December 02
The death of Fidel Castro has occasioned mourning, celebration, a New York Times obituary sixty-seven years in the making, and appraisals of El Comandante’s political work from all across the globe.
Castro is man about whom it’s impossible to be objective. There’s no denying that the Times obituary, for instance, is measured and thoughtful, and yet a cold eye can detect The Gray Lady tipping her hand at times.
March 02
He’s irascible. He’s disingenuous. He’s a demagogue, a rabble-rouser and a hypocrite. He condemns hate crimes, but in such mild language that his condemnations stand as tacit approval. He has charisma and clear blue eyes. He wants to Make America Great Again. You all know who we’re talking about. It’s President . . . Jarret?
March 03
It's come to our attention that Arkansas State Representative Kim Hendren has recently proposed a bill to ban all books by or about Howard Zinn from use in public schools and open-enrollment charter schools throughout the state.
June 05
The Seven Stories fiction list began with Nelson Algren stories, with titles like "The Face on the Barroom Floor" and "The Lightless Room." These are not exactly beach reads, nor are the books you'll find below. What you will find are novels rooted in this world, presenting the dignity of people struggling to make sense of it and in one way or another to change it.
So, this is another kind of summer fiction list. We hope you'll find much that will challenge, inspire, and engage, in times of darkness and of light.
All titles 50% off for one week only, through June 14, 5:00PM EST.
August 02
A week-long sale and a note from our publisher on a new bookseller initiative. Check out seven award-winning titles from our Women in Translation series, all at 35% off through August 8th. Free shipping within the U.S.!
July 30
We sat down with J. Malcolm Garcia to discuss his book The Fruit of All My Grief and his method of writing about folks in the U.S. whose stories the headlines tend to leave behind.
October 11
In recent weeks, we've seen two amazing documentaries I want you all to know about.
March 30
The ebook edition of Kate Braverman's masterful first novel, Lithium for Medea, is now free through April 5, 6PM EST. Braverman, whose latest book, A Good Day for Seppuku, was touted in the New Yorker last month, is a literary virtuoso, and it's with Lithium for Medea that her novselistic virtuosity first showed through. Lithium is a tale of addiction: to drugs, physical love, and dysfunctional family chains. It is also a tale of mothers and daughters, their mutual rebellion and unconscious mimicry. But in the end, this great novel is so much more than the words that can be used to describe it. An unsung masterpiece, Lithium is a lyrical fireball that sears the reader from its first line. It is a book that, like all great books, created its own tradition. And the time is now to follow in its burning wake.
December 03
Seven Stories is celebrating the last few weeks of 2018 with our biggest sale of the year! From now until January 1st, 2019, enjoy 50% almost all our titles, along with free shipping to anywhere in the U.S.
July 22
Paul Krassner, co-founder with Abbie Hoffman of the Yippies, author, editor, and all around merry prankster, died yesterday at 87. Seven Stories publisher Dan Simon shares a few words on why Paul was, as Kurt Vonnegut once put it, "one of our most important national treasures." You can donate in Paul's memory here.
August 08
There's a 2020 candidate for the presidency they call Bernie. You may have heard of him. He's an old-fashioned fellow, but his ideas—free college, medicare for all—are pretty newfangled. . . .
December 12
Give the gift of leftist literature with up to 85% off all backlist books
January 17
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“The course of history does bend toward justice,
but it must be gripped hard by those who seek it.”
- Justin Sayre
In a few days, our great nation will officially put a man into office. We all know who that man is, and his name strikes great chords of fear and confusion within our democracy. But it is not his name we fear, it’s what he represents.
March 22
Seven Stories publisher Dan Simon's essay in the current Nation details why Nelson Algren matters so much—not just as a literary figure, but for us all, right here, right now. For one week only, take 75% off all e-books by Algren on the Seven Stories website. Click through for details.
December 06
This is the real gift of her work, a gift that shines in Bloodchild: in inviting her readers to engage with darker realities, to immerse themselves in worlds more disturbing and complex than our own, she asks readers to acknowledge the costs of our collective inaction, our collective bowing to depravity, to tribalism, to easy ignorance and violence. Her primary characters refuse all of that. Her primary characters refuse to deny the better aspects of their humanity. They insist on embracing tenderness and empathy, and in doing so, they invite readers to realize that we might do so as well. Butler makes hope possible.
March 28
Happy birthday to Nelson Algren, one of Seven Stories's founding authors and patron saints. Algren was the first ever National Book Award winner, the one-time lover of Simone de Beauvoir, and an inspiration to artists as diverse as Kurt Vonnegut and Donald Barthelme, Studs Turkel and Lou Reed. But Algren was much more than his accolades and could ever show, as the following excerpt from his Noncomformity: Writing on Writing will attest. Beginning with an epigraph from F. Scott Fitzgerald in his 'crack-up' years, Algren's essay is, in some ways, the opposite of inspiring. It is a look into the depths of the writer's motivation (hint: vindictiveness), and a hymn to all those who "live underground." Perhaps enjoy is not the world—but we hope you'll find yourself moved and provoked by this lyrical and brilliant piece of writing on writing.