Publishers of international
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and literary hybrids.
Events & News
Introducing the Thomas E. Kennedy Novel Award
Serving House Books is seeking brave, well-crafted, literary novels for the Thomas E. Kennedy Novel Award. We want books that are overlooked and under-appreciated by traditional commercial publishing companies. We are interested in work that explores the depths of the human experience and shows commitment to the art of fiction.
Serving House Books is proud to have published award-winning international writers with a catalogue of over 125 books and counting. The Thomas E. Kennedy Novel Award is a tribute to our late cofounder who established the press with chief editor emeritus Walter Cummins. Please read about Kennedy and our press at our website for a better understanding of what we’re all about.
See our website or Submittable below for directions:
https://servinghousebooks.com/submissions/
https://lawrencelandingcompany.submittable.com/submit/299752/thomas-e-kennedy-novel-award
And buy the book Celebrating Thomas E. Kennedy at: https://servinghousebooks.com/celebrating-thomas-e-kennedy/
ARTIFACTS AND OTHER STORIES is the winner in Short Story Fiction for the 2024 American Fiction Awards!
Congratulations to Ronna Wineberg! We’re honored to have published this excellent collection!
Peter Selgin on Writing Duplicitously
Writing Duplicitously: Peter Selgin Breaks Down the American Novel
Listen on SoundCloud
The Jewish Book Council Reviews Ronna Wineberg’s Nine Facts That Can Change Your Life
The Jewish Book Council recently published a fabulous review of Ronna Wineberg’s Nine Facts That Can Change Your Life. “The power of Ronna Wineberg’s writing,” observes Eleanor Ehrenkranz, “lies in her ability to create lovable characters. From the moment her stories begin, you feel for these smart, intense, and highly self-critical men and women who inhabit the pages…” Read the full review at the Jewish Book Council‘s website.
Mark Cox Wins $10,000 NC Arts Council’s Artist Fellowship
We are thrilled to announce that Mark Cox, SHB author of Sorrow Bread: Poems 1984-2015, has won a $10,000 North Carolina Arts Council Artist Fellowship. “One seeks that elusive treasure,” Cox says, “the poem that exists as a beautifully made object, but which seen, and heard, from the right angle becomes transparent—an emotional and psychological experience transcending its construction.” See the 2017 NC Arts Council’s Artists Fellowship Recipients website for more details. Congrats Mark!
Mark Cox’s Poem “Alcohol” Featured at Poetry Daily
Exciting news! Mark Cox’s Sorrow Bread: Poems 1984-2015 is featured on Poetry Daily today. “Alcohol” is the featured poem, and this intensely moving poem grabs you, wraps itself around you, and doesn’t let go. It begins, “In this faded family photo— / Horton, Kansas, ’36— / they are just two farmhands in overalls.” Go to poems.com to read it in full. Congratulations, Mark!
Donna Baier Stein’s The Silver Baron’s Wife Wins 2nd Place in the CIPA EVVY Awards
We are so excited to announce that Donna Baier Stein’s The Silver Baron’s Wife won 2nd place for historical fiction in the 2017 Colorado Independent Publisher Association (CIPA) EVVY Awards Book Competition Winners. For more details see the CIPA EVVY Awards website. Congrats Donna!
Paterson Light and Shadow Reviewed at Poetry Spoken Here
Poetry Spoken Here host Charlie Rossiter reviewed Paterson Light and Shadow in Episode #48 of his podcast. You can listen to the full review here. This collection of poems by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and photographs by Mark Hillringhouse pay homage to the history and changing landscape of Paterson, New Jersey. As Rossiter observes in his review, Gillan’s poems “gain power as they play off each other and Hillbringhouse’s superb photographs.” For more information on this beautiful collaborative work that is Paterson Light and Shadow, see the full description.
The Silver Baron’s Wife a Finalist in Two Contests
Donna Baier Stein’s novel The Silver Baron’s Wife was a finalist for both general fiction and historical fiction in the 2016 Forward INDIES competition and a finalist for the 2017 Paterson Fiction Prize.
In a Vertigo of Silence a 2015 Best Indie Book
The editors of Kirkus Reviews have selected Miriam Polli’s In A Vertigo of Silence as a Best Indie Books of 2015.
Recognition for Donna Baier Stein’s Sympathetic People
Sympathetic People was named one of four finalists in the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the Short Fiction category, and the book’s cover by Allen Mohr was also selected as a finalist for cover design.
Pushcart Prize Nominations
Four selections from our books have been nominated for the 2015 edition of The Pushcart Prize: Edward R., “Welcome to Hell” from Letters to My Younger Self and three from Runnin’ Around: The Serving House Book of Infidelity—R.A. Rycraft, “Keeping Tabs”; Dennis Bormann, “Fishhawk”; and Roisin McLean, “Cleavage.”
Recognition for Rick Mulkey’s Poetry
Poetry Daily featured Rick Mulkey’s poem “Blind-Sided” from his collection Ravenous on Sunday, February 8, 2015.
His poem “Cured” was the 2018 winner of the Southeast Review Gearhart Poetry Prize, as judged by Barbara Hamby.
Recognition for Letters to My Younger Self
Letters to My Younger Self, edited by Jayne Thompson and Emily DeFreitas, has been selected as the common text for all entering freshmen at Widener University. The book was the subject of an hour-long broadcast on NPR that includes readings by the contributors and two newspaper columns, one in The Philadelphia Inquirer and one in the Delaware County Times.
PUBLISHING SCHEDULE
Serving House Books is currently considering short story collections. Fee-free submissions are open from July 1 until September 1 at Submittable.
We have other excellent books being prepared for release. Each work will be announced when publication is pending.
"I admire [Serving House Books] for the quality work they’re putting out plus the notable writers they’re publishing."
Jack Smith, The Writer Magazine