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Small Beer Press
150 Pleasant St., #306
Easthampton, MA 01027
413-420-4197
info@smallbeerpress.com
Current BooksCurrent Zine
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Kindling
Kathleen Jennings“The true magic of these stories [is] the simultaneous predictability and unknowability of the people and creatures at their centers.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)
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The Privilege of the Happy Ending
Kij JohnsonJohnson’s keen eye for the mysteries of human nature shines.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 51
At least 24 Hours from Tulsa as the zine flies.
Chuntering On and On
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Sun Sets on Trafalgar Sun 1 Mar 2026
Because I cannot keep up with time I hadn’t realized March was coming up so quickly and now we are a day away from rights to Amalia Gladhart’s translation of Angélica Gorodischer’s Trafalgar reverting to the estate. I’d meant to make a fuss a few weeks before this so instead: here’s a day or two […]
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Neither in Pittsburgh nor Baltimore Wed 25 Feb 2026
Being chronically ill gives insight into how the world will go on when one is no longer part of it. We’ve all moved on from social circles, jobs, schools, cities, towns, countries, and we know that life goes on in those places without us. But to lie on the couch and see annual events — […]
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Jedediah Berry on Travel Light Fri 23 Jan 2026
I was looking for something and came across this note on Travel Light that Jed sent me in September 2005 for the Small Beer newsletter: Travel Light is a book that goes places you never quite expect, even when you’re the one who’s writing it. No, I didn’t write Travel Light. But when Small Beer […]
Latest Eruption of Fiction Into the Universe
Kindling
Published simultaneously in trade cloth (9781618732170), trade paper (9781618732132), & ebook (9781618732149) · 288 pages
World Fantasy, Locus, Ditmar, and Aurealis Award shortlists
A fabulous debut of folk tales and fantasies by an award winning author and illustrator.
Small fires start in the hearts of Kathleen Jennings’s characters and irresistibly spread to those around them. Journeys are taken, debts repaid, disguises put on, and lessons offered — although not often learned — in these fantastic tales. Jennings’s confident voice lulls readers into stepping off the known paths to find “Undine Love,” “The Heart of Owl Abbas,” and further unexpected places and people.
Read a story: Undine Love
Table of Contents
The Heart of Owl Abbas
Skull and Hyssop
Ella and the Flame
Not to Be Taken
A Hedge of Yellow Roses
The Tangled Streets
The Present Only Toucheth Thee (story; podcast)
On Pepper Creek
Annie Coal
Undine Love
Kindling
The Splendour Falls
Read Kathleen’s story notes.
Reviews
“A real treat. There is a kindling in each character’s heart throughout this collection of fantastical stories, as well as throughout Jennings’s whole oeuvre.”
— Lyndsie Manusos, Book Riot
“But sinking into each story, to delight in the rhythms of the words and the delightful worlds created: That’s giving this collection what it deserves.”
— Alexandra Pierce, Locus
“A range of strange tales, from the myth-like to settings in suburban and outback Australia.”
— Steve Pfarrer, Daily Hampshire Gazette
“If you are looking for lovely fantastical short stories, such as a perfect for savoring on a cold winter night (or hot summer day if you are antipodal), I enthusiastically recommend Kindling, by Kathleen Jennings.” — Charlotte’s Library
“Fantasy writer and illustrator Kathleen Jennings (Flyaway) offers 12 glittering, fantasy-inspired short stories in Kindling. In ‘Ella and the Flame,’ three women and one child tell each other stories to comfort themselves while their neighbors burn them alive as retribution for a mysterious crime. Flipping the fantasy script by placing a boggart rather than suspected witches at its center, ‘On Pepper Creek’ tells the story of a boggart who is brought to a new land against his will in a family trunk and who exacts his revenge in return. And while the titular ‘Kindling’ centers the unexpected intuition behind a barmaid’s observations of her clientele, ‘Splendour Falls’ shows the much more nefarious manipulations of a mysterious young woman who enchants a young man gifted with special sight.
Jennings’s plots are refreshingly never straightforward, and her tone and subject matter never the same. For example, ‘Ella and the Flame’ casts a wistful spell with its oral-storytelling conceit and angle of feminist tragedy. Meanwhile, ‘Undine Love’ is a complex balancing act between a cautionary tale and dark humor, using its narrator’s outside perspective to infuse humor in the plight of its doomed “hero.” Though recognizable folk tales and fairy tales appear in fragments — ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in ‘A Hedge of Yellow Roses’; ‘The Frog Prince’ in ‘Undine Love’; ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ in ‘Splendour Falls’ — they never play out the way readers expect. Throughout, like the scraps of old tales, characters’ motivations flicker in and out of view, making the true magic of these stories the simultaneous predictability and unknowability of the people and creatures at their centers.” — Alice Martin, Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“Women with guts and men of good fortune in search of their personal treasures.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Following her debut, Flyaway (2020), Jennings here compiles a collection of 12 of her previously published short stories. Samplings of her elegant fantasies include “The Heart of Owl Abbas,” a beautifully detailed tale of a lonely songwriter who sends anonymous compositions to a recently arrived virtuoso, which unfortunately brings her presence to the attention of their dissipated ruler. In ‘Ella and the Flame,’ three sisters and a child spin wondrous tales while awaiting their cruel neighbors’ unjustified vengeance, and in ‘Not to Be Taken,’ the survivor of a murdered family returns home after decades away intent on finding a place for her burgeoning collection of poison bottles. As a riff on ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ ‘A Hedge of Yellow Roses’ has a fully-awake but abandoned lady faire hoping for rescue by the unwitting knight who stumbled into her thorn- encrusted compound. The title story, ‘Kindling,’ links six customer scenarios to a clumsy but intuitive barmaid and her lovelorn admirer. Offer to fans of lyrically descriptive prose.”
— Lucy Lockley, Booklist
Praise for Kathleen Jennings’s books:
“An unforgettable tale, as beautiful as it is thorny.” —The New York Times Book Review
“In spellbinding, lyrical prose Jennings lulls readers into this rich, dreamlike world. Lovers of contemporary fairy tales will find this a masterful work.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“I love the imagery, the atmosphere, the incredible tactile quality of the world as described, the structure. . . . Some of the best prose I’ve ever read.”—Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
“Part ghost story, part murder mystery and part fairy tale, Flyaway feels like a perfect combination of all Jennings’ experiences and imagination.”—Book Page
“An entrancing and unforgettable debut.” — The Southern Bookseller Review
“Jennings’s debut novella is pure, poetic Australian gothic, filled with haunting emotions, fairy-tale action, and sharp prose.” — Library Journal
“A deliciously mysterious Gothic fairy tale wrapped in elegantly descriptive prose.” — Booklist
“Half mystery, half fairy tale, all exquisitely rendered and full of teeth.” — Holly Black, author of Book of Night
“A fairytale wrapped about in riddles and other thorny bits of enchantments and stories, but none of them quite like any you’ve heard before. Kathleen Jennings’ prose dazzles, and her magic feels real enough that you might even prick your finger on it.” — Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog
“A superbly told tale of folklore-infused fantasy, full of rising dread, set in a sharply observed Australian outback town.” — Garth Nix
“A darkly enchanting and unexpected tale. A gothic Alice in Wonderland meets Picnic at Hanging Rock. With Flyaway Jennings takes old threads and weaves them into something new and exciting.” — Angela Slatter
“I feel as if a very new voice has whispered a very old secret in my ear, and I’ll never be able to un-hear it. Nor will I ever want to.” — C. S. E. Cooney
Cover art “Matchbox Girl” by Kathleen Jennings.
About the Author
Kathleen Jennings is an illustrator and writer based in Brisbane, Australia. As an illustrator, she has received the World Fantasy and Ditmar awards and has been shortlisted for the Hugo and Locus awards. As a writer, she has won a British Fantasy and Ditmar awards and has been shortlisted for World Fantasy, the Courier-Mail People’s Choice Book of the Year Award, the Crawford, and Aurealis awards.
Previously
Fri, 14 June, 6 p.m. AEST, Meet Kathleen Jennings, Brisbane Square Library, 266 George Street Brisbane City, QLD 4000 Australia
More Books
< Less Books-
OKPsyche
Anya Johanna DeNiro“A lyrical, emotionally powerful . . . tale of queer parenthood, of the reality of the sharp fear of trans lives, and of complicated self-discovery.” — Booklist (starred review)
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Lost Places
Sarah Pinsker“Queer, hopeful, and eerie, celebrating the rebellious spirits of both immortal-feeling youth and resilient elder protagonists.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
Heroes of an Unknown World
Ayize Jama-Everett“Will be devoured and adored by the most hardcore of readers.”
— Booklist -
And Go Like This
John Crowley“Haunting and gorgeously written.”
— Locus -
The Silverberg Business
Robert Freeman Wexler“Steeped in the early history of Texas’s statehood and laced with eerie portents of supernatural horror.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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The Adventurists
Richard Butner“Landscapes and memories alter, gentrify, and crumble in Butner’s flawless debut collection.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Hard Light
Elizabeth Hand“Elizabeth Hand is quite simply one of our best living writers. Her Cass Neary books are the ne plus ultra of modern noir, and Hard Light is the best one far.” —Nick Antosca, author of The Girlfriend Game
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Available Dark
Elizabeth Hand“A flash of incandescence counters final threats of death, and the all-encompassing darkness is leavened by a glimmer of hope. Stunning.” — Booklist (starred review)
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Spirits Abroad
Zen Cho“Absolutely gorgeous.”
—Margaret Kingsbury, Buzzfeed -
Big Dark Hole
Jeffrey Ford“Short stories are his sweet spot.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
Never Have I Ever
Isabel Yap“Such a joy to read.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
Reconstruction
Alaya Dawn Johnson“Haunting, not just for its vividness, but also for how Johnson writes around felt and imagined absences.” — Chicago Review of Books
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Martha Moody
Susan Stinson“So bloody good it made me want to run naked through a meadow.”
— Time Out, London -
Dance on Saturday
Elwin Cotman“Blends humor, emotional clarity, and wild imagination to bring life to stories about identity, power, and human nature.” — Arianna Rebolini, Buzzfeed
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Generation Loss
Elizabeth HandShirley Jackson Award Winner
Start reading. YouTube interview
Believer Award Short List -
Stray Bats
Margo Lanagan Kathleen Jennings“Evocative. . . . eerie. . . . rich, sensuous.”
— Publishers Weekly -
Half-Witch
John Schoffstall“Half-Witch is like The Golden Compass as written by Roald Dahl.”
— Lauren Banka, Elliott Bay Book Company -
Taboo
Kim Scott“A complex, thoughtful, and exceptionally generous offering by a master storyteller at the top of his game.” — The Guardian
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In Other Lands
Sarah Rees Brennan“Blissfully entertaining reading. . . . glittering contemporary fantasy.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
Air Logic
Laurie J. Marks“One of the most well-wrought and engaging fantasy worlds out there.” — Booklist (starred review)
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Tender
Sofia Samatar“These stories are windows into an impressively deep imagination guided by sensitivity, joyful intellect, and a graceful mastery of language.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea
Sarah Pinsker“An exciting new voice.” — Booklist (starred review)
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Earth Logic
Laurie J. Marks“Glows with intelligence . . . though not for the faint of heart.”
—Booklist (starred review) -
Fire Logic
Laurie J. MarksElemental Logic: Book 1
Spectrum Award winner
Romantic Times Reviewers Choice award nominee -
An Agent of Utopia
Andy Duncan“A raucous, fantastical treat.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
Terra Nullius
Claire G. Coleman“Coleman stuns with this imaginative, astounding debut about colonization.”
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) -
Alien Virus Love Disaster
Abbey Mei Otis“Highly recommended for anyone interested in weird fiction, sf, or just a breathtaking reading experience.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
The Invisible Valley
Su Wei Austin Woerner“An extraordinary novel.”
— Ha Jin, winner of the National Book Award
