Leapfrog Press

"Precise, moving writing—a powerful and compelling collection."—Joseph Hurka, author of Fields of Light

"The unadorned sentences often reach a conclusion whose truth makes you catch your breath. This unpretentious book is the work of a master."—Edith Pearlman, National Book Award finalist

"One of the most compelling stories published [by the Yale Review]. . . . A thoughtful, reflective, sensitive, and graceful work."—Kai Erikson, former editor, The Yale Review

These are stories of unexpected encounters far from home, told with a vivid sense of place. A white man with more wives than money becomes Africa's least-competent thief, two Americans contemplate love's costs and possibilities in Mexico's mountains, a seasick missionary bumps into God on the equator. George Rosen's characters seek, and sometimes find, a reality in which "everywhere, there is something remarkable."

"When Louis was home in Queens, neighborhood kids would gather around as he brought them into jazz. His music still vibrantly lives around the world, and his spirit of humaneness lives in Travels with Louis by Mick Carlon, teacher of jazz to the young of all ages."—Nat Hentoff

"Thanks to his friendship with the great Louis Armstrong, twelve-year old Fred sees his world expand from ice cream and baseball in Queens to jazz at the Village Vanguard, a civil rights sit-in in Nashville, and ecstatic concerts in London and Paris. A wonderful story, which rings true on many levels."—Michael Cogswell, director, Louis Armstrong House Museum

"Carlon is driven by a love divided evenly between the subject and the act of writing itself."—Brian Morton, author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz

Praise for Mick Carlon's Riding on Duke's Train:

"In schools where students are lucky enough to experience classroom jazz studies, this title, combining rich musical history and a 'you are there' approach, is a natural."—Kirkus Reviews

"Enthralling. . . . An adventure story with a smart, historical framework."—ForeWord, Recommended Books for Kids

"A ripping good yarn."—Brian Morton

Queens, 1959. Twelve-year-old Fred loves reading, baseball, and playing trumpet with his neighbor, Louis Armstrong. Fred accompanies Louis to Nashville, where he encounters a Civil Rights lunch counter strike, and to London and Paris. Characters include Langston Hughes, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington. Says jazz photographer Jack Bradley, "Reading this book is like visiting my friend again. This is the way he was, folks."

"Dower's depiction of postwar family and small-town dysfunction is reminiscent of MacDonald's The Way the Crow Flies. Pivotal events in Stony River were [also] inspired by a true crime." —The Globe and Mail

"A taut, compelling portrait of a small town's underbelly. With sinister imagery and crisp, evocative prose, Dower pulls back the cloak of 1950s 'innocence' to expose the ugly secrets that lie in wait, teeth grown sharp in the dark." —Billie Livingston, One Good Hustle

"Think Mad Men but even madder." —Toronto Star

"Dower does an excellent job chronicling the formative years of her central trio in a coming-of-age story that effectively tackles heavy subjects including domestic abuse, mental illness, and rape." —Quill&Quire

It wasn't all poodle skirts and rock 'n' roll—in Stony River, the 1950s was a perilous time to come of age. Absent mothers, controlling fathers, teenage longing and small-town pretense abound, with the threat of violence all around: crazy fathers, dirty boys, strange men in strange cars, one dead girl, one never seen, and another gone missing.

Tricia Dower is a native of New Jersey. Her short fiction has been published in the US, Canada, and Portugal. She won The Malahat Review's 2010 fiction literary award and subTerrain magazine's 2015 Literary Awards for creative nonfiction. Her story collection Silent Girl (Inanna 2008) was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor Award and the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Stony River was first published in Canada (Penguin, 2012) and shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Fiction Award.

“As wickedly funny and hilariously angry as vintage Harlan Ellison.”—Spider Robinson, author of Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon

“A delightful romp through the metaphysical muck.”—Halifax Daily News

“A funny, tragic glimpse into the territory of the absurd, somewhere between Kafka and Vonnegut.”—Calgary Herald

“Weird and wonderful . . . imaginative, unsettling, devilishly layered. Mirolla delights in verbal and situational sleight-of-hand, exposing a disorienting world of labyrinthine dreams and menacing recurrent images. Mirolla likes the macabre and grotesque, absurdities and stylistic play. He mercilessly exposes our alienation and primal fears, forcing us to face the awful possibility that we are no more than the product of our own devising.”—Event Magazine

The Berlin Wall falls. A continent away, a mysterious mental patient awakes from a two-year stupor. His obsession with Berlin is unexplained. His escape from the hospital launches a surreal adventure in which past blends with future, and death is used to change the fabric of the world in a freakish experiment on transcendental philosophy. 

Like Franz Kafka or Italo Calvino in their blending of the real and surreal, or like a psychedelic drug trip, this story brings the reader into West Berlin’s seamy underlife—the omnipresent wall, transvestite bars, and sadomasochism. It is a secret world where a concentration-camp survivor sells gas stoves, a world of philosophical intelligentsia, adultery, and murder. 

Frenetic, kaleidoscopic, horrible, brilliant.

Michael Mirolla, author of novels, short stories, poetry, and plays, lives in Toronto, Canada. His writing has won many awards and has appeared in numerous journals in Canada, the United States, Britain, and Italy.

"Neuroscientist and author Graziano has crafted a compelling fantasy based on a semi-plausible “what if.” Imaginative, intelligent narrative…Twin ideas of forgiveness and mercy twist through this strange, moving, patiently wrought novel, making for a trippy but charming read.”–Publishers Weekly

“An hilarious, dark, brittle take on post-modern medicine, love triangles, the dense emptiness of contemporary life, and the power of contemplative self-discovery. Part magic realism, part science fiction, part theater of the absurd, and part over-the-top, unrepentant spoof, this novel packs more into its few short pages than do most epic trilogies. Graziano has fabricated the rare kind of tale that the reader can honestly say ends much too quickly. Perfectly woven, self-enclosed, multifaceted . . . Kosinski’s Being There sprinkled with a strong dose of Frankenstein . . . the kind of simplicity that speaks volumes.”—Michael Mirolla, author of The Formal Logic of Emotion

“An amalgam of fairy tale, satire, science fiction, medical thriller, and soap opera. . . . It is difficult to fathom that a novel so brief can be so epic in scope. Inventive and deftly crafted, The Love Song of Monkey is a tale no reader will soon forget.”—Eric Linder, Yellow Umbrella Books, Chatham, Massachusetts

In a surreal exile on the floor of the Atlantic, a young man faces his own death and his wife’s infidelity. The Love Song of Monkey is a meditation on the simple, inexplicable, and lasting power of love, cast in the metaphor of a journey to the depths of the ocean floor. Precise and beautifully crafted, this modern fable is rich with humor and deep thought.

Michael S. A. Graziano, professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, is the author of the novella Hiding Places (New England Review), The Seclusion Zone (2007 fi nalist in the William Faulkner–William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition), and The Intelligent Movement Machine (2008, Oxford University Press).

"An affirmation of life and the indestructibility of one man's will to make the most of it."—Ian Wynne, author of The Pawn and Shadows by My Side, former editor of Human Rights Defender, Amnesty International

Born in the midst of the Ethiopian–Eritrean Civil War, Tewodros "Teddy" Fekadu survives abandonment and famine as his family flings him unwanted across borders and regions, into orphanages, and finally onto the streets of Addis Ababa. Spanning five countries and three continents, the Catholic Church, and Japanese detention centers, this is a tale of defiance and triumph, and also of family love—unacknowledged by his wealthy father, abandoned by his desperately poor mother, Teddy is nurtured along the way by staunch individuals despite his ambiguous place in rigid family tradition: his father's mother, a maternal aunt, a Catholic priest, and even his father's wife.

In 2003, after three years in a Japanese detention center, Tewodros "Teddy" Fekadu won a hard-fought immigration battle, and his visa to Australia was approved. He now resides on the Gold Coast, where he founded an association that shares African traditions and heritage through performance and educational programs. He also works with organizations to resettle African refugees to the Gold Coast. He is an inspirational speaker, presenting to such diverse audiences as adoptive families, human rights groups, and East African immigrants. Tewodros' company, Moonface Entertainment, produces films and documentaries on East Africa. He regularly returns to Africa to shoot footage for his projects, and travels to the United States to promote his work.

Praise for Mary Malloy's The Wandering Heart:

"An impressive fiction debut. . . . Malloy mixes history and fantasy with flair and delivers a wonderfully satisfying puzzler."—Publishers Weekly

"A fabulous thriller. . . . A modern psychological tale with strong implications of horror."—MBR The Bookwatch

"Mystery à la Gothic. . . . Historian Malloy does her research proud."—Mystery Scene

The second book in the Lizzie Manning trilogy. Following the path of a medieval pilgrimage, historian Lizzie Manning finds unexpected danger. Chaucer may have based his Wife of Bath on a real woman, whose descendant holds certain artifacts, but will the investigation lead to something more sinister? Are the bones of St. Thomas Becket, believed to have been destroyed nearly six hundred years ago, hidden in Canterbury Cathedral, and is someone willing to kill to protect the secret?

Mary Malloy is the author of four maritime history books, including Devil on the Deep Blue Sea, which won the 2006 John Lyman Book Award for best maritime biography. Her first historical mystery The Wandering Heart introduced historian Lizzie Manning. Malloy has a PhD from Brown University and teaches maritime history at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Museum Studies at Harvard University.

"This is a delightful, passionate and memorable rendition of a familiar and glorious tale. As the son of immigrants who were very much like Anthony Graziano's family, I was especially moved. Thank you for telling our story."—Governor Mario M. Cuomo

“This kind of historical data is rare today. . . . A tapestry of history, biography, personal reminiscence, and lessons.”—Michael Giallombardo, director/producer of La Terra Promessa

“A sweeping narrative of European and American history, and a lovingly crafted reminiscence. Graziano is an excellent storyteller. There is something in this book for everyone, not least of which is a very good read.”—Joan M. Crouse, author of The Homeless Transient in the Great Depression

“Writing in the tradition of C. Wright Mills, who defined [sociology] as the intersection between history and biography . . . this book clarifies the tremendous emigration from Italy. A very enjoyable read, suitable for general readers and students of history and sociology.”—Adeline Levine, author of Love Canal: Science, Politics, and People

A picture of Europe’s nineteenth century and the massive Italian immigration to America: wars and conflicts, popes and kings fighting the people’s demands for democratic government. When religion and royalty failed them, leaders created dictatorships and threw the world into bloody conflicts, killing hundreds of millions and virtually destroying Europe. Caught up were the poverty stricken, powerless common people who became the immigrants, pushed from Europe, pulled to America. Their history comes alive in the author’s deeply personal account of his family’s immigration and survival through the Great Depression.

Anthony M. Graziano, SUNY Buffalo professor emeritus and Italian chef, has written fifteen books and fifty articles in the field of psychology. His brother, parents, and extended family emigrated from Italy. He says, “This book is a celebration of immigrants. It speaks to us because we are all immigrants.”

"Klin is an insightful interviewer and a marvelous writer. We were delighted to have the opportunity to publish the interview with Howard Zinn from Something to Say."—The Bloomsbury Review

The fusion of art and politics is axiomatic in much of the world. In America, their relationship is erratic. What is art in the service of social justice? Is an artist obligated to address the political? This book profiles, in words and photos, disparate creative forces who offer thoughts on their point of engagement with the political sphere. In the words of Pete Seeger, art "may save the world. Visual arts, dancing, acting arts, cooking arts. . . . Joe DiMaggio reaching for a fly ball—that was great dancing!"

Profiles in Something to Say:

• The late Howard Zinn
• Pete Seeger
• Yoko Ono
• Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner
• Palestinian American standup comedian Maysoon Zayid
• Poet Quincy Troupe
• Dominican American painter Freddy Rodríguez
• Filmmaker Gini Reticker
• Slowpoke cartoonist Jen Sorensen
• Performance and installation artist Sheryl Oring
• Children's writer Jacqueline Woodson
• Chef and food activist Didi Emmons
• Chinese American poet and art critic John Yau
• Punk-rock activist Franklin Stein of the band Blowback
• Klezmer fiddler Alicia Svigals

Richard Klin's writing has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, Forward, The Bloomsbury Review, Parabola, The Rambler, and other media.

Lily Prince has exhibited in over fifty national and international exhibitions and has been awarded commissions by numerous hotels and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. She is an associate professor of art at William Paterson University. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Newark Star-Ledger, New American Paintings, San Francisco Weekly, and other media.

“Exciting—edge of your seat—nail-biting—page turning . . . one of the funniest books ever written. Ignoring, perhaps redefining, logic, B.B. Wurge has fashioned an unbelievable story that ultimately makes perfect sense. Wurge has a voice that is unique and fresh among writers of children’s literature.”—Catherine Safer, author of Bishop’s Road and What If Your Mom Made Raisin Buns?

“The charm and humor of The Princess Bride and the intelligence of A Series of Unfortunate Events.”—Steven V. Monte, author of Selected Poetry of Victor Hugo

In this vivid and complex child’s-eye view of the world, we meet nine-year-old Billy, who lives in a row house in New York City with his very odd grandmother. When their house is invaded by mysterious “birdfrogs” who leave three-footed prints but are never seen, Billy’s grandmother takes drastic action. 

Their adventures lead them deep under the streets of New York, past woolly mammoth fossils to a shaft where the birdfrogs—and other creatures—lie in wait. 

Off beat humor, crazy villains, and the final triumph of family loyalty combine to delight anyone with an imagination.

B.B. Wurge lives in an elevator in Manhattan. He turned to writing after leaving his first career as an entertainer in a primate house. He says, “I’ve been told the world is crazy, more now than ever. That may be true, but children should know they can navigate successfully through our crazy world if they stick to fundamental principles: loyalty to family and friends, compassion, and an open imagination.”

"A beautiful and moving story of courage and love."—Ray Bradbury

Praise for The Great Death:

"An amazing story."—Frank McCourt

"Gripping and poignant. . . . An unforgettable survival tale."—Horn Book

"A beautiful, poignant story."—Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner

"Graphically illustrates the effects of a plague on isolated peoples."—School Library Journal

"An engaging tale of survival."—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for The Trap:

"An unforgettable story. Brilliant!"—Ray Bradbury

"A gripping example of talented storytelling. Unforgettable."—Tony Hillerman

Praise for The Edge of Nowhere:

"More psychological depth than Robinson Crusoe."—Frank McCourt

Praise for Alaskan:

"Smelcer is Alaska's modern-day Jack London."—W.P. Kinsella

"A celebration of the diversity of cultures. Undeniably important!"—James Michener

"An indispensible contribution to Alaskan literature."—JD Salinger

"This writer speaks from the land, and for the land, and the people who belong to it."—Ursula K. Le Guin

Deneena Yazzie's love of the woods and trail come from her grandfather, who teaches her their all-but-vanished Native Alaskan language. While her peers lose hope, trapped between the old and the modern cultures, and turn to destructive behaviors, Denny and her mysterious lead dog, a blue-eyed wolf, train for the Great Race—giving her town a new pride and hope.

John Smelcer is poetry editor of Rosebud and the author of more than forty books. He is an Alaskan Native of the Ahtna tribe, and the last surviving reader and writer of Ahtna. John holds degrees in archeology, linguistics, literature, and education, and formerly chaired the Alaska Native Studies program and the University of Alaska (Anchorage).

Praise for Michael Mirolla:

"Intriguing, passionate, sad, hilarious. Mirolla is a master storyteller. . . . Berlin will make you laugh, cry, and cringe."—Toronto Sun

"An ambitious novel concerned with the nature of identity, the weight of history, the significance of catastrophe, and the legacies of fascism and communism."—Quill & Quire

"Mirolla . . . is a teller of tales that only the tautest of prose could relate with cohesion and beauty. This book will thrill the mind."—CrimeSpree

"Mirolla's book excels."—Rain Taxi

"The Facility is a fascinating, thought-provoking novel. If you like quirky, mind-bending books, this one is for you!"—Geekscribe

"Mixes theology, cloning, and Beckettlike absurdist alienation. . . . Parallels the division between mind and body, between technology and nature, and between what we can do and what we should do."—Publishers Weekly

The Giulio Metaphysics III is a collection of linked tales on the fluidity of identity and the power of the word. A character named Giulio frees himself from his creator in order to write his own story, only to find himself lost and confused, unable at times to recall his own name. He wanders through landscapes both familiar and alien, struggling to return home.

Michael Mirolla's publications include a novella, The Ballad of Martin B.; two novels: Berlin (Bressani Literary Prize winner) and The Facility, which features a string of cloned Mussolinis; two story collections: The Formal Logic of Emotion and Hothouse Loves & Other Tales; and a collection of poetry, Light and Time. He is publisher and editor-in-chief of Guernica Editions in Toronto, Ontario.

As the anti-Vietnam War movement drew to a close, a twenty-six-year-old unknown playwright began an affair with a glamorous older woman, a feminist activist and acclaimed poet/novelist at the height of her career. What she saw in a neurotic, sexually naïve, poorly educated but very sweet guy was apparent to no one, especially him. Using a wildly self-skewering but oddly sympathetic narrative voice that fulfills The New York Times' assessment of his "special gift for heartwarming comedy," Ira Wood re-imagines his early years with Marge Piercy in a series of chronologically linked essays, never failing to raise the question that few have failed to ask: You're married to Her?

With the brazen candor of Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and the wicked lunacy of David Sedaris, Wood tells tales of his first true love, who he told his parents were dead; his disastrous affair with a promiscuous single mother, while he was involved with Piercy; his childhood dependence on speed; and running for public office on a lark—and winning—only to find himself responsible for the government of a small town. Thirty years later he's still married to Her, confident enough to share, and laugh at, what men do when their behavior slips to the level of their self-esteem.

Ira Wood is the author of two novels and the co-author, with Marge Piercy, of two highly acclaimed books, a novel and a writing text. His talk show The Lowdown streams on WOMR-FM, a Pacifica network affiliate.