Small Press Pages November 2025
By Christina Consolino
November! The eleventh month of the year, and with it (at least where I live) comes the time change. I don’t know about you, but when we fall back, so do I—into my bed. Six o’clock rolls around, darkness descends, and I’m ready for pajamas, thick socks, and flannel sheets. And books. Always books! In November, the United States celebrates Native American Heritage Month as well as Veteran’s Day, so our list this month features a few titles from both categories. Happy Reading!
Buffalo Is the New Buffalo: Stories by Chelsea Vowel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Science fiction through a Métis lens that blends shapeshifters, nanites, and radioactive bison to explore Indigenous existence and resistance. The collection examines colonization’s impact, the recovery of ancestral traditions, and the reimagining of shared history.
Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (Fireside Industries)
Fiction featuring Cowney Sequoyah, a young Cherokee man whose summer job at Asheville’s Grove Park Inn during World War II entangles him in love, prejudice, and a shocking accusation when a diplomat’s daughter goes missing. As he fights to prove his innocence, Cowney confronts buried truths about identity, belonging, and the strength of the human spirit.
She Falls Again by Rosanna Deerchild (Coach House Books)
A genre-blending work of poetry, prose, and dialogue that follows a Cree poet in Winnipeg who converses with a crow bringing news of Sky Woman’s return to dismantle the patriarchy. The book is a “call to resistance, a manifesto to the female self.”
Four Faces of the Moon by Amanda Strong (Annick Press)
Spotted Fawn journeys through time and memory to reconnect with her ancestors, language, and land, witnessing the devastation of the buffalo and the impact of colonization. The graphic novel vividly brings the histories of the Michif, Cree, Nakoda, and Anishinaabe Peoples to life.
Dear Orchid: Letters and New Beginnings—True Stories and Fiction filled with Heart, Humor, and Hope by Carol Van Den Hende (Azine Press)
A lyrical collection of letters that blends memoir and imagination to explore grief, identity, and the enduring pull between people across time and distance. Both intimate and universal, it’s an emotional journey that celebrates love, loss, and the quiet moments that shape who we are.
I’ll Lend You My Daddy by Becky King (Starts With Us)
A picture book with simple rhyming verse that helps children learn to cope with their family members’ deployments and manage their emotions. The book is optimistic, heartwarming, and full of courage and comfort.
Sitting in the Unknown: A Collection of Poems for Military Loved Ones by Sarah Curtis (Sarah Curtis)
Poetry collection that captures the emotional highs and lows of life as a military partner—from loneliness and sacrifice to love and resilience. Through heartfelt, relatable poems, it offers empathy, validation, and connection to all who navigate the uncertainty of military life.
The Military Stories You’ve Been Told and the Ones You Need to Hear by Jennifer Barnhill (E.P. House)
Nonfiction that reveals the hidden realities behind the myths of military life, exposing the sacrifices, unpaid labor, and systemic failures faced by service families. Drawing on original research, firsthand accounts, and historical context, the book offers an unflinching call for equity, accountability, and reform within the military system.
—
Christina Consolino is the author of REWRITE THE STARS, THE WEIGHT WE CARRY, and THE MARRIAGE DEBT, all contemporary fiction. Her work revolves mainly around family, marriage, relationships, and physical or mental health issues. She also writes romance under the pen name Keely Stephens. She can be found most days running, reading, writing, teaching, or sitting with a warm cup of coffee.
THE MARRIAGE DEBT
Sex is never just about sex.
From the outside, Nika Stewart’s life looks perfect: two loving kids, a fulfilling job as an elementary-school librarian, and a wonderful second marriage to Ethan, her sexy husband. The only problem? She doesn’t want to have sex with him.
Maybe it’s the harrowing hot flashes and formidable fatigue, or maybe it’s trying to juggle a weed-junkie dad, an onerous stepsister, and the avalanche of responsibilities that have left sex just another chore to cross off the to-do list.
When an honest conversation with her best friend leaves Nika worried her aversion to sex might drive Ethan away, she begrudgingly agrees to see a sex therapist. But as the sessions go on, Nika discovers that talking about sex with a therapist isn’t the same as facing the problem with her husband and that sex with Ethan might not be the only problem after all.
Filled with humor, candor, and at least one pair of role-playing chaps, The Marriage Debt examines the hard truths about sex that overbooked women face in their forties, as well as the joys still to come once a woman knows who she is and how to ask for what she wants.
Category: On Writing
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
