All publications

$8.50
Details

Cadillac, Oklahoma

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by Louise Farmer Smith

Released November 2016

Upper Hand Press is proud to publish Cadillac, Oklahoma by Louise Farmer Smith, author of award-winning One Hundred Years of Marriage.

$9.00
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Clyde Doesn't Go Outside

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by Zachary Snyder

Released March 2016

A large format, fully-illustrated collection of enchanted pictures and alluring limericks for children and cat lovers.

$6.75
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Concerning Poetry: Poems about Poetry

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By Jonathan Bracker

Released January 2018

These lyric poems concern poetry as a medium that transforms the daily world.

$7.50
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Free Ferry

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by Ann Cefola

Released April 2017

Free Ferry reveals the intrigue and secrecy around the first isolation of plutonium and its impact on an iconic “nuclear” family decades later.

$7.50
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Morgan Powell On and Off the Score

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Audio CD

Released January 2015

This 70-minute CD features new solo works and a new release of Waterclown with the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra.

$15.00
Details

My Virtuous Sister

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By Nick Fowler

Released August 2019

The novella debuts MIA 20-year-old Welsh émigrée Peddie Smout, famous as a rock star at the end of the last millennium.

$9.00
Details

One Hundred Years of Marriage (2nd Ed.)

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by Louise Farmer Smith

Released August 2016

In a series of interlocked stories, the author pierces the myths through four generations of one American family's mismatched marriages. Dark? Yes, but full of humor too.

$8.00
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Rickie Trujillo

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by Nicholas Bradley

Released September 2017

Rickie Trujillo details the events of one white-hot weekend in the life of a drifting Mexican-American teen.

$8.50
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Saving Phoebe Murrow

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by Herta B. Feely

Released August 2016

Saving Phoebe Murrow, set amidst the complicated web of adolescent relationships, tells a story of miscommunication and malice, drugs and Facebook, prejudice and revenge.

$7.50
Details

Shady Women: Three Short Plays

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By Elizabeth Primamore

Released June 2018

Three plays following women--and men--in the worst kind of trouble. All they can do is speak.

$12.50
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She Can Find Her Way: Women Travelers at Their Best

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Released November 2017

Women from several generations tell true stories of their most memorable and challenging travel experiences. Read how they overcame adversity while traveling alone.

$12.50
Details

Sounding Our Depths: The Music of Morgan Powell

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by Ann Starr

Released August 2014

Including a CD that spans his career, Starr's book reveals and interprets both Powell's aesthetic and ethical roots, and his unprecedented artistic methods.

$8.00
Details

The Naming of Girl

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by Rhonda G. Williams

Released May 2016

You've met Scout Finch, Ellen Foster, and Ruth Anne Boatwright (Bone). Now meet Girl Brown, the spunkiest nine-year-old in all the South.

$5.00
Details

The Woman Without a Voice

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by Louise Farmer Smith

Released September 2017

The story of pioneer women who against their better judgment packed their children and other treasures onto wagons headed into the wilderness.

Editorial Board

Ann
Starr

Margaret
Hawkins

Maggie
Kast

Anna
Sequoia

Tina
Tocco

Ann Starr

Web site Ann Starr is the founder of Upper Hand Press and the author of Sounding Our Depths: The Music of Morgan Powell. Starr is also the author of the online Starr Review, in which she has presented and discussed contemporary fine art and music since 2011.
 
For twenty years, Starr was active as a fine artist who showed nationally. Her interests as a painter and book artist introduced her to the world of medical humanities, where she became a frequent lecturer in medical schools, medical humanities and art history conferences.
 
Motherhood and domesticity have been major influences on Starr's point of view, as have been opportunities to work in race relations and to travel, especially in England and Senegal.

Margaret Hawkins

Web site Margaret Hawkins is a writer, critic and educator. She is the author of three novels: A Year of Cats and Dogs, How to Survive a Natural Disaster (both published by Permanent Press), and Lydia's Party (Viking Press, to be released by Penguin in paperback in 2015). She's also written a memoir: How We Got Barb Back: the Story of My Sister's Reawakening after 30 Years of Schizophrenia (Conari).
 
Hawkins wrote a column about art for the Chicago-Sun-Times for twenty years and currently teaches in the New Arts Journalism program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received an MFA in painting from the University of North Carolina.

Maggie Kast

Maggie Kast's debut novel, A Free Unsullied Land, is forthcoming from Fomite Press on November 1, 2015. Her first book, The Crack between the Worlds: A Dancer's Memoir of Loss, Faith and Family, was published by Wipf and Stock. Maggie received an M.F.A. in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has published fiction in The Sun, Nimrod, Rosebud, Paper Street and others. Her essays have appeared in America, Image, Writer's Chronicle and elsewhere, and a chapter of her memoir won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and a Pushcart nomination. An essay on symbols in Numero Cinq is currently available online by clicking here. Maggie understands that independent publishing has never been more important than it is today, and we are delighted she is a part of Upper Hand Press.

Christine Grimaldi

Web siteChristine Grimaldi is a writer in Washington, D.C. In 2014, she published a widely shared feature story in Slate on straight spouses--straight men and women who used to be married to gay partners. She has also written about the language of sexual assault for DAME Magazine; her tough-guy dad, "Brooklyn Tommy," for The Toast; schadenfreude for The Morning News; and on a range of topics for other publications. A complete list of her published work is available on her website. When Christine isn't writing, she edits nonfiction book proposals as well as nonfiction and fiction manuscripts. She has an MA in nonfiction writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Anna Sequoia

Web siteAnna Sequoia is the author of ten non-fiction books, including the animal rights classic 67 Ways to Save the Animals (HarperPerennial), and the best-selling humor book, The Official J.A.P. Handbook (N.A.L.). Anna was a fiction reader for Atheneum Publishers and Charterhouse Books, a non-fiction reviewer for Publishers Weekly, and later reviewed both fiction and non-fiction for New Times magazine. A former co-chair of the Publishing Triangle, Anna was a charter member of the National Book Critics Circle. She was most recently Senior Creative Director for Product Promotion at Publishers Clearing House. Photo credit: Ray Ewing

Tina Tocco

Tina Tocco's work has appeared in Roanoke Review, Crab Creek Review, Harpur Palate, Passages North, Potomac Review, Portland Review, Fiction Fix, and other publications. She was a finalist in CALYX's 2013 Flash Fiction Contest and an honorable mention in the River Styx 2015 Schlafly Beer Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Contest. Tina's poetry appears in the anthology Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana (Fordham University Press, 2008). She earned her MFA from Manhattanville College, where she was editor-in-chief of Inkwell. Tina spends a lot of her time writing for children, watching sci-fi and British dramas, and fantasizing about living in rural New England.

Upper Hand Press is open to good books that good writers bring to our attention. So far we've published fiction, criticism, an author-illustrated book, a short story collection, and poetry. We don't consider ourselves interested in sci-fi, romance, or fantasy, but the right manuscripts could change our minds.

Upper Hand is edited and published by the owner, Ann Starr (read her Starr Review blog). We have an outstanding consulting editorial board, but Starr is the first reader for every submission.

Be sure to read our Submission Checklist before you send materials. Note especially that we accept only EXCLUSIVE SUBMISSIONS. We make every effort to inform you of our decision within three months. We do not work with agents.

If you wish to query the publisher, please write directly to Ann Starr. Please do not inquire about matters fully explained in the website.

If you think Upper Hand Press may be a good fit, we look forward to hearing from you.

We welcome your questions or thoughts about Upper Hand Press, our books, and our plans. Use of this contact box is the most efficient way to reach us, and the one to insure the promptest response. Get in touch!

If you are a member of the Press seeking an interview or appearance, or if you are a bookseller wishing more information about our books, please note that in the subject line.

While the telephone is not the best way to reach us, our phone will generally be covered between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday, major holidays excepted. If you need to leave a message, we'll try to call you right back.