the night, and the rain, and the river - the special edition

With the publication of the short story anthology The Night, and the Rain, and the River, Forest Avenue Press decided to do something special along with the trade paperback - a limited edition hardcover. One of the reasons this idea came about was that, when we commissioned local letterpress artist Clare Carpenter of Tiger Food Press to create a piece of art for the cover, she came up with two. They were very different pieces, and I enjoyed tinkering with both to see what I could come up with for the cover design.

Here's the paperback cover:

You can see how different the indigo art in this cover is from the second piece Clare made us, which we affectionately called "Lines":

It was a lot of fun to play with two completely different looks, color schemes, two very different uses of space. I think that was what was most fun. Playing with the varying uses of space in these two pieces. I did up a number of designs, but below is the one we ultimately chose. Recently, editor Liz Prato, who'd just received a first contributor's copy of the hardcover, told me:

"No wonder I liked this one the best. It looks perfect in my living room."

Here's a quick description of the collection:

A current of longing runs through twenty-two short stories by Oregon writers. As the characters strive for connection, they make mistakes, reach out to the wrong people, and recalibrate their lives based on what they desire, whether or not it’s attainable—or even a good idea. A shy pyromaniac takes a chance on love. A young woman hands her decisions to a man she’s never met. An abandoned father and son struggle to pull a stump from the stubborn ground, the town wailer loses her voice after her mother’s death, and a cloudless Oregon sky triggers a trip for a final goodbye.

The Night, and the Rain, and the River features stories by Jan Baross, Gail Bartley, Victoria Blake, Alisha Churbe, Sage Cohen, Ellen Davidson Levine, Steve Denniston, Trevor Dodge, Gregg Kleiner, Christi Krug, Kathleen Lane, Dylan Lee, Margaret Malone, Matthew Robinson, Joanna Rose, Lois Rosen, Jackie Shannon Hollis, Domi Shoemaker, Scott Sparling, Tammy Lynne Stoner, Jennifer Williams, and Cindy Williams Gutiérrez.

Forest Avenue Press will only be printing 100 copies of the special edition, and when they're gone, they're gone. If you're interested in a copy, we're taking preorders here.

You can check out more of Clare's lovely letterpress art here.