Blog | Swan River Press

L. T. Meade (1844-1914)

8 February 2019

“She stands there at the foot of the bed; she wears a hood, and her face is yellow. She has been dead a long time.” – “The Woman with the Hood” (1897)

Rosa Mulholland (1841-1921)

7 February 2019

“The lonely graveyard is far away, an’ the dead man is hard to raise—” – “Not to Be Taken at Bed-Time” (1865)

Lady Wilde (1821-1896)

5 February 2019

“And no one knew how the flowers came into her dead hand.” – “The Child’s Dream” (1887)

Anna Maria Hall (1800-1881)

4 February 2019

“Granny, did you know why your friend ventured so fearlessly into the ghost’s territories?” – “The Dark Lady” (1847)

On Designing A.E.’s Selected Poems

13 January 2019

Occasionally I like to write about how a Swan River book can come together. Back in 2015, I wrote a short piece on how we assembled our edition of Lafcadio Hearn’s Insect Literature, a beautiful book that is now unfortunately out of print. (Though you can still read about how we put it together!) This time I’d like to write a little about Selected Poems by A.E. (George William Russell, 1867-1935), which we published in April 2017 to coincide with the bicentenary of the great poet’s birth. A few years prior to the sesquicentenary, I realised there was no proper …

Our Haunted Year: 2018

16 December 2018

Running Swan River Press can be a difficult job. The hours are long, usually after returning home from my day job (also weekends), and any financial risks are wholly my own. The victories are incremental, only often partly enjoyed with my attention fixed on what the next challenge might be. That’s why it’s nice to sit down with a cup of coffee, some homemade cranberry bread, and reflect on some of the successes of this past year. I’m always pleasantly surprised at how many there are. The first book of the year was R. B. Russell’s Death Makes Strangers of …

The Green Book 12

28 November 2018

EDITOR’S NOTE by Brian J. Showers “Ireland’s contributions to supernatural literature has been a major one and, like its contribution to literary endeavour generally, out of proportion to the country’s small size.” – Peter Berresford Ellis, Supernatural Literature of the World One of the occasional criticisms of The Green Book is that it’s far too niche. That the focus on Irish literature of the gothic, supernatural, and fantastic is too limiting a remit. I could never really understand this assertion, especially not now that the journal has survived twelve issues — and I’m already working on the next. In fact, …

Things Less Certain: An Interview with Lynda E. Rucker

27 November 2018

© Brian J. Showers, August 2018 Lynda E. Rucker has sold more than three dozen short stories to various magazines and anthologies, won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story, and is a regular columnist for UK horror magazine Black Static. Her first collection, The Moon Will Look Strange, was released in 2013 from Karoshi Books; and her second, You’ll Know When You Get There, was published by Swan River Press in 2016. Brian J. Showers: This is the first anthology you’ve edited, isn’t it? Given that there are already two instalments in the Uncertainties series, what were …

Sparks from the Fire: An Interview with Rosalie Parker

27 November 2018

Conducted by Jason E. Rolfe, © July 2018 Rosalie Parker was born and grew up on a farm in Buckinghamshire, but has lived subsequently in Stockholm, Oxford, Dorset, Somerset, Sheffield and Sussex. She took degrees in English Literature and History, and Archaeology, working first as an archaeologist before returning to her first love of books. Rosalie is co-proprietor and editor of the independent publishing house, Tartarus Press, and lives in the Yorkshire Dales with her partner, the writer and publisher Ray Russell, their son and two cats. Her most recent book is Sparks from the Fire. Jason E. Rolfe: There …

The Dummy: An Interview with Nicholas Royle

26 November 2018

Conducted by James Pardey, © May 2018 Nicholas Royle is the author of two previous collections, Mortality and Ornithology, as well as In Camera (with David Gledhill). His seven novels include The Director’s Cut, Antwerp, and First Novel. Reader in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, he is head judge of the annual Manchester Fiction Prize and series editor of Best British Short Stories. He also runs Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories in chapbook format. James Pardey: Hi Nicholas. First of all I want to say that I really enjoyed The Dummy & Other …

Coulthart and Mueller on the Borderland

26 November 2018

Coulthart and Mueller on the Borderland Publisher Brian J. Showers discusses William Hope Hodgson with John Coulthart and Jon Mueller, his classic novel, and its influence on their work.

The Green Book 11

25 November 2018

Our previous issue saw a fabulous array of reminiscences of Lord Dunsany — and also some contemporary assessments of his works — written by his Irish colleagues, including Yeats, Bowen, Gogarty, Tynan, A.E., and others.