Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Brand-new stories by: Gigi Little, Justin Hocking, Christopher Bolton, Jess Walter, Monica Drake, Jamie S. Rich (illustrated by Joëlle Jones), Dan DeWeese, Zoe Trope, Luciana Lopez, Karen Karbo, Bill Cameron, Ariel Gore, Floyd Skloot, Megan Kruse, Kimberly Warner-Cohen, and Jonathan Selwood.

From the introduction by Kevin Sampsell:

Settled in 1843 and named by a coin flip (we were almost named Boston), Portland had troubles from the start. The first sheriff, William Johnson, was busted for selling 'ardent spirits.' He had been 'reduced by an evil heart, ' said the indictment. The first couple of decades were probably pretty rough, what with the constant flooding and muddy streets making all the citizens cranky . . . Later, in the 1940s and '50s, the city practically thrived on criminal activity. Speakeasies, brothels, and gambling dens popped up across the downtown area . . . Portland became known as quite the decadent town, even prompting Bobby Kennedy to wrangle up its main bad guys for a televised Racketeering Committee meeting in 1957. One senator said at the hearings, 'If I lived there, I would suggest they pull the flags down to half-mast in public shame.'

A lot of these places of 'shame' remain standing, and while many are occupied now by salons and offices, some of them are probably still home to gambling and stripping. (Portland does, after all, have more strip clubs per capita than any other city in America--and yep, they take it all off here.) . . . Portland continues to update its own version of a contemporary utopian society as more and more people flock here. But even in utopia, crime and unrest are always bubbling right under the surface.

We're not sure what to call Sean the Stick. Is it an existential children's tale? A weird book for all ages? Is it a story about a person who becomes best friends with a stick? Is it a love story about nature? Nature versus nurture? This beautiful hardcover book combines a Kevin Sampsell short story told in simple (yet emotionally vast) short sentences with colorful drawings by Emma Jon-Michael Frank, an artist whose celebrated works of vulnerability, humor, and empathy have garnered their work an enthusiastic and growing audience over the years.

Where did this book come from?

About two years ago, Kevin asked Em if they would make some art for the story, Sean (which was originally published in Diagram). Wanting to keep the project a secret, Kevin finished other projects in the meantime until finally putting the book together to drop on unsuspecting readers. This is the first book on Future Tense published with full color art. We hope it makes you smile.

In 2014, after the release of his debut novel, celebrated writer and visionary publisher Kevin Sampsell switched gears and turned to a new creative obsession: making collage art.

Initially influenced by the wild cutup language of William S. Burroughs, Sampsell soon discovered countless modern collagists that inspired him to take his art further and further from where it started. Years later, he finds himself at the center of a growing movement of 21st Century cut and paste.
I Made an Accident showcases over 200 of Sampsell's collages, exploring a range of styles: hilarious sight gags, subtle cultural jabs, elegant mysteries, colorful surprises, fragmented hauntings, and gloriously strange accidents. Combined with Sampsell's sharp and lively poems, this book is a feast for the eyes and brain and a nonstop entertainment.

Explore the dark side--literally and figuratively--of evening time with short fiction by Jonathan Ames, Todd Pruzan, Rick Moody, Richard Rushfield, Elizabeth Ellen, Davy Rothbart, Jonathan Lethem, T. Cooper, Monica Drake, Aimee Bender, Jeff Johnson, James Tate, Thorn Kief Hillsbery, Heidi Julavits, Michelle Tea, Dan Kennedy, Stacey Richter, Marshall Moore, and Dave Eggers (writing under the pen name Lucy Thomas).

Chronicling five years of a troubled romance, This Is Between Us offers an intimate view of one couple's struggle--from the illicit beginnings of sexual obsession to the fragile architecture of a pieced-together family. Full of sweet moments, emotional time bombs, unexpected humor, and blunt sexuality, the daily life of this man and woman, both recently divorced, with children and baggage in tow, emerges in all of its complexity. In this utterly engrossing debut novel, Kevin Sampsell delivers a confessional tale of love between two resilient people who have staked their hearts on each other.