Publications

Editors: Kevin J. Anderson, Allyson Longueira their Publishing graduate students at Western Colorado University

Description: Merciless Mermaids: Tails from the Deep features thirty original stories and poems by Mercedes Lackey, Rick Wilber, D.J. Butler, Gama Ray Martinez, Julia Vee, Ken Bebelle, and many others. From Japanese legends to mafia mermen, from carnival freaks to flying aces, from bayou legends to kraken-like behemoths, these tales explore the darker side of merfolk: desire, envy, love unfulfilled, grace ungranted, and loneliness turned to rage.

Student Editor: Jennifer Daniels

Description: One of the first dystopian comedies, instead of a dark vision of jackboots and surveillance states, G.K. Chesterton explores the question of what a society would look like if no one could take a joke.

In this future England, each new king is decided by lottery. When Auberon Quin, a man who cares only for a good joke, is chosen to be the next king, he resolves to spend his reign teaching his fellow governors how big a joke can really be.

While most district leaders are content to put up with Auberon’s schemes even when he insists upon elaborate costumes and heraldry, one provost takes his games much too seriously. When Adam Wayne, the Provost of Notting Hill, takes a military stand against his fellow leaders and seeks to defend his tiny fiefdom by any means necessary, Auberon’s joke has gone too far.

Student Editor: Aubrey Parry

Description: Dyson knows something is strange after a man in spectacles casts aside an ancient coin that has been missing for centuries. But when Dyson meets mysterious stranger after mysterious stranger looking for the man in spectacles, he realizes someone is not telling the truth.

But who can he trust?

The Moon Pool

Student Editor: Scott T. Barnes

Description: Two princesses, one of temptation, power, and naked deceit; one of mercy, trust, and blind truth. Both bound to serve supernatural beings unto death.

Both in love with the same man.

The Moon Pool recounts the story of a group of adventurers who stumble through a portal into a lost, underground world. A world of incredible science and sublime magic. A world on the brink of war.

Student Editor: Tracy Eire

Description: Twenty-nine-year-old Valancy Stirling had always been out of step. Elfin and something of a changeling as 1920s ladies go, she’s suddenly faced with harsh reality when she’s diagnosed with a fatal illness of the heart. Bullied by her well-heeled, stuffy, and judgmental family, Valancy has grown up without love. Now she’s forced to realize she will likely die before she’s ever lived! The distant dream of having a home and loving family of her own—her Blue Castle—will wither unless she takes drastic action. And once Valancy knows she has nothing to lose? Everything changes.

Student Editor: Kelsey Kusnetzky

Description: After surviving a shipwreck, five men are stranded on a deserted island…until they are discovered by five beautiful, winged women. Instantly, the men become infatuated with the women’s abilities and attempt to lure them in with all of the riches and treasures that washed ashore. Letting their desires guide their decisions, their plan unfolds…and their world changes forever.

Student Editor: Briannon Holifer

Description: Yei Theodora Ozaki had a 19th-century British upbringing, but embraced her Eastern heritage once she moved to Japan at sixteen. Refusing to marry, she made her own way and fell in love with the folklore of her new home. The Japanese Fairy Book became the first of many collections she adapted to bridge her two cultures and share these treasured stories with the English-speaking world.

Whimsical and tragic, epic and frightening, Ozaki’s translations of cunning creatures, brave samurai, royal dramas, and folk adventures from a bygone era will enchant readers of any age.

Student Editor: Jessica Guernsey

Description: Widely considered as the first collection of non-traditional ghost stories, The Ghost Book combines twisted tales from some of the literary greats of the early 1900s: Algernon Blackwood, D.H. Lawrence, Oliver Onions, Enid Bagnold, and Arthur Machen.

Settle in by the fire for these classic, influential tales, where ghosts roam the woods, the roads, and possibly the room where you sleep. Some ghosts want redemption, some revenge, and some simply want peace and quiet. Some aren’t real ghosts after all.

Student Editor: Lois Thompson Bartholomew

Description: Biting wit and lush descriptions combine in this striking new edition of Oscar Wilde’s short story collection, which contains Wilde’s most famous story, “The Canterville Ghost.” Originally published in 1887 in the British literary magazine, The Court and Society Review. “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime: A Study of Duty” headlines this anthology, first published in 1891. In addition to the title work, Wilde added “The Canterville Ghost,” “The Model Millionaire,” and “The Sphinx Without a Secret.” Editions dated after 1900 (including this one) also contain “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.”

Student Editor: Heidi Moore

Description: Emily of New Moon is a coming-of-age story about newly orphaned Emily Byrd Starr, who deals with the loss of her beloved father as she tries to adjust to life at old-fashioned New Moon farm with her aunts and cousin. Emily, a budding writer with a mysterious sense of the otherworldly, makes quick friends in her new home and lands in more than her share of scrapes along the way. But she remains haunted by one thing: the scandalous mystery of what happened to her best friend’s mother.

Student Editor: Lila Holley

Description: A House of Pomegranates is a collection of four fairy tales by Oscar Wilde, first published in 1891. Wilde himself once said, “These tales are not intended for very young children,” warning parents to not ruin the imaginative minds of their children by reading these stories to them.

Although you won’t find any happy endings in these brilliantly written short stories, they are filled with beautiful language, whimsical imagination, and varying messages on love. “The Young King” touches on the love of God and humility. “The Birthday of the Infanta” touches on sorrows experienced when love is not returned. “The Fisherman and His Soul” explores forbidden love and the lengths one goes to achieve it. “The Star-Child” completes the book by touching on forgiveness and redemption in the name of love.

Student Editor: Mckenzie Moore

Description: The traditional mythology of the zodiac constellations is well-known, but what happened after those stories were over? How do the people in the sky now interact with each other, with other beings of the heavens, and with those down on Earth?

Here, four girls illuminate the Star People’s adventures in a series of intricately woven tales of friendship, coming-of-age, and found family in the ever-shifting landscape of the celestial sphere.

Student Editor: Victoria Lane

Description: Before W.B. Yeats wrote of the mystical in his poetry, Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market, also the title poem within the collection Goblin Market, The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems. The title poem is about two sisters, and the lesson learned when one does not heed the warning to mingle with those at the Goblin Market.

Rossetti’s collection blurred the lines between reality and imagination. Within this collection, Rossetti also has devotional poems, influenced by Rossetti’s religious background. The poem Sweet Death focuses on the church and the beauty between life and death.

Christina Rossetti’s poetry reflects the Pre-Raphaelite Period in the arts, which was started by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti and a handful of poets and artists, a style and movement that featured romantic poetry, ekphrastic pieces, and intense imagery.

Student Editor: Katharine Meeks

Description: Originally published by Oscar Wilde in 1888, The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of five short stories packed with heartfelt meaning for children and adults alike. This is a fine new edition of moral tales of selflessness, friendship, sacrifice, and kindness— and the dangers of not having them.

Student Editor: Logan Uber

Description: A captain seeking a lost brother; A sailor obsessed with redemption as he hides a dark secret; A wealthy onlooker intrigued by possibility.

Brought together by coincidence, they embark on a journey into the uncharted waters of the Antarctic.

Jules Verne weaves a story of exploration, adventure, and mystery in this exciting tale. An Antarctic Mystery is the unauthorized sequel to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and brings closure to Poe’s cliffhanger ending.

Student Editor: Rob Johnson

Description: Edgar Allan Poe’s only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, is one of the first adventure stories set in and around the Antarctic, which at the time was a place of mystery and the unknown.

Pym takes us on an adventure across the seas to uncharted southern lands that are fraught with danger. With shipwrecks, murder, mutiny, and, yes, cannibalism, this tale has it all. First published in 1838, midway between Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Poe’s Pym echoes one and presages the other while delving even deeper into the darkness of men’s souls.

Student Editor: Anna Stileski

Description: Delve into the works and mystery of an LGBTQ+ author whom historians are still trying to unravel over 200 years later. Previously known only as a quiet but intelligent wallflower friend of renowned author Mary Shelley, Mary Diana Dodds is far from an ordinary 1700s daughter of an Earl.

Student Editor: Savannah Stuttgen

Description: The cult classic that inspired Dracula!

Student Editor: Aisley Milner

Description: Baroness Emma Orczy brings us the third thrilling installment in her iconic adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, pitting Sir Percy against the wily Chauvelin once again in a battle of wit and cunning that stands between thousands of innocent lives and the ignominious the bite of Madame Guillotine

The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany 

Student Editor: Mandy Holley

Description: Considered formative to the development of the fairy tale and high fantasy subgenres, The King of Elfland’s Daughter follows Alveric, who leaves home on a quest with a few basic instructions: locate the Princess Lirazel in Elfland, convince her to return to Erl and marry him, and together produce the first magical Lord of Erl. But what happens when a village gets exactly what it asked for?

Student Editor: Lia Wu

Description: From Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and published only a year before his death, The Lair of the White Worm was heavily abridged and republished in 1925, leaving readers and critics alike dissatisfied and disappointed. Return now to the original, restored version of the text and explore the world of mesmerism and mystery as Bram Stoker intended.

Student Editor: Amy Michelle Carpenter

Description: From Padriac Colum, three-time Newbery honor winner, comes this delightful collection of some of the greatest myths ever told, highlighting Loki’s grand adventures.

Student Editor: Ann-Marie Hormeku

Description: For fans of Jane Austen—A Northanger Abbey Double Feature!

In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the main character, Catherine, receives a reading list of gothic novels. Once thought to be fabricated by Austen, these novels were rediscovered in the 1920s and are now referred to as the “Northanger Horrid Novels.” Two of the Northanger Horrid Novels, The Castle of Wolfenbach and The Necromancer, are presented here as a Northanger Double Feature.

Student Editor: Michele Harper

She saved France when she was fourteen… She was burned at the stake for her efforts… Meet the girl who captured Mark Twain’s heart.

Student Editor: C.J. Anaya

Description: Lafcadio Hearn’s ghost stories have become a fixture in the world of Japanese lore and superstition, offering us an eerie taste of what goes bump in the night. These classic tales celebrating Japanese culture are far different from our modern-day horror stories. Whether you’re in the mood for phantoms, demons, ghouls, or ghosts, these otherworldly tales will haunt you long after you’ve finished reading.

Student Editor: Justin Criado

Description: First hitting newsstands in 1923, Weird Tales magazine quickly became a literary monster in discovering and publishing the best horror, sci-fi and fantasy writers of its day. These are the best stories from 1923–25.

Student Editor: Kaye Lynne Booth

Description: First hitting newsstands in 1923, Weird Tales magazine quickly became a literary monster in discovering and publishing the best horror, sci-fi and fantasy writers of its day. These are the best stories from 1923–25.

Student Editor – Melissa Dalton Martinez

Description: When Doctor John Dolittle’s love of animals scares away his human patients, he finds himself on the verge of bankruptcy. Luckily, his parrot, Polynesia, has a solution—she teaches him to talk to animals.Using his new skill, Doctor Dolittle becomes a veterinarian, and his reputation soon spreads in the animal kingdom. With it, come requests for help from animals all over the world.Sailing off with his band of animal companions, Doctor Dolittle seeks to help all he can while facing fierce storms, vicious pirates, angry kings, and more.

Student Editor – Matthew Wright

Description: When Barbicane had the idea to repurpose weapons of war for science, his friends laughed at him. His rival, Captain Nicholl, ridiculed him for his ideas. But he didn’t let it deter him. Would they be ready in time? Philosophers had dreamed of setting foot on the Moon for thousands of years. Would the Gun Club have what it takes to man the first mission? Or would technology prove too limited? What dangers awaited them in space? Barbicane’s infectious enthusiasm inspired enemies and adventurers across the world. Would it be enough to get him and his friends safely back to Earth? Would they let their differences divide…or unite them?

Sometimes, humanity’s search for knowledge is worth all the risks.

Student Editor: Deborah Kevin

Description: An Egyptologist discovers a tomb at the exact moment his daughter is born. In a house full of Egyptian antiquities—a jeweled scarab, mummified cat, and severed hand, unexplained claw marks and comas — a mysterious stranger’s wild tales of a hidden tomb and ancient warnings of violent deaths to everyone who sought the jewel, all linked to a forgotten queen’s 5,000-year quest for reincarnation.

Student Editor: Constanza Ontaneda

Description: In The Wrongs of Woman, Maria has been separated from her infant daughter and imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. There, she forms an unexpected friendship with one of the female wards. Could romance follow?

Delve into the most radical feminist work from the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and find out.

Student Editor: Kelly Adams

Description: On a stormy night in 1816, the writers Mary Shelley, John William Polidori, and Lord Byron undertook a challenge that would change history and create the gothic genre. The result is three chilling tales of monsters, vampires, and murder.

Student Editor: Sarah Patterson

Description: Rise, Do Not Be Afraid is a compelling, intertwined story of a small New Mexico town and its people, the presence of shadowy gods, and the heart of human nature. These fantastical and almost whimsical tales are based in myth and biblical traditions, and the characters are rooted deeply in the past, returning to pass down the truth of their town—Santa Rita, New Mexico. Through the eyes and mouths of Abeyta’s characters, we are carried through a private and deeply personal history.

Student Editor: Amanda Spriggs

Description:

The Sleeper Awakes

What if you took a sleeping pill and awoke two centuries years later to find yourself the wealthiest man in the world? Everyone and everything you know is long gone … but you are simultaneously the most exciting and most unfortunate thing to happen in centuries?

Men Like Gods

What if you took a mental health day, ready for some rest and relaxation, and suddenly found yourself in a different world?

Journey with Mr. Barnstaple to Utopia to see what millennia of advancement can bring to the future.

Student Editor: Erekson Holt

Description: The One State is a world where people are merely numbers, and free will itself is a disease. Most are happy in their role as cogs in a huge machine, controlled by the ever-watchful Benefactor.

However, on the eve of the launch of the Integral—the spacecraft that will impose the One State’s way of life everywhere—starship architect D-503 meets I-330, a female number as irreverent as she is beautiful.

The Benefactor has quantified human experience, circumscribe edit, reduced it to nothing but a series of mathematical equations—that is, until one man tries to factor in the ultimate unknown: love.

Student Editor: Dale Sprague

Description: No one believed Professor Challenger’s claims that dinosaurs existed in the Amazon jungle.

Critics ridiculed and mocked him, but he was as stubborn as he was intelligent. He was willing to venture into the jungles with nothing but a crude map, a skeptical professor, a big game hunter, and a reporter. Their adventure took them across an ocean, up the Amazon river, and deep into lands barely explored by adventurers in the early 20th century.

When they finally reached the plateau on their map, they encountered their first big challenge–ascending the cliffs onto the plateau. To be so close to proving his claims with no way to ascend left the party frustrated. Professor Challenger however believed in determined ingenuity and did not give up easily.

Would they find what they expected or would they find more than they could handle?

GPCW Collective Work

Description: When the mask comes off, can you handle what’s underneath?

Pull back the mask to reveal 21 tales from seasoned and award-winning authors, of magical masks, gas masks, death masks, superheroes, secret identities, disguised robots, alien symbionts, a Napoleonic thief, a swindling demon—even a hidden clown.

Who will take the risk?

Student Editor – Angela Johnson

Student Editor – Kelly Lynn Colby

Student Editor: Carol Wyrick and Augustus Prouty

Description: Together in one volume for the first time—H.G. Wells’s seminal science fiction classic The War of the Worlds, with the contemporaneous, unauthorized, but extremely popular sequel Edison’s Conquest of Mars, as well as Wells’s own, much later conceptual sequel, Star Begotten.

Student Editor: Scott Lee

Description: Fresh from dusty libraries dark with forbidden knowledge, these twelve Howard tales, bring Kull of Atlantis, Bran Mak Morn, and a steady band of warriors, adventurers, and scholars into the dark to face the Nameless and that which they left behind: Elder gods, nameless cosmic horrors greater and older than the gods themselves, ancient forms of life and worship from before the dawn of humanity.

Student Editor: Kailey Urbaniak

Description: Murder, mystery, and solving crime—the foundations of detective fiction.

Description: Meet C. Auguste Dupin, the first literary example of a brilliant detective created by Edgar Allan Poe, undisputed master of chills and suspense. Follow Dupin’s genius skill at problem solving through three detective cases, Poe’s only three tales with his seminal character.

Student Editor: Ashley King

Description: Long unavailable to readers, Kipps is a classic rags-to-riches story that addresses the moral and emotional difficulties that come with wealth and a change of social station. It will make readers think, have them laughing, and capture their hearts.

GPCW Collective Work

Description: Join award-winning authors Jonathan Maberry, Fran Wilde, David Gerrold, Rick Wilber and others for 23 all-new tales of haunted theaters, video gods, formidable demons, alien pizza, and delirious actors. Each story takes you to the silver screen with monstrous results.

Student Editor: James Romag

Description: Here in one volume for the first time are five of L. Frank Baum’s Santa Claus tales. Gathered from book, magazine and Sunday paper, these are the stories that shaped the legend of the “Patron Saint of Children.” From Little Bun Rabbit in Santa’s workshop to the Wogglebug and friends making toys, over a century ago Baum created a legacy that captures hearts and imaginations to this day.

Student Editor: Elizabeth Drisko

Description: This classic full-length novel from H. G. Wells imagines a world of Progress stricken by brutal conflict in the sky—written before the actual invention of airplanes.

Student Editor: Tracy Leonard Nakatani

Think Journal

In fall 2013, the GPCW acquired THINK journal. THINK publishes poems that emphasize craft as well as criticism, reviews, fiction and creative nonfiction. It appears twice each year, in the spring and fall. Numerous current GPCW students and alums have served as readers and editors of THINK. Its current managing editor, Brian Palmer, is a GPCW alum in Poetry (2018).

Subscribe to THINK

GPCW Collective Work

Description: In the midst of darkness, one Colorado group uses art to heal broken hearts. 17 Coloradans wrote an intimate collection of nature pieces, screenplays, poetry, and short stories to capture the thoughts, emotions, and overall impact COVID-19 is having on society. This book is comprised of contest winners and finalists of The Great Isolation Writing Contest, published by the Publishing students at Western. This collection of raw and powerful art will serve as a time capsule for the world to remember how the coronavirus impacted civilization on the human level.