Corona\Samizdat Press

@coronasamizdat.bsky.social

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A non-profit literary press, est'd in 2020 & based in Slovenia. We specialize in inexpensive, quality pocket books. Editor: @rickharsch.bsky.social IG: @coronasamizdatbooks Izola, Slovenia https://coronasamizdat.com

Cover image of Wandering Stone, The Streets of Old Izola by Rick Harsch, featuring a mad detail in pen and ink of the coast of old Slovenia with the spires of the town of Isola in the centre right

Cover image of Jeff Bursey's story collection an impalpable certain rest, featuring a sea of deep indigo covering 90 per cent of a canvas painted beneath a slim portion of light blue sky

Cover image of the novel She Sang to Them, She Sang by W.D. Clarke (2021), featuring a reproduction of Pablo Picasso's "Violin" (1912) set against a tan background.

Cover image, in green on white, of Phillip Freedenberg's America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots, featuring a complex mandela-like visual by Jeff Walton, who illustrated the book as well.

Cover image of The Assassination of Olaf Palme, Vol. 2 by Rick Harsch, featuring a death mask of Olaf Palme beneath a long list of writers who contributed to this volume

Cover image of Rick Harsch's Circumnavigation Through Maritime History,featuring a centuries-old mappa mundi drawn in the shape of a ship

Cover of Tendrilopolis by Vesna Radic, featuring line drawings of several pairs of nudes set against numerous swirls of concentric circles, all overarched by a bower of twining trees

Back cover of Wake Up, We're Almost There with, again, acollage of 1960s-era photos and also cutouts of newpaper headlines

Chandler Brossard's Wake Up. We're Almost There, a collage of 1970s era political and military images in black & white, with an open, "canceled" passport in the lower left and an early hominid in the lower right in colour

Full cover spread of Rick Harsch's The Assassination of Olaf Palme

Cover image of The Assassinon of Olaf Palme, Volume 1,an anthological novel by Rick Harsch, et all, featuring a death mask and a long list of contributors

Brossard would go on to write or edit 17 books, many now out of print. His
fiction is as good as, or better than his impressive influences, and his
honest and direct storytelling still has the power to resonate with readers
today. While you're searching for literary treasures in the used book stores
and bargain bins, one would do well to keep any eye out for the
overlooked, ground-breaking novels of Chandler Brossard.

Front cover of Raging Joys, Sublime Violations by Chandler Brossard, depicting an apocalyptic scene: a fighter jet climbs into the sky through a giant expplosion, while in the foreground various half naked politicians carry weapons, look ashamed, or regress to an infant-like appearance

A group of barflies are shocked by the sudden death of their
friend Eddie p'poole, who killed his mother and committed
suicide on Easter Sunday. This prompts the (very
entertaining) barflies to have a long, digressive and
frequently laugh out loud hilarious discussion. A novella
mostly in dialogue, and Vardeman has a real gift in this
department. The characters simultaneously speak like
everybody and nobody you've ever known. A real treat.
Uproariously funny in places, devastating in others, several
times both in tandem.

Cover image of flipbook, Suddenly this Summer and April is the Cruellest Month, both by David Vardeman. Front features two women's faces, both featuring brooding eyes and nonsmiling mouths in a quick, schematic style. Back cover is upside down, with background an abstract Pollock-esque painting full of reds and greys

With incredibly witty dialogue the personas on the page spring to life. Not to
mention, the author has a keen eye toward detail and elegantly introduces
punchlines you won't see coming. The style flows smoothly and is far more
sophisticated than a passing glance might reveal. The book can be a bit
long-winded at times, but the sharp satire and irreverent characters do not
get old. Except for the fact that some of them are old, as in, they are aging
rockers, and like to dream big, even in a small town pub.
No one is immune to Praper's cattle-prodding satire: women and men, Irish
or Middle Eastern, child or terrorist. Each possesses folly and charm,
weakness and strength. In short, the characters are well-rounded, easy to
follow, and endlessly entertaining.

Cover image of The Driftless Zone, picturing a hardboiled detective set against a background of a steel bridge above him, from which in the fog a flock of pigeons takes flight

Cover image of Rick Harsch's The Driftless Trilogy: The Drifteless Zone, Billy Verité, and The Sleep of Aborigines, set against what appears to be a satellite map of the Driftless area of Wisconsin

What begins as a confessional novel with the casual beckoning of William F.
Aicher's A Confession , Albert Camus's The Fall , and Låsz16 Krasznahorkai 's
"The Last Wolf" transitions into a frenetic descent into the bitter truculence
of William Gaddis's AggpäAggpe and finally into the intense crescendo of
historio-geographic onslaught found in Henry Miller's Black Spring and
Louis-Ferdinand Céline's . Yet Rick Harsch, an
American expatriate living in Slovenia, stands out from the pack with an
utterly original voice, a craftsman under the spell of Joyce, in command of
every element of the prose. Not an ellipsis is....

Book cover of Skulls of Istria by Rick Harsch, featuring a colourful medieval painting of two fools being led hand-in-hand by two skeletons