Michelle Enzinas to publish 16th century cookbook with Five Rivers

We’re always on the lookout for esoteric, fascinating and intelligently written books. One of our first publications was a dictionary of historical colour names, uses and definitions by Deb Salisbury. When we heard about a project on which Michelle Enzinas was working, we discussed her research with her, and the result of that is a publishing agreement. Michelle Enzinas has spent 15 years as an historical re-enactor and amateur domestic technologies archaeologist, and 20 years dealing…

Present Company Excepted, Of Course

“Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay.” Christopher Hitchens Okay, some demotivational columns worth reading: Notes from the Drunken Editor: You Are the Joke Here Nobody gives a F*** that you wrote something Besides being Editor-in-Chief at Five Rivers Publishing, I (Robert) also do freelance development editing. The funny thing about being a development editor is that I can divide most of the authors that cross…

Thoughts on awards

In the publishing world the turn of every new year raises discussion of marketing strategies for possible literary awards. Marketing strategies for awards, you ask? Indeed yes. Let it not be thought that even in a juried award that some tacit form of opinion lobbying doesn’t take place. And if the award is a people’s choice, well, let loose the mavens of marketing. It doesn’t seem to matter if the literary award is the Giller…

Derryl Murphy to release second edition with Five Rivers

It’s astonishing sometimes what happens at conferences and conventions. Last year at When Words Collide, Derryl Murphy and Five Rivers’ Editor-in-Chief, Robert Runte, sat down over beverages and convivial company. The result of that meeting is a rebirth for Derryl Murphy’s first collection of short stories, Wasps at the Speed of Sound. There are eleven stories in this collection, ten of them gathered together for the first time and one making its début  All of them…