We're a new home for short novels, highlighting short novels getting published now – and notable short novels from the past 200 years or so. The Shortish Project also publishes original work in paperback and ebook editions. This audio series features readings of excerpts from short novels published The Shortish Project.

Nanami Fetter Reads From Documentary

Finalist, Hawthorne Prize 2023

Seamus Damp is an aging American-born writer who retreats to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to escape to a monastic life. But his troubled past is always near, and his estranged relationship with his son is fraught with heartbreak. When a young woman who carries her own heartache-filled past comes to the island on a solitary spiritual and hiking adventure, she and Seamus discover an unusual bond and together attempt to find a way to heal their hearts and erase their collective sorrows.

David W. Berner is the author of several books of fiction and personal narrative. He has been the recipient of awards from the Society of Midland Authors and the Eric Hoffer Book Awards and has been honored as the writer-in-residence at the Jack Kerouac Project and the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Home.

The Islander is available from local and online booksellers.

David W. Berner reads from The Islander

Life isn't about fitting in. It's about finding the people who are willing to stand out with you. 

Sixteen-year-old Bay's life is slowly unravelling. Already dealing with a debilitating anxiety disorder and a shameful secret, her world is further turned upside down after the sudden death of her mother. Not quite ready to let go, Bay continues sending emails to her dead mother. Her father moves her and her twin brother Ronin to small-town Woodgrove, hoping to make a fresh start. She meets Evie and Xander, fellow misfits who help restore her belief that deep, meaningful friendships do exist, even if you are on the outside. But her friendship with Xander is put to the test when romantic feelings come into play. After her anxiety disorder turns life threatening, Bay discovers that you can never really escape your old life, and that problems will follow you wherever you go - especially when you don't ask for help.

Aimee C. Trafton is an author, writer, poet, blogger, and eLearning Specialist from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Her children’s book, Amber Tambourine and the Land of Laugh-a-Lot, was published in May 2021 (Austin Macauley Publishers USA). It won a Literary Titan Gold Book Award, and was a finalist for the Reader’s Choice Book Award. Her personal essays and stories have appeared in the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, Autism Parenting Magazine, and her blog, Life Lessons for My Daughter.

The Misfit Crew is available from local and online booksellers.

Aimee C. Trafton reads from The Misfit Crew

Harmonic Dissonance is about two married couples -- one straight (Elle and Patrick) and one gay (Corey and Noah). Patrick and Noah have dementia and are at the same Memory Care facility. During their stay, Patrick and Noah form a sexual relationship even though Patrick is straight. Both no longer recognize their spouses. The novel explores the impact on Elle and Corey as they confront the impact of Alzheimer’s on their marriages; the way their roles have changed. Elle and Corey are forced to form a bond with each other—as a coping mechanism. Elle ponders whether her husband has been a closeted gay man during their marriage. Corey and Noah’s adopted son is missing in Afghanistan, making Corey deal with another potential loss in his life without the support of his husband, Noah. Music is used as a backdrop because the auditory system of the brain is fully functional at 16 weeks. We appreciate and understand music before anything else. With dementia, music is the last brain function to die. In other words, first in and last out.

From a young child, Gordon Blitz was called a sissy, girlie, fag, queer, and homo. Getting towel whipped, stomach punched and spit on were part of his world. His father, who died after Gordon’s Bar Mitzvah, berated him with shouts of “walk straight.” Gordon never found his writer’s voice until he retired in 2017 from forty years of accounting and became a passionate writing machine. In 2021 his novel Shipped Off was published as part of the Running Wild Press Novella Anthology Volume 4, Book 1. His second novel Fathers and Other Strangers was published in February 2022. Gordon participated in the filming of Queers Across the Years as a writer and performer. Ten of his autobiographical stories are available on the "Queer Slam" Episode 21 podcast called “Just Gordon.” Gordon wrote and performed in Queerly Imparted at the Skylight Theater in Los Angeles as part of the World AIDS Day celebration. His play Reflections was chosen and presented at the Region 8 KCACTF (IN PERSON) festival-Las Vegas.

Harmonic Dissonance is available from local and online booksellers.

Gordon Blitz reads from Harmonic Dissonance

The Uncanny Case of Gilles/Jeannette is a gender-swapped take on Jekyll and Hyde. Set in Hudson, NY during the Great Depression, it follows the story of 20-year-old Jeannette, the daughter of John Darby, a widower, failed inventor, and proprietor of The Diamond Inn. Longing for her friend Dahlia, and traumatized by her father’s sudden illness, Jeannette experiments in his basement laboratory with the purpose of transforming herself into a man. She unleashes Gilles, her male alter-ego, thinking he will successfully seduce Dahlia, but Gilles cannot be controlled, and has other plans—which include murder. The story is framed by the modern tale of a queer Brooklyn couple, who have inherited the property, one of whom has a dark ancestral tie to the Inn. This gothic thriller explores the complex issues of gender, homophobia, race, and the Pandora’s box hidden within each of our natures, all while weaving in a disturbing episode of Depression-era history involving one ofAmerica’s most beloved singers.

“Cleverly pushes the Jekyll and Hyde premise toward an exploration of gender and desire ... A pointed contemporary twist on a classic horror setup." - Kirkus Reviews

JUNE’S MOST ANTICIPATED LGBTQIA+ BOOKS - Lambda Literary

“Cinematic and seductive. This bold novella will tear at your heart.” — Rob Schmidt, director, Fran K: Frankenstein and Wrong Turn

“An exploration of psycho-sexual duality propelled by a narrative engine that drives this expert updating of the classic Jekyll and Hyde paradigm. Ripe with intrigue and invention."— Scooter McCrae, director, Saint Frankenstein and Shatter Dead

Jill Dearman writes socially-engaged crime fiction. She is the author of several books including Jazzed, which was selected by Kirkus as a “Best Indie Historical Fiction Novel of 2022.” Jazzed is a gender-swapped take on the iconic 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case. Kirkus gave it a starred review, as well, and singled it out for praise in a Kirkus Magazine article: Indie Crime Novels With Unforgettable Leads. The audiobook also recently received an Earphones Award. Dearman is also the author of a book on the history of feminism for teenagers. She is a Part-Time Writing Professor in Liberal Studies at New York University. For more: www.jilldearman.com.

The Uncanny Case of Gilles/Jeannette by Jill Dearman

Jill Dearman reads from The Uncanny Case of Gilles/Jeannette

A man walks into a bar and over the course of the night realizes everyone there is named Danny.... Jared Joseph's DANNY THE AMBULANCE is a mind-bending novel told with masterful wit. 'Have you ever seen Danny Welle’s adaptation of Danny Kafka’s The Trial? Danny Joseph’s Danny The Ambulance is there, in the Jury Room dive bar, and we might be drunk but it seems like nothing is what it seems. Danny Joseph invites us into a verisimilar reality like Danny Egger’s The Lighthouse or Danny Bergman’s Persona, but he does it in a way that is whip crack smart and sardonic and decidedly modern. When all of art and pop culture and identity are simply echoes of each other across an uncanny valley, this author cries out, reminding us, Oh Danny boys, the archetypes, the archetypes are calling!' - Danny Bender, author of Dangerous Women and Kinderkrankenhaus

Jared Joseph is a writer based in Los Angeles.

At booksellers now. And from The Shortish Project:
https://outpost19.square.site/product/danny-the-ambulance-by-jared-joseph/82

Jared Joseph reads from Danny the Ambulance

A dark, dramatic story of the supernatural inspired by the Wagon Box Fight of 1867 in the Wyoming Territory. Lewis Tanner has run from his home in Tennessee and, after a series of crimes and misadventures, finds himself on a woodcutting crew at an Army fort in the middle of Indian country. After his crew is ambushed by Native forces, Lewis is forced into a group that rides out for revenge. But the woods are bad. Strange forces are at work there, and soon, his fellow fighters are found eviscerated. Lewis must fight for survival as otherworldly forces hunt him and his companions through a place they were never meant to enter. 

"A cosmic cousin to Cormac McCarthy, Josh Hanson's The Woodcutters carves its own blood-red meridian. Don't sleep on this one. In fact, don't ever sleep again." -- Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters

"Moody and dark, there’s something going on outside the fort in northern Wyoming in Josh Hanson’s The Woodcutters—a period western horror-thriller that’s sure to curdle your blood." -- Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Series

Josh Hanson (He/Him) is the author of the novel, King’s Hill (Wicked House). He lives in northern Wyoming where he teaches, writes, and makes up little songs. He is a graduate of the University of Montana MFA program, and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in various anthologies as well as The HorrorZine, Siren’s Call, The Chamber, BlackPetals, and others.

Published by The Shortish Project

Josh Hanson reads from The Woodcutters

In James Terry's novella THE RETURN, Bernard Aoust is a film professor at Berkeley, nearing retirement, who finds himself increasingly at odds with modern life. A Frenchman by birth, and an ideological child of May ‘68, Aoust is also obsessed with a long lost silent French film from 1923 and its obscure director, devoting his academic life to the film and banking on a new monograph to salvage his flagging career. After a series of unusual occurrences, the lost film plunges Aoust into an existential crisis. At bo0ksellers now. Read more at https://outpost19.square.site/product/the-return-by-james-terry/83

James Terry reads from The Return

While clearing out his great aunt's midtown apartment after her death, author David Winner discovered artifacts of her storied existence: notes from opera stars, love letters and artifacts from the Middle East of the 1930’s. His Aunt Dorle had been a co-founder of Angel Records and a prominent figure in the mid-century classical music world. But the more he learned about her world, the more complicated her story became, a twisted puzzle full of love and fascism, a record of a young woman grappling with her attraction to lovers with hair-raising political ties. A powerful work of family discovery, rooted in a bygone Midtown Manhattan and involving artists and politicians from around the world.

Available in paperback and ebook. At booksellers now.

BOOKLIFE STARRED REVIEW! "An engrossing story about the life and times of a singular woman who lived life to the fullest... A fascinating 'fictional memoir' memoir of a trailblazing great aunt and her mysteries."

KIRKUS RAVES! "A fascinating blend of the personal and the historical, and a provocative comment on the ways in which both resist interpretive finality."

https://david-winner.com
https://outpost19.ccom

David Winner reads from Master Lovers

Award-winning book publisher based in San Francisco

Outpost19

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