This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West

Stories by:

  • Day Al-Mohamed
  • Laura Arciniega
  • Phoebe Barton
  • Kate Bernheimer
  • Jos Burns
  • Katie Carmer
  • Matt Carney
  • Andrew Colarusso
  • Jaydn DeWald
  • Dominique Dickey
  • Enotea
  • Tessa Fontaine
  • Alyson Hagy
  • Yuri Herrera
  • Jac Jemc
  • Karen An-hwei Lee
  • Ken Liu
  • Tara Lynn Masih
  • Isle McElroy
  • Kathleen McNamara
  • Caitlin Palmer
  • Benjamin Percy
  • Willy Vlautin

This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West is the second installment in the anthology series attempting to capture the newness, vastness, territoriality, and sense of transience alive in the American West.

In this collection legends, myths, tales, omens, folk horror, and science fiction explore the fantastical, the apocalyptic, the bizarre, the unknown, and the apocryphal origins and conclusions of life on the occidental side of the Continental Divide. In this collection, after the ‘what is’ comes the ‘what will be’, as acclaimed authors and emerging voices weave tales that push the boundaries of imagination: Ken Liu takes us to the frontiers of America and China in a stark tale of perseverance; Kate Bernheimer immerses us in the fairytale lands of modern celebrity; Benjamin Percy takes us hunting for deer and connection in eastern Oregon; Yuri Herrera grants us insight on our future overlords; Tessa Fontaine places us in-between with a monster and a question; Dominique Dickey chases familiar ghosts; and Willy Vlautin takes us on the wild ride that is a winning streak.

Accompanied by a foreword from This Side of the Divide alum, and author of The Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua, these twenty-five pieces of new lore excavate the beauty, the uncertainty, the longing, the bitter interactions and stark truths; the strong people and vivid places that have shaped, and will continue to shape the West until the end of days.

“At once timely and timeless, ancient and futuristic—reimagining and remaking a region long potent in the imagination.”

“The stories in This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West are fantastic, gritty, imaginative; full of characters as complicated and brutal as the landscapes they inhabit. As disturbing as it is delightful, this anthology both reveals and re-imagines the complex beauty of the American West. I couldn’t put it down.”

“This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West is a dazzling ride through reimagined and remixed landscapes of the still-lonesome American West. In its gleeful variety of genres and styles, this anthology affirms that the American West—as an active idea, as a ground for new meaning—is as wide and deep and wild as ever.”

Book Details

Title: This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West

Author: Anthology; foreword by Vanessa Hua

Publication Date: February 7, 2023

Trade Paperback

6 x 9

220 pages

ISBN: 978-1-936097-46-3

$18.95

Dist. by Publishers Group West
www.pgw.com, 800-788-2123

Available at your favorite local bookstore, on indiebound.org, bookshop.org, or from Baobab Press affiliate Sundance Books and Music .

New Lore in the news: