Alternating Current Press

Alternating Current Press

is an indie press dedicated to publishing and promoting incredible literature that challenges readers and has an innate sense of self, timelessness, and atmosphere. We love science, history, homebound roots, rural landscapes, sense of place, poetic literary fiction, diverse voices, and all that is electric in the literary world.

Our latest release

Him or Her or Whatever:
Poems by Tyler Friend

Him or Her or Whatever is ultimately a collection of love poems — it’s just that the poems sometimes don’t want to be seen as love poems because, after all, that might be embarrassing. The pieces are interested in the whatever-ness of gender and genre, body and self, in whatever this categorizes and how it relates to and explores the whatever-ness of others. The poems are fierce and vulnerable and extremely shy, with many competing ideas: the book is, after all, written by a Gemini.

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New Releases

Calls for submissions to upcoming anthologies

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How to Hang the Hat:
Storytellers on Sondheim

We’ve lost a titan. So now we write. Submissions are open for a tribute in words to the late, great Stephen Sondheim. Tell us about your Sondheim heart.

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Bottomland:
Essays on Being LGBTQ+ in the Deep South

We are seeking creative nonfiction and personal essays on the experience of being LGBTQ+ in the Deep South.

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News & Updates

MAY 31, BEST SMALL FICTIONS: We’re thrilled to announce the selections for the 2023 edition of Best Small Fictions, the annual compilation of the best microfiction, flash fiction, haibun stories, and prose poetry from around the world, nominated by indie presses that published the pieces throughout the previous year. This year’s selections honor 110 pieces published in 2022, curated by guest editor Catherine McNamara and series editor Nathan Leslie, to be published in print and ebook by Alternating Current later this year. We took over the publishing of the popular series, which is now in its ninth year, in February 2023.
MAY 22, SUBMISSIONS OPEN: The DaguerreoTyped May-June historical photo prompt is now open until June 30, 2023. Every month, we pick a historical photo, and we ask you to write something about it. The winner receives $30 and is published on The Coil. Join our email list to stay informed about this ongoing monthly contest.
MAY 20, SUBMISSIONS OPEN: The Charter Oak Award for Best Historical and FOOTNOTE: A LITERARY JOURNAL OF HISTORY are open for submissions! We’re seeking individual pieces of historical writing in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid that give an author’s intimate or emotional take on historical places, people, events, or ideas. Join our email list to stay informed on this journal.
MAY 19, SUBMISSIONS OPEN: The Spark Translation Prize is now open! This prize is Alternating Current Press’ annual book award to recognize an unpublished manuscript of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, play script, or hybrid work in translation, with an emphasis on important social justice topics and themes that impact the world around us. Join our email list to stay informed on this book prize.
MAY 19, UPCOMING SUBMISSIONS: We’re pleased to announce that the Front Range Book Prize will be kicking off this inaugural year with an opening date on September 1, 2023. This prize is Alternating Current Press’ annual book award to recognize an unpublished manuscript of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, play script, or hybrid work that is written by a Colorado author or on the theme of Colorado. Join our email list to stay informed on this book prize.
MAY 13, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Ashley Marie Farmer’s THE FARMACIST, a reprint of the fantastic out-of-print flash story collection of the same name. We couldn’t be happier to be bringing this long-lost gem back into the world in January 2024! Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 12, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Jen Karetnick’s WHAT FORGES US STEEL: THE JUDGE JUDY POEMS, a thematic collection of poetry that looks at pop-culture icon Judge Judy through a variety of lenses. This fantastic chapbook will be joining our Little Pigeon series in May 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 11, ACQUISITION: We are delighted to (re)welcome Ryan Ridge back to our lineup with the acquisition of HUNTERS & GAMBLERS, a reprint of the out-of-print short-story collection of the same name that will also include fantastic new material. This deluxe edition will be joining our full-length titles in January 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 11, ACQUISITION: We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Michelle Acker’s DEAD ROBINS SOCIETY, a collection of poems inspired by and responding to superhero comic books, grappling with what it means to love an artistic genre that, in myriad historical and cultural ways, is invested in not loving you back. This chapbook will be joining our Little Pigeon series in June 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 11, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce Sudha Balagopal’s TINY UNTRUTHS, a collection of flash stories linked by an exploration of the human condition to reveal universal truths that straddle continents and countries and blend thoughts, ideas, and customs from the east and west. This book will be joining our full-length titles in April 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 10, ACQUISITION: We’re stoked to announce the acquisition of Brendan Walsh’s NOTJUSTYET NOTJUSTYET, a collection of poetry that asks the universe for one more day before destruction in regard to our constant exposure to death, imperialism, and climate catastrophes, specifically in the author’s home of South Florida and his past home of Southeast Asia. This book will be joining our full-length titles in October 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 10, ACQUISITION: We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Jeffrey Hantover’s 87½ MINUTES, a novella featuring a post-Covid love story at the possible end of the world, where two journalists at a tabloid notice an increasing number of weird events stemming from alien misinterpretations of the Golden Record launched into space on the 1977 Voyager I. This book will be joining our full-length titles in January 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 10, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Benjamin Goluboff’s LIVES AND TIMES, a collection of speculative biographical poetry about groundbreaking and glass ceiling-shattering artists, generals, musicians, photographers, and other movers and shakers of pop-cultural significance! The book will be joining our full-length titles in March 2024. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
MAY 8, PREORDER: Brett Biebel’s WINTER DANCE PARTY, a linked flash collection about Buddy Holly’s Iowa plane crash site in 1959, is now available for preorder. Join our email list to stay informed on the release of this title.
APR 25, ACQUISITION: We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Wendi White’s TURTLE ISLAND RISING, a collection of environmental poetry that interweaves the author’s relationship to the earth and affinity for nature with her ancestors’ history of colonizing and extracting wealth from the new world while exploiting its first inhabitants, joining our spring full-length lineup in March 2024. Join our email list to stay informed.
APR 23, ACQUISITION: We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Bryanna Licciardi’s FISH LOVE, a collection of poetry about the beauty and tragedy of living life as a modern-day woman, joining our winter full-length lineup in December 2023. Join our email list to stay informed.
APR 22, ACQUISITION: We’re happy to announce the acquisition of Elliott Coates’ & PLEASE, a poetry collection of the correspondence from Charles Dickens’ troubled youngest sibling, Augustus, to his famous brother. This delicious chapbook will be joining our Little Pigeon series in January 2024. Join our email list to stay informed.
APR 22, ACQUISITION: We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Matthew Pitt’s THE BE-EVERYTHING! BROTHERS, a literary novella in which two brothers must forgive each other and their shared traumatic childhood in order to run a popular children’s show that tests their brotherly limits, for publication in November 2023. Join our email list to stay informed.
APR 21, ACQUISITION: We’re so excited to welcome Ben Tanzer—Emmy winner, podcast producer, author, and lit-citizen extraordinaire—to our fall lineup with the acquisition of BE COOL and LOST IN SPACE, reprints of an out-of-print memoir-in-vignettes and an essay collection on fatherhood, respectively, for dual-publication in November 2023. Join our email list to stay informed.
APR 21, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of LETTERLOCKING, a collection of poetry about the ancient art of letterlocking and concealing intimate truths, by Stephanie Staab, an American poet living in the Black Forest of Germany. This collection will be joining our Little Pigeon chapbook series in August 2023. Join our email list to stay informed.
DEC 12, ACQUISITION: We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Ashley Elizabeth’s BLACK HAS EVERY RIGHT TO BE ANGRY, a collection of poetry that explores the historical and modern-day societal conditions of being Black in the United States, joining our Little Pigeon series in October 2023. Join our email list to stay informed.
DEC 10, ACQUISITION: We’re excited to welcome Dayton J. Shafer’s HOMESLICE, a collection of ethnographic monologues that investigates & deconstructs 90s/turn-of-the-millennium American identity with themes of privilege, cognitive dissonance, masculinity, communal trauma, & fallen idols, for an August 2023 publication in our Little Pigeon series. Join our email list to stay informed.
DEC 10, ACQUISITION: We’re delighted to announce the acquisition of Barbara Sabol’s WATERMARK: POEMS OF THE GREAT JOHNSTOWN FLOOD OF 1889, a collection of poetry inspired by firsthand accounts and research of death records from the infamous disaster. The full-length collection will be an October 2023 release. Join our email list to stay informed.
DEC 10, ACQUISITION: We’re thrilled to announce the acquisition of Bryce Emley’s TERMINATING PHYSICS: [a reference guide], a collection of prose poems using mathematical concepts as frameworks for questioning the validity of memory and examining the grief brought on by a car crash that killed the author’s best friend. The chapbook will be joining our Little Pigeon series at Alternating Current for a December 2023 release. Join our email list to stay informed.
DEC 2, ACQUISITION: We’re delighted to welcome Andrew Farkas to our Alternating Current family with the acquisition of ARE YOU NOW, OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN?, a collection of short stories about identity that includes a reprint of Andy’s out-of-print collection Self-Titled Debut, plus added material, with a new introduction by the author. We’re thrilled to be bringing this fantastic story collection back into print, to share with a whole new audience.
DEC 1, BEST MICROFICTION: We’re thrilled to announce our press nominations for the Best Microfiction series: “Simon” by Naz Knudsen; “Each Droplet of Blood” by K. C. Mead-Brewer; “Crown Shyness” by Stephanie King; “step•moth•er (step-muth-er)” by Melanie Figg; “Insomnia” by Jo Saleska Lange; and “Knocking” by Tommy Dean. Congrats!
DEC 1, PUSHCART PRIZE: We’re thrilled to announce our press nominations for the Pushcart Prize: “Eden” by Jami Nakamura Lin; “Landfall” by Jiksun Cheung; “Davening” by Leonard Kress; “Lessons I Will Teach My Son” by Kendra Fortmeyer; “Naming the Darkness” by Tommy Dean; and “Poem for the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, Christmas Eve” by Tyler Friend. Congrats!
DEC 1, PUSHCART PRIZE: The Coil online magazine is thrilled to announce its nominations for the Pushcart Prize: “I Shot Tom Gardener?” by Jonah Marlow Bradenday; “When Alzheimer’s, Not Satisfied with Its Current Host, Went After My Memories, as Well” by Josh Denslow; “The Ballad of Nothing” by David Drury; “Dead Dad Letter Office” by Lee Anne Gallaway-Mitchell; “Brace for Impact” by Brian Kerg; and “Observations of Trans-Neptunian Objects” by Gabriel da Silva-Schicchi. Congrats!