Publications in the Creative Writing Graduate Program
Explore the publications below to discover the depth and breadth of Western’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing.
Student-Published Editions and Anthologies
Each year students in the Publishing concentration release beautiful new editions of classic works that are in the public domain or that they otherwise acquire the rights to. Students also work together to publish a short-story anthology on a different theme each year. All profits from the sales of these books are applied to funding future years’ Publishing projects.
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The Best of Mary Diana Dodds Student Editor: Anna Stileski Description: Delve into the works and mystery of an LGBTQ+ author whom historians are still trying to unravel over 200 years later. Previously known only as a quiet but intelligent wallflower friend of renowned author Mary Shelley, Mary Diana Dodds is far from an ordinary 1700s daughter of an Earl. |
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Carmilla
Student Editor: Savannah Stuttgen Description: The cult classic that inspired Dracula! |
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The Elusive Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Student Editor: Aisley Milner Description: Baroness Emma Orczy brings us the third thrilling installment in her iconic adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, pitting Sir Percy against the wily Chauvelin once again in a battle of wit and cunning that stands between thousands of innocent lives and the ignominious the bite of Madame Guillotine |
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The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany. Student Editor: Mandy Holley Description: Considered formative to the development of the fairy tale and high fantasy subgenres, The King of Elfland’s Daughter follows Alveric, who leaves home on a quest with a few basic instructions: locate the Princess Lirazel in Elfland, convince her to return to Erl and marry him, and together produce the first magical Lord of Erl. But what happens when a village gets exactly what it asked for? |
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The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker
Student Editor: Lia Wu Description: From Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and published only a year before his death, The Lair of the White Worm was heavily abridged and republished in 1925, leaving readers and critics alike dissatisfied and disappointed. Return now to the original, restored version of the text and explore the world of mesmerism and mystery as Bram Stoker intended. |
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Loki: The Mischief Behind the Legend by Padraic Colum
Student Editor: Amy Michelle Carpenter Description: From Padriac Colum, three-time Newbery honor winner, comes this delightful collection of some of the greatest myths ever told, highlighting Loki’s grand adventures. |
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A Northanger Abbey Double-Feature: The Castle of Wolfenback, and The Necromancer
Student Editor: Ann-Marie Hormeku Description: For fans of Jane Austen—A Northanger Abbey Double Feature! In Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, the main character, Catherine, receives a reading list of gothic novels. Once thought to be fabricated by Austen, these novels were rediscovered in the 1920s and are now referred to as the “Northanger Horrid Novels.” Two of the Northanger Horrid Novels, The Castle of Wolfenbach and The Necromancer, are presented here as a Northanger Double Feature. |
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Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
Student Editor: Michele Harper She saved France when she was fourteen… She was burned at the stake for her efforts… Meet the girl who captured Mark Twain’s heart. |
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Selected Ghost Stories from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn
Student Editor: C.J. Anaya Description: Lafcadio Hearn’s ghost stories have become a fixture in the world of Japanese lore and superstition, offering us an eerie taste of what goes bump in the night. These classic tales celebrating Japanese culture are far different from our modern-day horror stories. Whether you’re in the mood for phantoms, demons, ghouls, or ghosts, these otherworldly tales will haunt you long after you’ve finished reading. |
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Weird Tales: Best of the Early Years 1923-1925
Student Editor: Justin Criado Description: First hitting newsstands in 1923, Weird Tales magazine quickly became a literary monster in discovering and publishing the best horror, sci-fi and fantasy writers of its day. These are the best stories from 1923–25. |
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Weird Tales: Best of the Early Years 1926-1927
Student Editor: Kaye Lynne Booth Description: First hitting newsstands in 1923, Weird Tales magazine quickly became a literary monster in discovering and publishing the best horror, sci-fi and fantasy writers of its day. These are the best stories from 1923–25. |
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The Story of Dr. DolittleStudent Editor – Melissa Dalton MartinezDescription: When Doctor John Dolittle’s love of animals scares away his human patients, he finds himself on the verge of bankruptcy. Luckily, his parrot, Polynesia, has a solution—she teaches him to talk to animals. Using his new skill, Doctor Dolittle becomes a veterinarian, and his reputation soon spreads in the animal kingdom. With it, come requests for help from animals all over the world. Sailing off with his band of animal companions, Doctor Dolittle seeks to help all he can while facing fierce storms, vicious pirates, angry kings, and more. |
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From the Earth to the Moon and Round the Moon
Student Editor – Matthew Wright Description: When Barbicane had the idea to repurpose weapons of war for science, his friends laughed at him. His rival, Captain Nicholl, ridiculed him for his ideas. But he didn’t let it deter him. Would they be ready in time? Philosophers had dreamed of setting foot on the Moon for thousands of years. Would the Gun Club have what it takes to man the first mission? Or would technology prove too limited? What dangers awaited them in space? Barbicane’s infectious enthusiasm inspired enemies and adventurers across the world. Would it be enough to get him and his friends safely back to Earth? Would they let their differences divide…or unite them? Sometimes, humanity’s search for knowledge is worth all the risks. |
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The Jewel of Seven Stars
Student Editor: Deborah Kevin Description: An Egyptologist discovers a tomb at the exact moment his daughter is born. In a house full of Egyptian antiquities—a jeweled scarab, mummified cat, and severed hand, unexplained claw marks and comas — a mysterious stranger’s wild tales of a hidden tomb and ancient warnings of violent deaths to everyone who sought the jewel, all linked to a forgotten queen’s 5,000-year quest for reincarnation. |
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Mother of Frankenstein: Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman and Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Student Editor: Constanza Ontaneda Description: In The Wrongs of Woman, Maria has been separated from her infant daughter and imprisoned in an insane asylum by her husband. There, she forms an unexpected friendship with one of the female wards. Could romance follow? Delve into the most radical feminist work from the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and find out. |
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One Stormy Night
Student Editor: Kelly Adams Description: On a stormy night in 1816, the writers Mary Shelley, John William Polidori, and Lord Byron undertook a challenge that would change history and create the gothic genre. The result is three chilling tales of monsters, vampires, and murder. |
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Rise, Do Not Be Afraid
Student Editor: Sarah Patterson Description: Rise, Do Not Be Afraid is a compelling, intertwined story of a small New Mexico town and its people, the presence of shadowy gods, and the heart of human nature. These fantastical and almost whimsical tales are based in myth and biblical traditions, and the characters are rooted deeply in the past, returning to pass down the truth of their town—Santa Rita, New Mexico. Through the eyes and mouths of Abeyta’s characters, we are carried through a private and deeply personal history. |
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The Sleeper Awakes and Men Like Gods
Student Editor: Amanda Spriggs Description: The Sleeper Awakes What if you took a sleeping pill and awoke two centuries years later to find yourself the wealthiest man in the world? Everyone and everything you know is long gone … but you are simultaneously the most exciting and most unfortunate thing to happen in centuries? Men Like Gods What if you took a mental health day, ready for some rest and relaxation, and suddenly found yourself in a different world? Journey with Mr. Barnstaple to Utopia to see what millennia of advancement can bring to the future. |
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We: The 100th Anniversary Edition
Student Editor: Erekson Holt Description: The One State is a world where people are merely numbers, and free will itself is a disease. Most are happy in their role as cogs in a huge machine, controlled by the ever-watchful Benefactor. However, on the eve of the launch of the Integral—the spacecraft that will impose the One State’s way of life everywhere—starship architect D-503 meets I-330, a female number as irreverent as she is beautiful. The Benefactor has quantified human experience, circumscribe edit, reduced it to nothing but a series of mathematical equations—that is, until one man tries to factor in the ultimate unknown: love. |
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The Lost World
Student Editor: Dale Sprague Description: No one believed Professor Challenger’s claims that dinosaurs existed in the Amazon jungle. Critics ridiculed and mocked him, but he was as stubborn as he was intelligent. He was willing to venture into the jungles with nothing but a crude map, a skeptical professor, a big game hunter, and a reporter. Their adventure took them across an ocean, up the Amazon river, and deep into lands barely explored by adventurers in the early 20th century. When they finally reached the plateau on their map, they encountered their first big challenge–ascending the cliffs onto the plateau. To be so close to proving his claims with no way to ascend left the party frustrated. Professor Challenger however believed in determined ingenuity and did not give up easily. Would they find what they expected or would they find more than they could handle? |
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Unmasked: Tales of Risk and Revelation
GPCW Collective Work Description: When the mask comes off, can you handle what’s underneath? Pull back the mask to reveal 21 tales from seasoned and award-winning authors, of magical masks, gas masks, death masks, superheroes, secret identities, disguised robots, alien symbionts, a Napoleonic thief, a swindling demon—even a hidden clown. Who will take the risk? |
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Being Noah
Student Editor – Angela Johnson |
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Blow Out the Candle When You Leave
Student Editor – Kelly Lynn Colby |
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The Complete War of the Worlds
Student Editor: Carol Wyrick and Augustus Prouty Description: Together in one volume for the first time—H.G. Wells’s seminal science fiction classic The War of the Worlds, with the contemporaneous, unauthorized, but extremely popular sequel Edison’s Conquest of Mars, as well as Wells’s own, much later conceptual sequel, Star Begotten. |
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The Cthulhu Stories
Student Editor: Scott Lee Description: Fresh from dusty libraries dark with forbidden knowledge, these twelve Howard tales, bring Kull of Atlantis, Bran Mak Morn, and a steady band of warriors, adventurers, and scholars into the dark to face the Nameless and that which they left behind: Elder gods, nameless cosmic horrors greater and older than the gods themselves, ancient forms of life and worship from before the dawn of humanity. |
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The Detective Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
Student Editor: Kailey Urbaniak Description: Murder, mystery, and solving crime—the foundations of detective fiction. Description: Meet C. Auguste Dupin, the first literary example of a brilliant detective created by Edgar Allan Poe, undisputed master of chills and suspense. Follow Dupin’s genius skill at problem solving through three detective cases, Poe’s only three tales with his seminal character. |
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Kipps
Student Editor: Ashley King Description: Long unavailable to readers, Kipps is a classic rags-to-riches story that addresses the moral and emotional difficulties that come with wealth and a change of social station. It will make readers think, have them laughing, and capture their hearts. |
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Monsters, Movies & Mayhem
GPCW Collective Work Description: Join award-winning authors Jonathan Maberry, Fran Wilde, David Gerrold, Rick Wilber and others for 23 all-new tales of haunted theaters, video gods, formidable demons, alien pizza, and delirious actors. Each story takes you to the silver screen with monstrous results. |
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The Santa Claus Stories
Student Editor: James Romag Description: Here in one volume for the first time are five of L. Frank Baum’s Santa Claus tales. Gathered from book, magazine and Sunday paper, these are the stories that shaped the legend of the “Patron Saint of Children.” From Little Bun Rabbit in Santa’s workshop to the Wogglebug and friends making toys, over a century ago Baum created a legacy that captures hearts and imaginations to this day. |
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The War in the Air
Student Editor: Elizabeth Drisko Description: This classic full-length novel from H. G. Wells imagines a world of Progress stricken by brutal conflict in the sky—written before the actual invention of airplanes. |
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The Wolf Leader
Student Editor: Tracy Leonard Nakatani |
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Think JournalIn fall 2013, the GPCW acquired THINK journal. THINK publishes poems that emphasize craft as well as criticism, reviews, fiction and creative nonfiction. It appears twice each year, in the spring and fall. Numerous current GPCW students and alums have served as readers and editors of THINK. Its current managing editor, Brian Palmer, is a GPCW alum in Poetry (2018). |
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The Great Isolation
GPCW Collective Work Description: In the midst of darkness, one Colorado group uses art to heal broken hearts. 17 Coloradans wrote an intimate collection of nature pieces, screenplays, poetry, and short stories to capture the thoughts, emotions, and overall impact COVID-19 is having on society. This book is comprised of contest winners and finalists of The Great Isolation Writing Contest, published by the Publishing students at Western. This collection of raw and powerful art will serve as a time capsule for the world to remember how the coronavirus impacted civilization on the human level. |