As you’ve probably read in a rage tweet, Republicans in Congress are spending the holidays giving tax breaks to rich people and corporations. We are all for advocating fiction here, but trickle down economics requires too much suspension of disbelief. Speaking as human beings and Americans, we believe the Republican plan is a bad idea that will hurt the country.
Speaking as a small business, however, we look forward to our tax cut. Not only that — we look forward to using it for things that the modern GOP would absolutely hate.
Small businesses like Fiction Advocate stand to benefit from rules designed to help rich guys who give campaign donations. In other words, the same law that lets right-wing religious fundamentalists give more money to buy political candidates will also give Fiction Advocate more money every time you buy a copy of Matthew Gallaway’s #gods, whose theme is that gay sex is like religion, only way better. It also happens to be one of our favorites from 2017.
Buy #gods direct from Fiction Advocate and put this tax cut to good use. Or consider picking up one of the other great books published by small, independent presses this year. Here are the best books of 2017, from small presses that we love, and that we hope will get a nice tax cut from a not-nice law.
Sorry to Disrupt the Peace
by Patty Yumi Cottrell | McSweeney’s
“Patty Yumi Cottrell’s adoption of the rambling and specific absurd will and must delight. This is a graceful claim not just about writing but about a way of being in the world, an always new and necessary way to contend with this garbage that surrounds us, these false portraits of our hearts and minds. This book is not a diversion—it’s a lifeline.” —Jesse Ball, author of How to Set a Fire and Why | BUY FROM MCSWEENY’S
Mean
by Myriam Gurba | Coffee House Press
“Gurba’s introspective memoir is brave and significant.” —Kirkus | “Mean will make you LOL and break your heart.” —The Millions | BUY FROM COFFEE HOUSE PRESS
Her Body and Other Parties
by Carmen Maria Machado | Graywolf
“Cross-pollenating fairy tales, horror movies, TV shows, and a terrific sense of humor, [Machado’s] work reminds me at different times of such wildly divergent figures as David Lynch, Jane Campion, Maggie Nelson, and Grace Paley; which is a way of saying, Machado sounds like nobody but herself.” —John Powers, NPR “Fresh Air” | BUY FROM GRAYWOLF PRESS
Charlatan
by Cris Mazza | Curbside Splendor
“…a dynamic body of fiction by a writer due for discovery by millennial readers unsatisfied by mainstream feminism.” | BUY FROM CURBSIDE SPLENDOR PUBLISHING
D’Arc
by Robert Repino | Soho Press
“…there has never been another series with quite the punch and heft of Robert Repino’s War With No Name saga. Its visceral palpability, hypnotic fatedness, and emotional gravitas make it the War and Peace of beast fables. The latest installment, D’Arc, carries forward the future history of this posthuman world with searing action, unexpected twists and brilliant new characters. Think Margaret Atwood crossed with Robert Stone, and you are maybe halfway to Repino’s virtues.”” —Paul DiFilippo, author of Lost Among the Stars, Ribofunk and A Mouthful of Tongues, among others. | BUY FROM SOHO PRESS
Since I Laid My Burden Down
by Brontez Purnell | Feminist Press
“More layered insight than the page count should allow.” —MTV News | BUY FROM FEMINIST PRESS
The Lost Daughter Collective
by Lindsey Drager | Dzanc Books
“The Lost Daughter Collective is not subtly brilliant. Its brilliance washes over you in waves, again and again, immersing you in the text and giving you an experience of constant awe… Drager continues to be a force and should be recognized widely for her work.” —The Rumpus | BUY FROM DZANC BOOKS
Large Animals
by Jess Arndt | Catapult
“…wildly original, even as it joins in with the classics of loaded, outlaw literature. Acerbic, ecstatic, hilarious, psychedelic, and affecting in turn, this is an electric debut.” —Maggie Nelson, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of The Argonauts | BUY FROM CATAPULT
Like a Dog
by Tara Jepsen | City Lights
“This book beat the crap out of me. I am bruised and laughing. Thank you Tara Jepsen, may I have another?” —Daniel Handler, author of All The Dirty Parts | BUY FROM CITY LIGHTS
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us
by Hanif Abdurraqib | Two Dollar Radio
“From his analysis of racism in Ohio mosh pits to his account of attending a Springsteen concert after visiting Michael Brown’s memorial in Ferguson, Abdurraqib represents a bold new voice in socio-music criticism.” —O, The Oprah Magazine | BUY FROM TWO DOLLAR RADIO
Sex and Rage
by Eve Babitz | Counterpoint
“This novel is studded with sharp observations . . . Babitz’s talent for the brilliant line, honed to a point, never interferes with her feel for languid pleasures.” ―The New York Times Book Review | BUY FROM COUNTERPOINT PRESS