Rock and a Hard Place Press is a lit-noir publisher, focused on stories of struggle, tales of the powerless and marginalized, characters on the fringes of society … and what they do next.
The cat’s out of the bag, and we’re excited to announce that we’ll be publishing Whatever Kills the Pain, the new short story collection by C.W. Blackwell this summer! To help announce the news, frequent RHP collaborator James D.F. Hannah interviewed C.W. on his “Five for Them, One for Me” interview series, over on the That Noise at 2 AM substack newsletter. Check it out, and preorders for one of the best collections of the year are currently live — you know what to do (preorder link is included in the interview as well as on the Whatever Kills the Pain publication page).
More big publication news coming soon. Keep checking this space for all the details.
Rock and a Hard Place Press is currently reading submissions for an anthology of climate change crime fiction, guest-edited by Curtis Ippolito, but sadly, if you were sitting on the perfect bomb cyclone of a story, our submissions window closed on March 25! Click here to learn about this exciting new anthology, and if you submitted a story for consideration, you’ll hear from us in short order.
“Did you know a young boy drowned? His name was Jason . . . You see, Jason was my son. And today, is his birthday.” — Pamela Voorhees, Friday the 13th
It feels like maybe we’ve done this a dozen times before, and maybe we have. But the Rock and a Hard Place crew is excited to once again announce the publication of their latest issue — this time, Issue Number 13!
And while we would have loved to make this an all-Jason Voorhees issue (there were plans), it would have been tone-deaf to release the latest issue of our socially conscious literary magazine without acknowledging the context of the United States of America’s spiral into a fascist hellscape.
As we mentioned in our newsletter (why aren’t you already signed up for our newsletter?), we’re extra-proud of this issue because it represents the ongoing quest for art in the face of relentless, oppressive stress in the real world. There’s value in storytelling during times of fear, stress, and apparent totalitarianism. Through storytelling, we can reconnect to our lost humanity, pushed aside during a natural fight or flight survival response, and we can speak to (or rage against) the times in which we live.
We hope you’ll pick up this latest issue and enjoy the stories within. And make sure to check out that “Fun w/ RHP” feature while you’re at it!
And if you’re itching for more opportunities to send us your work, of course there’s always our monthly Stone’s Throw stories. We have a year’s worth of prompts planned out, and there’s really something for everybody.
Thanks for being a part of our RHP community, and look for more exciting news about planned projects for the year ahead, coming out shortly!