Strangers in a Strange Land: Immigrant Stories is an anthology that explores immigration in poems, essays, and short stories by a diverse collection of authors who offer their own experiences, observations, and speculations. From searing poetry drawn from a Native American perspective to essays chronicling the marginalization of LGBT people, to the crime fiction of new Americans and writers whose ancestors were brought to the country in bondage, Strangers in a Strange Land examines the intersection of hope and despair that defines the immigrant experience. With works by Walter Koenig, Linda Rodriguez, Patricia Abbott, Teresa Roman, R.C. Barnes, James B. Nicola, Eric Beetner, Katherine Tomlinson, Heath Lowrance, Kimmy Dee, Mark Rogers, Sheikha A., Mark Hauer, Berkeley Hunt, Manuel Royal, Kathleen Alcalá, Christine Mathewson, Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw, Zoe Chang, and James L’Etoile.

Strangers in a Strange Land: Immigrant Stories

Literature & Fiction

Rhatigan, Chris

Tomlinson, Katherine

United States

All Due Respect

Tommy Shakes is a career criminal, and not a very good one. He earned his name as a heroin addict. Now he’s just a drunk, drinking so much that he spends much of his time in bathrooms, exploding from one end or the other. He’s in a marriage he wants to salvage. He convinces himself that his wife will stay with him if he can bring home enough money. She tells him that won’t do it, but Tommy gets a crack at a big heist and decides to pull the job. The job is ripping off a popular restaurant that runs an illegal sports book in back. When it turns out that one of the security guys works for a local gangster, Joey Lee, Tommy figures there’s enough money that it’s worth the risk. They pull the robbery but one member of Tommy’s crew gets gun happy and it turns into a bloodbath, which includes killing Lee’s man. Now they’re wanted for murder, and the law is the least of their problems. Praise for TOMMY SHAKES: “With his pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, his knack for crisp pacing, and his unerring eye for what might be called the milieu of functional dissolution, Rob Pierce has revealed himself in story after story as a poet of the luckless, the bard of the misbegotten. In the hero of his latest and best, Tommy Shakes, he has found his Frankie Machine.” —David Corbett, award-winning author of The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday “Tight as a drum, vicious as a pitbull. I don’t remember the last time I read something that scratched the scuzzy itch of noir as well as Tommy Shakes. Just, maybe don’t read it with a full stomach.” —Rob Hart, author of the Ash McKenna series “When you pick up Tommy Shakes, make sure you have nothing to do, because you’re not going to want to put this one down. Rob Pierce at the tip-top of his game. Watch out, y’all.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of What We Reckon “When I was in rehab, a psyche ward in Boston, I read the book Crime Novels: American Noir of the ’50s. Willeford, Goodis, Thompson, Highsmith, and Himes. Had it all. Wretchedness, duplicity, alcoholism, and hopelessness. Tommy Shakes by Rob Pierce would’ve slotted in there perfectly. Nobody does grim and grave better.” —Joe Clifford, author of Junkie Love and the Jay Porter Thriller Series “Rob Pierce writes the downtrodden like Rodin casts bronze, and Tommy Shakes is his masterpiece.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father and Pike “If you like the kind of noir that makes you want to break out the hand sanitizer, Rob Pierce is the King—and the King does not disappoint with Tommy Shakes. Hard and mean and in your face like noir ought to be.” —Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade “Pure noir prose. Dark, disturbing, devastating. A journey through Pierce’s Oakland is a hellish thrill-ride. Or thrilling hell-ride.” —Tom Pitts, author of 101 and American Static “Tommy can’t get a break, but it’s not like he’s out to give himself one. This book is as relentless as it is bleak, yet oddly inspiring. You won’t just root for an underdog, you’ll root for collapse!” —Nick Mamatas, author of I Am Sabbath and Providence

Tommy Shakes

Pierce, Rob

Eric is an ex-con, bareknuckle boxer better known around his Chicago neighborhood as "Ugly." He wants to shed his past, build a life with his family, but his past won't be so easily left behind. His junkie brother Joe has stolen $100K from a powerful drug dealer--and Ugly's on the hook unless he hands Joe over. Which is gonna be hard considering he has no idea where Joe is. Ugly and his "business partner" Nicky hit the streets to find him, each step taking Eric back into the violent life he's desperate to leave behind. Ugly's done with it all. He's pissed, sad, and exhausted, but he's gotta keep moving if he wants any chance of Joe--and himself--getting out alive. Praise for STAY UGLY: "Daniel Vlasaty's Stay Ugly is a vivid, visceral and bone-crunching tale of loyalty, loss and redemption." --Paul D. Brazill, author of Last Year's Man and Man of the World "Stay Ugly is raw and nasty in all the right places. Punch-drunk bareknuckle hardman Ugly is our tour guide across nocturnal Chicago, and his quest to find his junkie brother is a bone-shattering, bullet-strewn treat. This book fights hard and it fights dirty, and Daniel Vlasaty has crafted a brutally entertaining dog-eat-dog thriller. Savage, visceral stuff." --Tom Leins, author of Repetition Kills You and The Good Book "Daniel Vlasaty has a unique and recognisable voice in crime fiction. His dialogue crackles, and his violence hurts. He creates a vivid world that you'll find yourself fully immersed in as Ugly--sorry, Eric--chases his junkie brother through a busy night in Rogers Park, accompanied by his friend Nicky. It's a tale of loyalty, familial binds, and asks whether one man can outrun his checkered past, especially when everyone around him is desperate to drag him back into it." --Paul Heatley, author of Guillotine and Fatboy "In Stay Ugly, Daniel Vlasaty continually pushes the story forward, compelling the reader to turn the page. This book is so good, so beautifully written, and so horrible in its consequences, that Vlasaty succeeds in ways few writers would even attempt. I would say this novel is darkly evocative, but what in Hell does it evoke? The earlier works of Vlasaty is my only answer. And that is a darkness I would encourage any reader of dark fiction to step into." --Rob Pierce, author of Tommy Shakes, Uncle Dust, and With the Right Enemies "Vlasaty's latest gutter pulp gem has the propulsion of a meth head driving a race car that's on fire. Simultaneously over-the-top and romantically mundane, equal parts Frank Bill and Sam Pink." --Kelby Losack, author of Heathenish and The Way We Came In "What makes Daniel Vlasaty's Stay Ugly pack such a potent punch is its heart. And this isn't 'heart of champion' or 'tenderhearted, ' or even 'at his heart he's a good guy' sentiment. Eric (AKA Ugly) isn't a good guy. He doesn't have some sacred street code he's ready to die for. Frankly he isn't going anywhere but six feet under. Just a question of when. That he knows someday he'll go down and not get up again doesn't faze him. All that matters is that until that day, he'll take his punches and get back up and keep doing the best he can in a fight we all lose in the end. And that, my friends, is the stuff of poetry and legends." --Joe Clifford, author of Junkie Love and the Jay Porter Thriller Series

Stay Ugly

Vlasaty, Daniel

Slow Down

Goldberg, Lee Matthew

Cutthroat

Heatley, Paul

A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike except for his own beard. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he's certain they do not exist in modern times-but from his life in the late 1800s. After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow's life. Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he'd been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis's wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can't be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century. A meditation on love lost and unfulfilled dreams, The Ancestor is a thrilling page-turner in present day Alaska and a historical adventure about the perilous Gold Rush expeditions where prospectors left behind their lives for the promise of hope and a better future. The question remains whether it was all worth the sacrifice... Praise for THE ANCESTOR: "Lee Matthew Goldberg is an animal-there is no other way to say it. His prose is heavyweight ambitious, as visceral as a sweaty-toothed dog at your throat. He evokes Robert Louis Stevenson as much as he does a modern thriller novelist. And I'll be honest: I expected a crime novel, but I got a spell-binding epic, an epistolary revelation, a tale as rich as a paying gold mine. The Ancestor is more than a novel. It's an ode to the rich tradition of adventure storytelling...seasoned with ample spice of love and violence and greed." -Matt Phillips, author of Countdown and Know Me from Smoke "In The Ancestor, Lee Matthew Goldberg masterfully weaves together a story involving family and violence set against the backdrop of an unforgiving Alaska of both past and present." -Andrew Davie, author of Pavement and Ouroboros "From the icy opening battle of man vs. wolf, you feel yourself in the hands of a master storyteller and that feeling never lets up." -SJ Rozan, bestselling author of Paper Son "This thrilling novel is rich in descriptions of the vast, snowy, and deadly wilderness of Alaska; it ably captures the type of person who chases gold." -Foreword Reviews "A story that blends the familiar and the supernatural in a manner that calls Stephen King's work to mind. That said, Goldberg's book possesses a flavor all its own-a distinctive m lange of the sincere and the strange." -Kirkus Reviews "Beautifully written, and capturing the unforgiving grit of Gold Rush Alaska, Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Ancestor is a thrilling page-turner with an ache in its heart. I'm a huge fan." -Roz Nay, author of Hurry Home and Our Little Secret "A suspenseful historical thriller." -Indie Reader "One of the year's best thrillers. Blake Crouch fans will love Goldberg's Alaskan opus." -BestThrillers

The Ancestor

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Two women and a child are murdered. Dust, who unknowingly set them up, returns to Berkeley to find the killer. With his old buddy Karma in tow, Dust discovers that one of the culprits was Vollmer, a ruthless hired gun working for Dust's former boss, Rico. When Vollmer finds out Dust is in town the hunt becomes mutual. In this, the third book of the Uncle Dust series, old debts are paid and new ones incurred. Brutish, dangerous men lurk in every corner and slaughter runs rampant. Abductions and Confrontations. Blood. By. Choice. Praise for BLOOD BY CHOICE: "There are writers who take the language of the gutter and elevate it to a tarnished gospel. Rob Pierce is one of those rare authors who does that effortlessly." -S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland "Rob Pierce is not afraid to write noir. His dialogue crackles and hooks you, while never veering into clich s, and his characters, the bad ones and the badder ones, all are imbued with a level of humanity which pulls you into Blood By Choice from the opening character. You might not fully like Dust, but I guarantee you'll follow him as he cuts a path of vengeance through the Oakland landscape." -Hector Acosta, author of Hardway and Edgar nominee "Rob Pierce gets the world I see; it's a world that owes you nothing and gives you even less. For all the losers, troublemakers, and assholes who will never fit in, thank God (or the other guy) for Rob Pierce." -Joe Clifford, author of The Lakehouse "Rob Pierce gives you no time to get reacquainted with Uncle Dust with his latest, Blood By Choice, because he lights the fuse right away. The result is the beat-down, junked-up, sideways shit-uation you've come to expect from the master of hardboiled, low-life noir author of Uncle Dust, Tommy Shakes, and With the Right Enemies. Go ahead and re-shelve your Parker novels in the kiddie lit section; it's time to make room for Dust." -Eryk Pruitt, author of Dirtbags and What We Reckon "Anyone who believes revenge is a dish best served cold has never read Rob Pierce. He serves it up hot. And nasty. It's also said a man heading off on a journey of vengeance should begin by digging two graves. Having just finished Blood by Choice, I'd call that number a bit low." -David Corbett, award-winning author of The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday "With Blood By Choice Rob Pierce reasserts himself as one of Noir's underground heroes. Tough, taut, and will get your attention like brass knuckles to the face. Good thing we're all used to washing our hands a lot, because you'll need to after this gritty dive into a world of dirty dealings and vicious revenge." -Eric Beetner, author of All The Way Down "Pierce returns with his favorite felon, Uncle Dust and builds the East Bay body count one terrible twist at a time." -Tom Pitts, author of Coldwater "Rob Pierce-The Grand Poobah of Nasty Noir-closes out his Dust To Dust Trilogy (or whatever the $@&% he's calling it) with Blood By Choice-an absolute shotgun blast to the gut of a crime novel." -Todd Robinson, author of Rough Trade

Blood by Choice (Uncle Dust)

Ouroboros

Davie, Andrew

Mystery

Twelve short stories from the top writers in crime fiction today. Featuring the work of Stephen D. Rogers, Tom Leins, Michael Pool, Andrew Davie, Sharon Diane King, Preston Lang, Jay Butkowski, Steven Berry, Craig Francis Coates, Bobby Mathews, Michael Penncavage, and BV Lawson. Edited by Chris Rhatigan and David Nemeth.

All Due Respect 2020

Short Stories & Anthologies

Dominick Prince has been a magnet for trouble his entire life. A series of poor life choices and their violent consequences have crushed his spirit. Desperate to outrun this burgeoning rage before it fully consumes him, Dominick accepts an offer he doesn't trust from an old high school classmate. Dutchy Kent says he wants to make one last-ditch effort to prove his acting chops by mounting the New York City debut of a play based on one of Dominick's stories, but the true story involves the real estate empire of a notorious Queens drug dealer and $1.2 million in cash. Dutchy would love to find that cash, but he needs someone else to do the dirty work, someone who attracts trouble and is easily manipulated. Unfortunately for Dutchy, the Dominick he knew in school is gone. The Dominick who shows up at his office is bitter, twitchy, and repulsed by the trash heaps and junk yards of Long Island City that don't fit into his vision of a New York debut. None of that matters to Dutchy though who continues with his scheme, unaware that every insult, every passive aggressive comment, and every physical intimidation pushes Dominick one step further toward his rapidly approaching breaking point.

Trigger Switch

Quertermous, Bryon

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