Hippocampus Magazine and Books announces its first two acquisitions, next anthology: Fossils, free spirits, and FM to grace pages

Hippocampus Magazine and Books is pleased to welcome its first two authors to its imprint, Books by Hippocampus. This week, the small press signed Sam Chiarelli and Rebecca Fish Ewan.

Sam Chiarelli’s tentatively titled Dig: A Personal Prehistoric Journey explores why we’re so fascinated with dinosaurs and why some people—dinophiles—never outgrow their Mesozoic obsession. This book follows Sam on a cross-country Amtrak trip with a final destination of a fossil dig. Buried within are encounters in museums big and small and interviews with many of Sam’s childhood heroes: paleontologists, artists, and others who’ve dedicated their lives to revealing the distant past. Part science and nature adventure and part memoir, this book is all dinosaur.

Rebecca Fish Ewan’s illustrated coming-of-age memoir By the Forces of Gravity is told through drawings and free verse. Set in early-1970s Berkeley, California, Rebecca’s story reflects on a childhood friendship cut short by tragedy. In an era of laissez-faire parenting, Rebecca drops out of elementary school and takes up residence in a kids commune—no parents allowed!—and we follow her, bestie Luna, and their hippie cohorts as they search for love, acceptance, and cosmic truths. Full of adventure and heartache, By the Forces of Gravity promises to pull you in.

“We’re excited to share these two different journeys with our readers, and we hope that this sets the stage for the variety in voices, structure, and themes that you’ll find with Books by Hippocampus,” said publisher Donna Talarico. “I was struck by the story behind the story of Rebecca’s beautiful memoir. I fell in love with our young narrator and was captivated by her cartoons. And it is my hope that after traveling along with Sam and his desire for discovery, readers will want chase after what makes them curious, too.”

Release dates for both titles are pending. Learn more about the authors at books.hippocampusmagazine.com/authors. Also on the slate is an anthology—a collection of stories from multiple authors—that celebrates radio before automation was prevalent. Air: A Radio Anthology is set for a winter 2018 release.

Books by Hippocampus expects to add one to two more releases in its first year’s catalog; look for an announcement in the coming months. Also, it will reopen for queries and proposals Oct. 1, 2017. Get more details at its submissions page.

In the meantime, a call for its next anthology, a celebration of roadside diners and greasy spoons, went live this week. Hippocampus Magazine and Books also will unveil a new logo specific to its books division before the end of the year.

About Hippocampus Magazine: Hippocampus Magazine’s three-fold mission is to entertain, educate and engage readers and writers of creative nonfiction. Hippocampus publishes new creative nonfiction, craft articles, writing life columns, interviews, and reviews monthly. Hippocampus hosts an annual creative nonfiction conference, HippoCamp, and, in 2016, launched its books division. Learn more at its website. Hippocampus Magazine is an independent, self-sustaining organization.