Review of the Cup & Dagger series by Solstice Black for Sundress Reads

Over ten years ago, I started an indie press from the kitchen table of my college dorm room because I wanted to tend to, curate, and publish other people’s writing. I never imagined that I would still be working on this project ten years later, that I would get to work alongside passionate and talented editors who have become my dear friends, or that we would organize into a worker-owned cooperative so we can continue to grow and thrive.

Ten years in the indie publishing world is a long time. There’s not a lot of money in it, nor a lot of recognition—but there is a lot of heart. Whenever we get to be an author’s very first publication, work with an author multiple times across the years, or introduce our readers to different perspectives and styles we haven’t featured before, I remember why I got into this business in the first place: I love the stories people write for the sheer love of it, and I want to help share them with the world.

This anniversary anthology includes selections from thirty of the chapbooks and mini-chapbooks that we’ve published over the past ten years. Somehow, that’s not all the work we’ve published, but we’re excited to put these pieces together in new contexts and bring out-of-print pieces back to the page. We would love your support to make this project happen!

— Kay Marlow Allen, Editor

Sword & Kettle Press is a cooperative publishing house for queer & intersectional speculative literature. Established in 2015 and incorporated as a worker-owned press in 2026, we create beautiful small-batch books, publish the digital magazine Corvid Queen, and foster literary community.

You may know us from our successful crowdfunding campaigns for Bewildered, the Cup & Dagger series, and the New Cosmologies series. If you missed getting any of those wonderful pieces in print the first time around, this is your chance!

Review of the Cup & Dagger series by Ari Koontz for Wizards in Space

Our anthology will feature these returning authors:

Shreya Ila Anasuya (Encounters with Wolves, in Three Acts)
Rachel Brittain (Take Care When Made of Glass)
[sarah] cavar (A Hole Walked In)
Renee S. Christopher (World Makers)
Kelsie Colclough (Apple Skin)
DC Corvino (The Price of a Feather)
Viridiana Crespo (UMANO / LUPO / COMPAGNO)
Amanda Crum (Cinders & Glass)
Jennifer R. Donohue (Nothing Left but Mud)
Jude Gardner (bury me in iron and ivy: a midwestern gothic, relayed in pieces)
A.P. Golub (Our Story, Given to the Waves)
Adelina Rose Gowans (i dream the world an orchard of possible goodness)
Dee Holloway (Nothing Natural: A Post-Apocalyptic Tempest)
Wen-yi Lee (Tales from the Spirit South)
Rosemary Melchior (Death of the Oracle)
Genevieve Mills (The Life Cycle of a Butterfly)
Mari Ness (Let Me Tell You of That Garden)
T.R. North (Of Witches & Wolves: New Tales from Old Traditions)
Rebecca Payne (The Seawalker’s Flame)
Ann Pedone (perhaps there is a sky we don’t know: a re-imagining of sappho)
Katherine Quevedo (The Inca Weaver’s Tales)
Monique Quintana (my favorite sancho and other fairy tales)
Jude Reid (Death and the Boyar’s Daughter)
Emmily Magtalas Rhodes (Split Bamboo)
Lucy Hannah Ryan (How to Spell Oblivion)
Bisola Sosan (Our Ballad in Soil)
Jessie Ulmer (Bewildered)
Phoebe Wagner (We Record the First Line)
Julian Williams (The Fox’s Feast)
Lucy Zhang (How The Story Goes)

This anthology includes fairy tales, myths, speculative poetry, horror, solarpunk, sci-fi, and so much more! If you love speculative lit, there's something for you in this collection.

We also have to show off this incredibly beautiful cover created by illustrator Nimaël — I mean, just look at this! They did an amazing job incorporating little pieces of all the stories, and details from the cover will grace the interior pages as well.

Cover of "Ten Years of Sword & Kettle Press"

Speaking of the interior, it's been lovingly formatted by our very own layout editor, Naseem Jamnia. If you thought the New Cosmologies series was well-designed, you're in for a treat with this book!

This anthology is entirely human-made; we did not use generative AI tools at any part of the publication process.

We're keeping it super simple this time around! Here's what you can receive as a backer:

Digital Edition

We'll deliver two versions of the digital edition: a PDF for laptops and tablets and an EPUB for e-readers.

If you're an international reader, this is the reward for you! Unfortunately, with the ongoing tariff situation in the US, international shipping is extra complicated right now, and the only reward we can offer outside the US is the digital edition. We appreciate you so much and hope we can return to mailing you books soon!

Print Edition

Ten Years of Sword & Kettle Press will be printed as a digest-size perfect-bound softcover book. The cover will be printed in gorgeous full color, and the interior will be in black & white on creamy paper. We're printing via Lulu, which we've used before for Bewildered and been very happy with.

Add-Ons

We're also offering up all the books and merch we currently have in stock as add-ons to print orders!

Photo of Bewildered by Jessie Ulmer against a wooden desk, accompanied by matching stickers. — We're printing via Lulu, which we used for Bewildered and were very happy with!

Here's how we're planning to spend the funds we raise from this campaign.

Pie chart showing budget planning; percentages noted below.

Roughly equal shares go towards contributors (33.7% to authors and 10.2% to our artist) and production (22.4% for printing and 20.4% for shipping) with a portion set aside for taxes and fees (13.3%).

Kay Marlow Allen (they/xe) writes roleplaying games and zines, teaches game design workshops, and facilitates games. Their solo game Nectar won a 2025 Nonbinary Tabletop Award from Snowbright Studio, and their keepsake game Offerings won a 2025 TTRPG Grant from Bannerless Games. Learn more at earthlybody.studio and sign up for their newsletter at saturnpeach.xyz.

Naseem Jamnia (they/them) writes inclusive speculative fiction for adults, teens, and kids. They're the author of fantasy novella The Bruising of Qilwa, which was a finalist for the IAFA Crawford, Locus, and World Fantasy awards, and middle-grade fungal horror The Glade. An Iranian Chicagoan, pro-library activist, and inclusive writing educator, Naseem currently lives outside Reno with their geologist husband and four furred creatures. Learn more and join their newsletter at NaseemWrites.com.

Jude Gardner (she/they) is an experimental poet, author, and artist combining mediums to create exploratory works inspired by the Midwestern gothic genre, old magic, and the allure of the strange in the ordinary. Jude is the author of two poetry collections, two chapbooks (including one in the Cup & Dagger series!) and a novella. They currently reside in Indianapolis with their partner and an extremely spoiled cat and are pursuing their bachelor’s degree.

Nimaël (iel/il/they/them) is a queer illustrator and layout artist living in Nantes, France. They love drawing intricate details, nature, and animals, and experimenting with different styles and printing techniques. They spend most of their free time playing ttrpgs with friends, and have made drawings for some of them: Hex and the Punks by Côme Martin, A Knight's Oath by Logan Timmins, and their own game The Valiants' Circle. When not playing or drawing, they can be found cuddling with their dog and cat, embroidering their pants, planting some flowers, or reading a good book.

Review of Bewildered by Jesse Smith for Stone of Madness Press

Ten Years

About Sword & Kettle Press

About the Anthology

Rewards

Digital Edition

Print Edition

Add-Ons

Meet the Team

Sword & Kettle Press

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