AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER OF UNIQUE BOOKS

Before the reveal, a little history about the series . . .

The first volume of Qualia Nous won the Benjamin Franklin Award for science fiction, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology, had two of its short stories win the Bram Stoker Award (in a tie) for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction (with a third also making the preliminary ballot), was a silver medal finalist in horror for the Independent Publisher Book Awards, a finalist in science fiction and bronze winner in anthologies for Foreword Reviews Book of the Year (now the IndieFAB), a finalist in both science fiction and anthologies for the Indie Book Awards, a finalist in anthologies for the USA Best Book Awards, a winner in science fiction for the International Book Awards, included a poem that won the Rhysling Award, and a short story nominated for the Nebula.

The original Qualia Nous was also the first time the press had the opportunity to publish Stephen King (now somewhat of a regular), and the first time any Written Backwards anthology included poetry. If you want to check it out, click the image below.

In other words, the first volume in what is now a series made some serious noise. Qualia Nous, Vol. 2, which is 428 pages, will also include 43 illustrations by Pat R. Steiner (see the thumbnails below), as well as 21 poems and 21 short stories (a handful of those novelettes). The anthology is going to be absolutely beautiful, alternating between fiction and poetry throughout by some of the most incredible writers of contemporary science fiction, horror, and dark fantasy.

Here’s a preview of the artwork (in poster form):

So, without further ado, the final Table of Contents for Qualia Nous, Vol. 2:

“Interstices” (found poem(s) from Vol. 1 as an intro) – Pat R. Steiner
“A Story That Must Be Read Alone but Never at Night” (short story) – Chuck Palahniuk
“Shattered in Daylight” (poem) – Linda D. Addison
“We Come Apart and Then We Arrive” (short story) – Eric LaRocca
“Here We Are” (poem) – Elizabeth Massie
“An Invitation for the Uninvited” (novelette) – Scott Edelman
“Set Me on Fire” (poem) – Cynthia Pelayo
“Twice as Many Stars” (short story) – Paul Michael Anderson
“Playground of the Gods” (poem) – Christina Sng
“The Fallen Man” (short story) – Geneve Flynn
“Lullabies of a Distant World” (poem) – Pedro Iniguez
“Other” (short story) – Gordon Linzner
“Vessel” (poem) – Lee Murray
“Come Find Me” (short story) – Zoje Stage
“Self-Discovery” (poem) – Ngo Binh Anh Khoa
“The Song of Fools” (novelette) – Patrick Freivald
“A Particle Accelerator Love Song” (poem) – Brent Baldwin
“Blue-Red-Green” (novelette) – Peter Hagelslag
“Sacrificing for the Path of Orbits” (poem) – Christopher Collingwood
“Investigations into Hypnagogia” (novelette) – Sachin Baliga
“My Memory Is as Time Is” (poem) – Mark Granger
“The Infinite Hourglass” (short story) – Kehkashan Khalid
“Common Sense, No More” (prose poem) – Maxwell I. Gold
“The Sum of Our Parts Needs Only One Heart” (short story) – Michael Gonzalez
“Alive / Real / Exists / Human” (collection of poems) – Eugen Bacon
“Bilocation in Liminal Space” (short story) – Erik Williams
“Danse Sanguinaire” (poem) – Deborah L. Davitt
“Choose Your Own Demise” (short story) – Richard Thomas & Repo Kempt
“Crazy” (poem) – Jeff Oliver
“Stuff She Put in a Box for Her New Room” (novelette) – Gary A. Braunbeck
“What Weird Weather We Had” (poem) – Josh Malerman
“Oil on Water” (short story) – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
“Nightmare” (poem) – L. Marie Wood
“Once, I Dreamed I Was Dead” (short story) – Rebecca J. Allred
“Paranoid: A Chant” (poem) – Stephen King
“Lucid Interval” (novelette) – Michael J. Riser
“Deeply You” (poem) – Max Booth III
“The Thing That Laughs in the Dark” (short story) – Gabino Iglesias
“Some Days, Most Days” (poem) – Kaaron Warren
“Dog-Whistles” (short story) – Cody Goodfellow
“Ghost in the Machine” (poem) – Karen Poppy
“Everyday Horror” (short story) – Steve Rasnic Tem
“Me” (poem) – Jamal Hodge

When will the anthology be available? If everything goes according to plan, October 31st, 2023, simultaneously in hardcover, paperback, and eBook. Yes, this lovely Halloween. And lastly, here’s a close-up of the illustration for Stephen King’s poem “Paranoid: A Chant,” which has a nice Dark Tower vibe . . .