Karen Shepard

The Celestials is a historical novel of immigration, multiculturalism, labor, community and exclusion, alienation and reinvention, and our country's peculiar history and relationship with all those things. It's about our shared sense that we're all aliens of some kind--at home in no place. In June of 1870, seventy-five Chinese laborers arrived in North Adams, Massachusetts, to work for Calvin Sampson, one of the biggest industrialists in that busy factory town. Except for the foreman, the Chinese didn’t speak English. They didn’t know they were strikebreakers. The eldest of them was twenty-two. Combining historical and fictional elements, The Celestials beautifully reimagines the story of Sampson’s “Chinese experiment” and the effect of the newcomers’ threatening and exotic presence on the New England locals. When Sampson’s wife, Julia, gives birth to a mixed-race baby, the infant becomes a lightning rod for the novel’s conflicts concerning identity, alienation, and exile.

The Celestials: A Novel

Mary Ruefle

Hollis Seamon

John Crowley

Jim Shepard

Jeffrey Ford

Kij Johnson

Sofia Samatar

Paul Di Filippo

Akiko Busch

John Seven

Sonia Sanchez

Karin Lowachee

Paul Park

Sarena Ulibarri

Gregory Scheckler

Izzy Wasserstein

Renee Simms

Safia Elhillo

Simone Muench

Tina Connolly

Jorie Graham

Kirsten Imani Kasai

Sara St. Antoine

Unoma Azuah

Andrea Martinez Corbin

Shawn Frazier

Christine Poreba

Jennifer Rapaport

Erin Roberts

Marjorie Thomsen

anthology of fine art images from Laura Christensen, and fiction and poetry from numerous authors

Vintage Photography Reimagined by One Artist and Thirty Writers

Then Again

Sare St. Antoine

anthology of fine art images from Laura Christensen, and fiction and poetry from numerous authors -- compared to the larger THEN AGAIN featuring over thirty authors, THEN AGAIN Remix is a smaller edition containing works by ten authors.

Vintage Photography Reimagined by One Artist and Ten Writers

Then Again (Remix)

What happens when you marry the bad boy-the reckless, irresistible cowboy who steals your heart and whom you should have dumped after the affair? Cole Thompson, a gorgeous ne'er-do-well horse trainer, shocks everyone when he proposes to Hannah Baker, the daughter of a wealthy Southern family. When after a twenty-year marriage filled with infidelity and other secrets, Cole leaves her, it comes as a shock to no one but Hannah. Now, though, there are no longer just two of them to suffer the consequences: caught in the middle is Mattie, the child who was supposed to settle them down and make them better people. This is the story of a relationship and marriage told in reverse, from its fateful end to its magical beginnings. Can a husband, a wife and their ten-year-old pick up the pieces of their broken past and dare to expect something from the future? In the tradition of books like The Horse Whisperer and Cowboys Are my Weakness, Karen Shepard deals with issues of broken trust, and the damage we cause to the ones we love most.

The Bad Boy's Wife

Gina's son, Steven, caught only a fleeting glimpse of the killer as he fled. If only, he wonders again and again. As Lily Chin prepares for her upcoming wedding, a mysterious woman appears to inform her of her fiancÉ's secret life—which may have included Gina Engel. Louise Carpanetti received a phone call from the dying Gina. Now, more than a decade later, she is forced to finally acknowledge a shocking possibility: the killer might be her emotionally disturbed son. . . . Told through three distinct yet interconnected narratives, Karen Shepard's Don't I Know You? is an intricate, dazzling, and devastating psychological drama that absorbs and thrills as it examines the complexities of the human heart.

A Novel

Don't I Know You?

A first novel which is a "captivating tale of custody, collaboration, and the ferocity with which we sometimes sacrifice loved ones to gain our own ends."

An Empire of Women

Gina's son, Steven, caught only a fleeting glimpse of the killer as he fled. If only, he wonders again and again. As Lily Chin prepares for her upcoming wedding, a mysterious woman appears to inform her of her fiancé's secret life—which may have included Gina Engel. Louise Carpanetti received a phone call from the dying Gina. Now, more than a decade later, she is forced to finally acknowledge a shocking possibility: the killer might be her emotionally disturbed son. . . . Told through three distinct yet interconnected narratives, Karen Shepard's Don't I Know You? is an intricate, dazzling, and devastating psychological drama that absorbs and thrills as it examines the complexities of the human heart.

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Best Book of Fall at The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, BUST, and more "Dark yet sensitive explorations of family and love—of all kinds—from a masterful writer. The women at the centers of these stories are sharp-edged and complicated and irresistible; you won’t be able to look away." —Celeste Ng Bold and unapologetic, Karen Shepard’s Kiss Me Someone is inhabited by women who walk the line between various states: adolescence and adulthood, stability and uncertainty, selfishness and compassion. They navigate the obstacles that come with mixed-race identity and instabilities in social class, and they use their liminal positions to leverage power. They employ rage and tenderness and logic and sex, but for all of their rationality they're drawn to self-destructive behavior. Shepard’s stories explore what we do to lessen our burdens of sadness and isolation; her characters, fiercely true to themselves, are caught between their desire to move beyond their isolation and a fear that it’s exactly where they belong.

Kiss Me Someone: Stories

What happens when you marry the bad boy--the reckless, irresistible cowboy who steals your heart and throws it back to you, the one you should have called it a day with after the affair? When Cole, a gorgeous ne'er do well horse trainer and stereotypical bad boy, proposes to Hannah, daughter of a wealthy Southern family, it comes as a shock to everyone. After a twenty-year marriage, Cole leaves Hannah for one of her best friends and they play out their passions on a ranch in Kentucky, where old secrets and sentiments spring forth to unsettle their relationship. Caught in the middle are their beloved daughter Mattie, and Georgia, the hired hand debutante who casts their fate.

Karen Shepard

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