Wordpool Press is a collective of authors. We publish quality creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. We believe in the power of words to not only entertain, but to unite, inspire, and heal. Wordpool offers a platform for writers to share their stories so their voices can be heard. There are many voices, many stories, but just one pool.
Note: Submissions are currently closed.
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Wordpool Press is proud to announce the publication of our newest book by Paul Anderson,
Lucas, Age 31
Lucas Eisley doesn’t know what he wants. Or maybe the problem is that he wants everything: to get back with his ex-wife Audrey, to move on from her, to move on from the town he’s lived in for thirteen years. But one thing is keeping him here, and it certainly isn’t his dead-end job at the video store. It’s the hope that he might learn, once and for all, what the dark secret is that caused Audrey to leave him four years ago. It’s a mystery that keeps him awake at night, that causes him to sabotage all his relationships, that leads him down a path of impulsiveness and alcoholism. But most troubling of all is the notion that Audrey’s secret is entirely his fault.
Lucas, Age 31 is a memorable critique of contemporary masculinity, a delayed coming-of-age tale told through the eyes of hapless, lovelorn Lucas with complexity, humor, and pathos. “Is it ever too late to grow up?” this book seems to ask, and the answers are surprising and illuminating.
--Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
Paul Anderson’s Lucas, Age 31 is a much-needed, refreshing, and unique study into the cis-male perspective on feminism under the guise of a witty, literary rom-com. Lucas openly struggles with his implicit chauvinism, pondering the actions of his entire life (particularly his failed marriage), questioning the differences between behavior and intent, acknowledging his “harmless jokes” as possibly being, “tangible evidence of an insidious tendency to discriminate against women.” On his journey toward self-actualization, Lucas reveals his inner struggles through Anderson’s exceptional prose. Anderson gives us lively characters, compelling imagery, raw emotion, and meaningful humor. I’ve never read anything like it, and I’m eternally grateful to have experienced such an honest portrayal of a man’s desire to recognize and modify his own psyche.
--Amee Schmidt, Author and Editor
Set in central Michigan in the dead of winter, Lucas, Age 31 is a striking work of regionalist fiction whereby Anderson vividly renders the inner life of Lucas who, haunted by his divorce and plagued by the realities of his own arrested development, embarks on a journey of self-destruction and must inevitably come to terms with the person he was, the person he is, and the person he wants to be. It’s a must read for anyone who has felt the unforgiving sting of unrequited love and survived it, which by my estimation, is everyone.
--Saul Lemerond, author of Kayfabe and Other Stories
About the Author:
Paul M. Anderson’s work has appeared in Paper Dragon, Purple Wall Stories, Santa Ana River Review, Edify Fiction, Gravel Magazine, Temenos Journal, Absent Willow Review, Reader’s Digest, and others. His first book, Model Citizens, was published by Wordpool Press and nominated for an emerging writer’s award in 2016. Lucas, Age 31 is his first novel.
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Celebrate with us! Jim's new book of short fiction, The Last Actor and Other Stories, has just been published and is available for purchase on Amazon, as a hard copy or ebook.
The year is 1994, where a global pandemic called The Cold is ravaging humanity. In this alternative reality, The Cold first manifests as a cough with a rash, before descending into a miasma of mucus-filled afflictions. Cultural forms march on, however, and the entertainment industrial complex—TV, movies, sports—replaces trained actors and athletes with the novices and incompetents. “The Last Actor” features Mark Moses, the last true actor remaining on planet Earth, as he negotiates his narcissistic path toward humility and self-enlightenment.
Poyser’s fantastical novella, written a quarter century ago about a global pandemic, is a prescient and poignant portrayal of a culture struggling to define itself in the face of existential dread — along with the impulse toward denial.
Other stories in The Last Actor and Other Stories include bizarre tales of human overshoot, technological obsession and insatiable consumption. While wildly divergent in content, these tales all emanate from the same brain, author Jim Poyser, who considered these stories lost and forgotten to time.
"Welcome to Jim Poyser’s madcap universe, where raindrops the size of baseballs fall from a sky lit by green lightning, city streets turn into jungle, a washing machine gathers all the lost objects of a lifetime, hard-up souls sell portions of their bodies to pay the bills, and a man not only eats his heart out but devours the rest of himself as well. Think Franz Kafka meets Monty Python. The plots in these captivating tales make more twists and turns than a rodeo of bucking broncos, each new turn weirder than the last. So when you open this book, hang on tight, for it will take you on a wild ride." - Scott Russell Sanders
Interviews:
WFHB Radio Station - Big Talk
Part one - https://wfhb.org/news/environmentalist-author-jim-poyser/
Part two - https://wfhb.org/news/jim-poyser-part-2/
WFYI Radio Station
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/how-friends-text-prompted-this-local-author-to-finish-a-book-he-started-25-years-ago
Indiana Writers Center
https://www.indianawriters.org/blogs/news/a-dream-id-given-up-on-come-true
Poyser’s fantastical novella, written a quarter century ago about a global pandemic, is a prescient and poignant portrayal of a culture struggling to define itself in the face of existential dread — along with the impulse toward denial.
Other stories in The Last Actor and Other Stories include bizarre tales of human overshoot, technological obsession and insatiable consumption. While wildly divergent in content, these tales all emanate from the same brain, author Jim Poyser, who considered these stories lost and forgotten to time.
"Welcome to Jim Poyser’s madcap universe, where raindrops the size of baseballs fall from a sky lit by green lightning, city streets turn into jungle, a washing machine gathers all the lost objects of a lifetime, hard-up souls sell portions of their bodies to pay the bills, and a man not only eats his heart out but devours the rest of himself as well. Think Franz Kafka meets Monty Python. The plots in these captivating tales make more twists and turns than a rodeo of bucking broncos, each new turn weirder than the last. So when you open this book, hang on tight, for it will take you on a wild ride." - Scott Russell Sanders
Interviews:
WFHB Radio Station - Big Talk
Part one - https://wfhb.org/news/environmentalist-author-jim-poyser/
Part two - https://wfhb.org/news/jim-poyser-part-2/
WFYI Radio Station
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/how-friends-text-prompted-this-local-author-to-finish-a-book-he-started-25-years-ago
Indiana Writers Center
https://www.indianawriters.org/blogs/news/a-dream-id-given-up-on-come-true
Wordpool Press is excited to announce former (2017-18) Highland Poet Laureate Janine Harrison’s first full-length poetry collection, “Weight of Silence,” is now available as an ebook! Buy it here. All poet proceeds will be donated to help Haitians.
“Weight of Silence,” which Harrison calls, “a labor of love,” is an examination of women’s issues, tragic history, current sociopolitical circumstances, and natural and manmade disasters of Haiti and the resilience of its people. Silence is explored in myriad ways throughout the work, which contains narrative, persona, prose, and docupoetry.
Harrison is a freelance writer, a teaching artist, and a former Highland Poet Laureate (2017-18). She wrote If We Were Birds (Moria Books, 2017). Janine is also a poetry reader and reviewer for The Florida Review. Born in Chicago and raised in the south suburbs, she currently lives in Northwest Indiana with her husband, fiction writer Michael Poore, and teen artist daughter, Jianna Sol.
“[W]hether in / Port-au-Prince / or rural Jérémie / one constant was / the silent community,” writes Janine Harrison in her stunning debut, Weight of Silence. Chronicling her time in Haiti during Hurricane Sandy, Harrison moves beyond merely documenting the devastation, delving into history and cultural grief. The “weight of silence” permeates all aspects of island life, even manifesting in the bodies of animals: “Dogs in Haiti have / rusted corrugated metal ribcages, / uneven stairstep backbones, / [and] decaying palm frond ears.” Countering oppressive silence, Harrison courageously bears witness to contemporary Haiti and the roots of its challenges through both a series of dramatic monologues and her intimate first-person portrayals. This important book should be read and shared so that the “silence” oppressing Haiti can be witnessed, better understood, and transformed into a generative engagement that can only come by articulating that which continues to bind the colonized. Janine Harrison has written a powerful, poignant account of her journey and that of the Haitian people.
—George Kalamaras, former Poet Laureate of Indiana (2014-2016)
In The Weight of Silence, Janine Harrison, gives voice to silences. These poems are well researched and compassionate but hewed with rhythm and song. Swoop and snatch/swoop and snatch each poem bears witness. Although not Haitian, Harrison’s lyrical storytelling bridges her humanity with her subjects’. She is a teacher and a student studying a cat curled/in clay bowl mountains. Lovely and painful in one breath, The Weight of Silence is how we should view each other: with great care and kindness. Read this book. Hold it. Share.
—Kelly Norman Ellis, author of Tougaloo Blues and Offerings of Desire
“Weight of Silence,” which Harrison calls, “a labor of love,” is an examination of women’s issues, tragic history, current sociopolitical circumstances, and natural and manmade disasters of Haiti and the resilience of its people. Silence is explored in myriad ways throughout the work, which contains narrative, persona, prose, and docupoetry.
Harrison is a freelance writer, a teaching artist, and a former Highland Poet Laureate (2017-18). She wrote If We Were Birds (Moria Books, 2017). Janine is also a poetry reader and reviewer for The Florida Review. Born in Chicago and raised in the south suburbs, she currently lives in Northwest Indiana with her husband, fiction writer Michael Poore, and teen artist daughter, Jianna Sol.
“[W]hether in / Port-au-Prince / or rural Jérémie / one constant was / the silent community,” writes Janine Harrison in her stunning debut, Weight of Silence. Chronicling her time in Haiti during Hurricane Sandy, Harrison moves beyond merely documenting the devastation, delving into history and cultural grief. The “weight of silence” permeates all aspects of island life, even manifesting in the bodies of animals: “Dogs in Haiti have / rusted corrugated metal ribcages, / uneven stairstep backbones, / [and] decaying palm frond ears.” Countering oppressive silence, Harrison courageously bears witness to contemporary Haiti and the roots of its challenges through both a series of dramatic monologues and her intimate first-person portrayals. This important book should be read and shared so that the “silence” oppressing Haiti can be witnessed, better understood, and transformed into a generative engagement that can only come by articulating that which continues to bind the colonized. Janine Harrison has written a powerful, poignant account of her journey and that of the Haitian people.
—George Kalamaras, former Poet Laureate of Indiana (2014-2016)
In The Weight of Silence, Janine Harrison, gives voice to silences. These poems are well researched and compassionate but hewed with rhythm and song. Swoop and snatch/swoop and snatch each poem bears witness. Although not Haitian, Harrison’s lyrical storytelling bridges her humanity with her subjects’. She is a teacher and a student studying a cat curled/in clay bowl mountains. Lovely and painful in one breath, The Weight of Silence is how we should view each other: with great care and kindness. Read this book. Hold it. Share.
—Kelly Norman Ellis, author of Tougaloo Blues and Offerings of Desire
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Wordpool Press is a publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in both print and electric form. Wordpool Press aims to help talented new writers build their publishing history. Submissions are currently closed.
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