The new season of Anomalous Press titles is nearly upon us, and I spent the whole day getting these amazing things off to the printer. (I’m so spacey that I just wrote titles, then it looked wrong so I tried titels, but no, its, definitely titles…) [update: you can now pre-order the whole 2015 season!]

And seriously, I say this every year, but these books are so so good! As always, we’re doing super-limited runs of 100, with digital (but beautifully designed) interiors, and handmade letterpress printed covers. But, for the first time, I’m not printing all the covers myself, nor did I do all the interior designing myself. And we have illustrations! This is actually a very visual season, sort of serendipitously.

Anyway, the whole point of this brain-dead, exhausted post is to share my excitement over these titles, and excerpts of the books. So, with no further ado (wait, is it adieu, no, it’s definitely ado… sigh), the next four Anomalous Press books:

Third Person Singular by Rosmarie Waldrop, with art by Keith Waldrop

This is a beautiful pairing, just like Rosmarie and Keith themselves. Rosmarie’s ellisionary (I know, that’s not a word, but it’s what I mean), elusive sequence in her distinctive poetic voice is complimented by, but not illustrated by, Keith’s collages.

Anatomy of a Museum by A. Kendra Greene, cover letterpress printed by Lee Marchalonis

This book is literally everything you ever wanted to know about the Icelandic Phallological Museum. You probably didn’t even know you wanted to know these things! A. Kendra Greene is a long-time Anomalous contributor, who’s lyrical essays are packed with charm and grace and intelligence and insight, not to mention funny as hell. Take my favorite passage:

Fortunately, the human donation, Specimen D-15-b, is easily missed. Toured clockwise, the main gallery ends at the grid of cubbies you pass coming in. There are three human contributions together in a cubby, underneath the mink specimens and between the dog cubby and red fox cubby. The human phallus is flanked by a jam jar of foreskin, specimen 15-a, and a bell jar of testicles, specimen 15-c. A young boy standing with the famous specimen no more than six inches from his chin turns to ask his mother, “Which one is it?” She checks the catalog and points to the appropriate vessel and the boy jerks away in shock.

“That’s not really what it looks like,” his mother agrees.

As they walk away, the young boy’s younger sister adds matter-of-factly, “It’s probably the inside.” She is wearing pigtails, and she looks so confident in this consolation, so very assured that everything is right after all, that I dare not say what strikes me as the obvious thing: nothing on the inside would be so hairy.

Drown/Sever/Sing by Lina Maria Ferriera Cabeza-Vanegas

This book will haunt you. It is eerie and beautiful and everything that appropriative retellings of Columbian legends with a translation bent should be. If Rudyard Kipling were alive, and Columbian, these are the stories he would wish he could tell.

The All-New by Ian Hatcher

This poem is relentless, just as our obsession with newness (even you, reader, eager to know about the all-new Anomalous books!) is a condition of our consumer-focused society. This poem is not merely critical, it embodies the very rush it critiques, that vertiginous descent into new.

So don’t wait! Pre-order now! The all-new Anomalous Press season!