Aram Saroyan, minimalist poet, author, and son of William Saroyan, reflects on a life shaped by art, fame, and fractured family with a behind-the-scenes view of American cultural life from the 1950s onward, including rare photos and stories of mingling with creative luminaries from Richard Avedon to Marilyn Monroe.

In Before I Forget: A Memoir, Aram Saroyan, traces the highlights of his creative life in Manhattan, Los Angeles, London, and Bolinas. At fourteen he was an after-school apprentice in Richard Avedon's New York studio, taking part in the iconic photographer's fashion and portrait sessions that included Marilyn Monroe. What influences sanctioned his controversial poem “lighght”? An experience after school during high school proves to be an enduring touchstone of his vocation. The son of the beloved author William Saroyan and step-son of Walter Matthau, Saroyan probes the fallout of his father and mother's broken marriage and lessons gleaned in their wake, with memories of his eight-year-old self cast out on the comic sea of Beverly Hills in the fifties. The memoir is capped by two never-before-published minimalist novellas, offering a fictionalized examination of Saroyan's later years. Also included are assorted vintage photos from the author's personal archives.

A bold, unflinching memoir from the front lines of American protest by lifelong activist Nancy Kurshan.

In Levitating the Pentagon and Other Uplifting Stories, longtime activist Nancy Kurshan offers a vivid, woman’s-eye view of seven decades of radical social change. From the founding of the Yippies and the theatrical feminist resistance of W.I.T.C.H., to solidarity work with political prisoners and indigenous liberation movements, Kurshan’s life chronicles the evolution of the U.S. Left—from civil rights to antiwar to feminist, abolitionist, and internationalist struggles.

Kurshan was not just a witness—she was a key player. She marched at the first major Vietnam War protest in D.C., co-organized the 1967 "levitation" of the Pentagon, and ran the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. She was in court for the Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial. She traveled to North Vietnam in 1970, and returned four decades later as an honored guest. This insider’s account brings to life a half-century of resistance—from the shadow of McCarthyism to today’s fights for justice. Along the way, Kurshan reflects on the internal tensions of the movements she helped shape—especially the fraught intersection between radical politics and emergent feminist consciousness.

More than a memoir, Levitating the Pentagon is a vital historical document and a passionate call to action, grounded in an ethic of humility and truth. As African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral once said, “Tell no lies and claim no easy victories”—a motto Kurshan lives up to in life, and in this captivating memoir.

“A dazzling tie-dye tapestry that brings a well-covered corner of American history to vivid life. It’s a trip.” —Publishers Weekly

When San Francisco gallery owner Freddie Dorn gets rid of the city’s most ruthless drug dealer in the summer of ’69, he becomes an unlikely player in a deadly game—hunted by the mafia, courted by the cops, and risking everything if his hippie friends learn the truth.

The Summer of Love has soured. What was once a utopia of free-spirited idealism has rotted into a crime-ridden nightmare of heroin overdoses and tainted psychedelics. For Freddie, the breaking point comes when a former girlfriend dies from an overdose, and his best friend Van Monk loses his mind to bad acid. Determined to cleanse his neighborhood of the worst drug scourge, he secretly aligns with the SFPD to target the infamous Rat-Man Rathkin. But when their late-night meeting on the Golden Gate Bridge ends with the accidental death of the dealer, Dorn’s life takes a dangerous turn.

The cops are glad to be rid of the dealer. The West Coast Mob is also satisfied—Rathkin owed them a lot of money. But now both the cops and the mob see Dorn as a useful tool. With art sales lagging and rent due, he reluctantly agrees to serve as a “private third eye” for hire, feeding intel to both sides while vowing to only target the most dangerous criminals. But as he navigates a world of undercover detectives, mobsters, and counterculture cults—rescuing a young woman from a cult, dodging the corrupt “Hippie Frankenstein,” and delivering bribe money between criminals—Dorn’s carefully constructed double life starts to unravel.

Juggling a fractured love life with Alison and a fragile friendship with Van Monk, Freddie lives in constant fear of discovery. Because in 1969, nothing is worse than being outed as a narc. And if the wrong people find out, it won’t just be his reputation at stake—it’ll be his life.

Max Talley is the award-winning author of more than 50 short stories and essays, plus several mystery and horror novels, including Santa Fe Psychosis and Yesterday We Forget Tomorrow. He lives in Santa Barbara, CA.

“Think Mean Girls on uppers. By turns savage and sympathetic, Heather Colley’s The Gilded Butterfly Effect skewers the absurd theatre of college life with ferocious wit and style.” —Damian Fowler, author of Falling Through Clouds

Fans of Mona Awad’s Bunny and Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation rejoice—your newest “weird girl” antiheroes are finally here.

When introverted loner Penny transfers to a Midwest university in search of the all-American college experience, she finds herself under the intoxicating influence of Stella, a glamorous, damaged sorority girl with a razor-sharp wit and a bottle full of secrets. As their unlikely friendship deepens into obsession, both young women spiral into a hall of mirrors—haunted by frat-house cruelties, prescription drug dependencies, and the brutal expectations of modern femininity.

Narrated in alternating voices, The Gilded Butterfly Effect exposes the glossy absurdities and grim realities of contemporary campus life, exploring themes of body dysmorphia, mental health, sexual assault, and peer manipulation with both ferocity and humor. This acerbic, atmospheric debut asks: how much of ourselves do we lose when trying to belong?

A darkly comic and unflinching feminist campus novel for the age of prescription pills, impossible beauty standards, and weaponized friendships.

“In this fun fantasy novel, a girl explores her sense of identity and purpose in a world where toys come alive.” —Foreword Reviews

In Lies of a Toymaker, a retelling of the classic Pinocchio, Paige, a queer teen and wooden toymaker’s daughter, is slowly turning into wood, and must cross the demonic Land of Toys to stop the evil Deathsprites before they destroy her world.

Award-winning author Kelly Jacobson (Tink and Wendy, Robin and Her Misfits) delivers her latest fairytale retelling in this reimagining of the fairytale classic Pinocchio.

Paige (a queer 18-year-old girl) is a wooden toymaker’s daughter dragged from state to state as her mother, Petta Vitaly, hawks her creations from their caravan. When they finally return to Petta’s hometown, Paige discovers Toy Palace, her family’s animatronic toy business, but she keeps the discovery from her mother—only to find that she has begun to turn into a wooden marionette.

Paige breaks into Toy Palace and discovers a captive fairy in one of the upper rooms of Toy Palace, Prince Alexio, who shows her that an entire realm, the Land of Toys, has been destroyed by fairies called the Deathsprites—and that her family has been using Prince Alexio’s powers to help the evil fairies gain power through the animatronic toys they have been selling for the last eighteen years.

Paige runs away from Toy Palace and the captive prince, only to have her mother rescue him instead. He finds Paige and sneaks her into the Land of Toys, where the Deathsprites have been turning sweet toys into terrible monsters determined to kill everything in their path. With the help of the talking cricket and Paige’s newfound strength as a marionette, the two must cross the realm of piled toy parts and frightful creations to stop the Deathsprites from making a portal to Earth that will bring destruction on that planet, too.

Lies of a Toymaker is a queer feminist YA retelling of the classic that reexamines what it means to “lie” for the benefit of others, and how the lines between truth and fiction are not always as clear as they seem. The book is told from several different perspectives, but follows Paige’s journey most centrally. Many classics from the original story make an appearance, such as the whale, the talking cricket, the fox and the cat, and the Fairy with Azure Hair.