jackson prior to reading Scattered Clouds. But that is exactly why this compilation of poems from his first book with the two sections of newer poems is such a gem. If some of the poems are familiar, you will nod as you read them. And if not, you will feel like you’ve been missing something. Scattered Clouds further establishes Jackson’s role … [Read more...]

ASP Travel Writers Celebrate the Life of Anthony Bourdain On the late, great writer and presenter's birthday, fellow travel writers Joanna Biggar and Linda Watanabe McFerrin share some words. Anthony Bourdain's literary career began on a surprising note, a detective story. The long-time media personality and celebrity chef had more than an ephemeral love affair with the grimy world of fairytale spy stories and gore action: he released three novels in the genre, and two graphic novels (Get Jiro!) late in his career. This fact shouldn't be surprising to those who've followed … [Read more...]

Author, Branka Cubrilo, Talks New Novel, "Dethroned," with James J. Patterson Croatian-born author, Cubrilo, is able to read and write in several languages. She recently sat down with James J. Patterson to compare languages and talk about her new geo-political thriller novel, "Dethroned." The difference between a work being translated and a work written in a second language fascinates me because a translator, in English, might Anglicize or Americanize the prose, but a writer for whom English is a second language will retain subtle turns of phrase generic to his or her thinking. These … [Read more...]

Elizabeth Hazen's Poem "Scene from a Horror Movie" Published by the Coachella Review Hazen's new poem ponders the complicated relationship between sex and horror. Poet, Elizabeth Hazen "...Someone with leather gloves reflected in a knife. Her legs are long and slender; each frame shortens her nightie. Tension mounts; the killer strikes, and she grasps at nothing, her face warping like a rubber mask; her body shudders..." Elizabeth Hazen has been on a publishing tear as of late. The American Literary Review recently published her poem, "The Bereaved;" Shenandoah published her … [Read more...]

Grace Cavalieri's June 2019 Exemplars of Poetry Every month for the Washington Independent Review of Books, the Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri, author of Other Voices, Other Lives, does a round-up style review of the best recently released independent books of poetry and books about poetry. June 2019's review features fourteen books including two of ASP's upcoming releases, Reuben Jackson's Scattered Clouds and Linda Watanabe McFerrin's Navigating the Divide. Featured also are the likes of Tina Chang, Dobby Gibson, and rising star … [Read more...]

What is "The Society of Woman Geographers"? ASP's connection to the famed society through author, poet, journalist, Joanna Biggar. The flag of the Society of Woman Geographers, taken by its members on important scientific expeditions. Joanna Biggar, author of That Paris Year and the upcoming Melanie’s Song, is a member of an organization called “The Society of Woman Geographers” a group with its origin in the roaring 20s, a time when new technology was rapidly catching up with the West’s most expansive ambitions. Boasting members as diverse as pilot Amelia Erhart and … [Read more...]

What Does Anne Lamott Think of "Navigating the Divide" The author of "Bird by Bird" weighs in on Linda Watanabe McFerrin's new Legacy Book “I have loved everything I’ve ever read by Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Her prose and poetry are filled with amazing women, charm, wisdom and light. She is both soulful and precise, eloquent and full of life.” PRE-ORDER NAVIGATING THE DIVIDE Anne Lamott is the author of seven novels, Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, Blue Shoe, All New People, Crooked Little Heart, and Imperfect Birds. Lamott has been honored with a … [Read more...]

Elizabeth Hazen's New Poem, "Monarch", Published by Shenandoah Magazine This page was made in order to redirect to the Shenandoah website HERE where you might read Elizabth Hazen's sublime new poem, "Monarch." Below, is a link to read more about her first poetry collection, Chaos Theories, and lower still on the page is a collection of links to other poems and essays she has written which we host natively on the ASP website. Shenandoah is a magazine which maintains an important place in the modern American literary landscape. Its unique history involves the likes of Tom Wolfe and even … [Read more...]

Independent Bookstore Day: What do the Indies Offer? Amid Amazon’s economic hegemony, amid the wholesale abandonment of big-box stores around the country, amid the strange, unpredicted resurgence of vinyl record collecting, and amid the general economic turmoil in the American printed news media we have, sitting in the room-corner upon a large leather chair, drinking tea, nose nestled cozily in the pages of Du Bois, the indie bookstore question. For what purpose does an indie bookstore exist in the age of digital media and online book sales? This question might be rephrased to ask how … [Read more...]

An Interview with "Roughnecks" Author, James J. Patterson "You can change the dimensional make-up in someone’s mind with a single chord of musical phrase, or excite their imagination, invoke any of the mindful emotions. You can do the same thing with images in words, of course. But music can find a direct path to a person’s core that he or she may have thought was well defended." In this interview from Branka Cubrilo, James J. Patterson talks "Roughnecks," The Pheromones, and artistic inspiration. Recently, James J. Patterson sat down with fellow author, Branka Cubrilo, for … [Read more...]

Grace Cavalieri among 13 Poets Laureate to Receive over $1 million in Grant Money Recently Grace Cavalieri was one of thirteen Poets Laureate to receive (divided) over $1 million in grant money. Big news for Maryland's Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri. The American Academy of poets announced on Wednesday that an appropriation of $1,050,000 (made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation) would be made available for thirteen of America's most distinguished Poets Laureate including Grace herself. The funds are, according to AP, for the support of civic programs in the poet's communities which … [Read more...]

Off the Cuff: The Writing Philosophy of Reuben Jackson "Part of what I try to do [is this]: you know how you go down to the mall and you see monuments to this war and this war, and that’s fine. But, a lot of my friends I think about constantly. Maybe, they’re forgotten in a way; but [what I try] to do, and maybe this is what you do as writers, is to capture people who had an impact on you." -Reuben Jackson Poet and jazz scholar, Reuben Jackson gave a talk in Rockville, MD on April 6th where he went into detail on his writing philosophy and read a few poems from his upcoming collection … [Read more...]

Joanna Biggar's Picks for NPM Week 3 Week three of National Poetry Month is here and we are still celebrating! So as the champagne continues relentlessly foaming for party-goers catching their tipsy mid-air, we asked author, Joanna Biggar, to select three poems she thinks are worthy of applause between wassails. Her first, featured above, is Dickinson's "I'm Nobody! Who are You?" For her second an excellent poem by Carolyn Forche called "The Testimony Of Light" And last but not least an absolute banger from Salvadoran-American poet Javier Zamora entitled "Let Me Try Again" Joanna Biggar … [Read more...]

James J. Patterson's National Poetry Month Picks (week 2) In honor of National Poetry Month, We asked author and essayist extraordinaire, James J. Patterson, to select three poems he'd like to see celebrated. Along with Walt Whitman's "On the Beach at Night Alone" (featured above), he chose Wordsworth's "The World is too much with Us", And Last but not least, the famed American Poet Robert Bly performing the poem "On Being a Man" by the famed Spanish poet, Antonio Machado. James J. Patterson was born in Washington, DC, five days before Nixon’s infamous “Checkers Speech.” He’s been … [Read more...]