New Book Releases!

This is where it all started 20 years ago: the very first book release from Eibonvale Press, What the Giants Were Saying and Other Strange Tales by David Rix, founder of Eibonvale Press, reissued now as a massively expanded new edition! A ferocious, visceral and shocking fable on art and creativity … and blood, and flesh, and madness, and copper wire, and magic tattoos, and wind turbines. And the dark and selfish places that relationships can go when they break down. In addition to the original contents, this volume contains stories that were published in various anthologies, notably the Strange Tales series from Tartarus Press, some unpublished pieces, as well as a small section of extremely early works and juvenilia, just for the curious.

Also released this month is another title from the great Des Lewis, a reissue of his classic novel, Nemonymous Night! A tale of magic and dream. A rich collage of the British townscape and psyche. A spiral of details, mundane things imbued with significance and significant things that feel mundane. More outsider art than portrait. Missing children and angel wine – ocean liners and helicopters – and a drill vehicle bound for the core of the earth. This remarkable novel is brought back into print again, for the first time in hardcover!

And for those who missed their chance to grab one, we’ve found a couple extra copies of HAMMER-FIGHTS by Alexander Zelenyj! A dark and experimental illustrated collection of micro-fictions and vignettes where Bizarro meets horror meets… something unexpected. A tiny book that hits hard. Super limited edition weirdness from Somniatis Press, the UK’s new home for dangerous and unusual books, an imprint of Eibonvale Press. Life is hard. But some of us have the tool to deal with it. 🔨

The Quentin S. Crisp Appreciation Society

A new facebook group has been launched to celebrate the author Quentin S Crisp. As far as I am concerned, one of the greatest ‘outsider writers’ we have and a wonderful example of slipstream and strange literature. His collection Defeated Dogs still remains one of my favourite Eibonvale books, not to mention the stunts that we got up to while designing it. Let’s just say that there’s a reason why the two author photos on the cover have such drastically different hair and I still have a piece of it hanging on my bookcase! Those were the days of wild Eibonvale projects and no mistake.

But yes – if you are interested in Quentin’s writing, in his spectacularly unique and hauntingly thoughtful style, then pop on over and join in the appreciation.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/920279489143695/

A Website Revamp and Some New Imprints

There are various items of Eibonvale news that I need to share, all at once. If you’ve been to the website ( http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/ ) in the last few days, you will have noticed that I have given the ageing and somewhat murky design a refresh. The new layout should be much clearer and easier to read. The new version comes with a lot of tweaks and changes, better info and a more streamlined layout, so if you find anything not working, do let me know!

More importantly, you may have noticed some entirely new pages on there. I have started a new branch of the press for photobooks, since I made up my mind to release Kessingland Autumn. There is nothing there yet, as I have yet to even start designing that one – but watch this space. Maybe one day I can even start opening up to other people’s ideas as well.

There is also an entirely new book imprint that has been brought into the fold – Somniatis Press. A Latin term that roughly translates as “You Dream”. This is a weird one, and basically, if Eibonvale is a bit of a fringe press – or fringe of the fringe – then Somniatis is the fringe of the fringe of the fringe! It’s a place for books that are even weirder, wilder, more experimental and maybe more dangerous than Eibonvale itself. It will be an occasional press, unlikely to release that many titles – but every so often, something will come along that will fit there.

The titles will also be limited editions, unlike Eibonvale. Not signed and numbered limited editions, but still a set number of copies that will eventually go out of print. I would very much like to do signed and numbered, but that would mean distributing them myself and the basic fact is that international postage costs have become so apocalyptic that I would rather keep the books as accessible as possible and use the existing international systems.

Somniatis press is very much in its infancy and for now, there is just one book currently available – from Eibonvale regular Alexander Zelenyj. His Hammer-Fights is a tiny yet brutal work. An illustrated mini-book of hammer-blows revealing the darkness that lies beneath the facades of our lives. This is a dark and experimental illustrated collection of micro-fictions and vignettes where Bizarro meets horror meets… something unexpected. See here for more: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/somniatis/Hammerfights.htm

Meanwhile, the next titles to be released from Eibonvale itself will be D F Lewis’s novel Nemonymous Night and the revised and much-expanded edition of my own (David Rix’s) What the Giants were Saying. Thank you for your patience as we (Alice and myself) pick away at the many many different tasks that all this entails!

At the Lighthouse is here!

In this anthology are seventeen stories which explore the concrete yet eerie qualities of lighthouses: whether as memory capsules, vessels of otherness, phallic representations, sirenesque captivations, or elemental warnings. Come, be guided through the coastline of imagination to where the lighthouse awaits.

Post Tenebras Lux

You can grab a copy of the book, with global free shipping for the hardcovers, here: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/books/books_Lighthouse.htm

About the editions

As well as standard hardcover and paperback versions, At the Lighthouse is also available in a ‘photo edition’ that includes several black and white photos by Sophie Essex. This edition is printed on a more photo-friendly 70lb paper.

Contents:

Sourmouth-on-Sea Heritage Trail (A Walk In Seventeen Stages) – Jason Gould
Keepers – Andrew Hook
The Zond Tower – Terry Grimwood
The Sirens Are Calling In – Rory Moores
The Lighthouse at Addenbay – Pete Sillett
The Keeper – Ariel Dodson
Sea Glass – Julie Ann Rees
Three Days In The Grave of Sam Poe – Matt Leyshon
Night Lamp Lotus (An Attempt at a Strategic Guide) – Damian Murphy
Rising Tall and Slender – Tim Lees
The Lighthouse Sisters – Rhys Hughes
Safe Passage – Brittni Brinn
Not Sideways, But Upwards – Charles Wilkinson
House of the She-Devil – Tom Johnstone
Cygnus – Douglas Thompson
The Volkhova Perplex – Ashley Stokes
Turn Again, O My Sweetness – C.A. Yates

The Apocryphan: The Epifany of the Augusthog by D F Lewis has arrived!

The Apocryphan is a haunting and original novella that provides a meticulously detailed glimpse of a British seaside town and its history, as seen through the author’s own unique lenses. As elements of the weird, the surreal and a quiet whodunnit come together, seemingly mundane objects or aspects of life take on new kinds of significance and poetry against the melancholy grey of the British seaside.

A new D F Lewis release is always cause for celebration! Order your copy here.

A new chapbook release joins the Eibonvale Press Library: Journey to the Centre of the Onion by Allen Ashley!

Every journey occurs in both the physical and the psychological planes. Some people say that it is the voyage itself that matters rather than the destination. For certain, this is a trip like no other. Welcome to a wild ride that is both macro and microcosmic. Here is the Allen Ashley story you have long been waiting for, and it’s available for order now…Let’s go!

Allen Ashley is an award-winning writer, editor and creative writing tutor. He has published with Eibonvale Press many times before, including the updated version of his celebrated Slipstream novel “The Planet Suite” (2016) and the anthology “Humanagerie” (2018) – this latter co-edited with Sarah Doyle and shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award. His poetry collection “Echoes from an Expired Earth” (Demain Publishing, 2021) was nominated for an Elgin Award. Recent projects include guest editing an edition of “Sein und Werden” with the theme “Animal Vegetable Mineral”. Allen is the founder of the advanced science fiction and fantasy group Clockhouse London Writers. www.allenashley.com

Journey to the Centre of the Onion Available for Preorder

Allen Ashley’s chapbook Journey to the Centre of the Onion is now available for preorder, with an official publication date set for early September. This is a quirky and light-hearted fantasia with a delightfully bonkers story that does indeed involve a journey to the centre of the onion. Exactly how that works, how one can journey to the centre of an onion with a slightly atom-punk/retro-alt/who-knows-what sense of adventure, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

You can get your preorder in for this book at the link below.

http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/chapbooks/Chap22_onion.htm

Emilianna by Douglas Thompson

Emilianna by Douglas Thompson – the actual books in my hand. They are looking how I was hoping they would … quite simple covers, a rare attempt at figurative drawing. And of course, quite a low-key roller-coaster of a story. Haunting, surreal, melancholy, precise, ranting, twisting around, elegiac, doomed. It’s available to order now over in the Eibonvale Press website, and as usual, don’t forget the chapbook bundle deals!

Click here to visit the website: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/chapbooks/Chap21_emilianna.htm

New chapbook release!

We are very pleased to announce the release of a brand new title in our popular chapbook series: Invisible Influences by Jason E. Rolfe!

Jason E. Rolfe is known for his quietly reflective and absurdist writing. This book contains encounters ranging from islands that don’t exist through to surreal logical loops and whimsical philosophical musings, to haunted woodlands and literary ghosts. Filled with hints of the meta and the self-reflective, these pieces have a tone that is uniquely the author’s – an excellent, melancholy and quietly odd collection of shorts and miniatures.

Available in hardcover and trade paperback, Invisible Influences can be purchased here.

We are OPEN for submissions to a new themed anthology!

Eibonvale Press is announcing a call for works for an anthology on the theme of Lighthouses, which is to be edited by Sophie Essex. At the Lighthouse is intended to be a fiction anthology which must feature a lighthouse, either physical, imaginary, or tangential, in each story. The definition of lighthouse is yours, but it must engage with the concept. Think associative/dissociative, think Ray Bradbury’s The Foghorn, think Pharos by Alice Thompson, think Woolf, think Moore, think VanderMeer, think the films of 1998, 2016 or 2019, think beckoning, think warning, think outside the bulb.

Download the guidelines here: http://www.eibonvalepress.co.uk/At the Lighthouse Submission Guidelines.pdf

We look forward to reading your work!