Vision
It is our vision with Rabbit House Press to create a publishing company with uncompromising integrity. Setting the highest standards in both content and aesthetics, the objective is to share unique works that promise enduring appeal. We will forever remain passionate about evocative stories which are uniquely American, celebrating the glorious quilt of disparate characters that make up the fabric of our country. It is our pleasure to connect writers with their readers.
Erin Chandler
Editor in Chief
Our Books
Released in June: Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic by Mike Wilson
“Would that the Roman people had but one neck,” said the mad emperor Caligula, “that I might chop it through.” In Arranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic, Mike Wilson takes on our own mad would-be emperor, a man “sharpening the hatchet / for our collective suicide.” Wilson, a poet of keen intelligence, guides us through this upside-down world where “Antarctica is hotter than L.A.” and “all the answers on Jeopardy are lies.” Here is the MAGA-hatted, assault-rifle toting cult that drinks, not the Kool-Aid but the Clorox. Here is God the barfly “ordering a round for everyone / but without instructions for an Ark.” A government as terrifyingly absurd as Trump’s might seem to defy the poet, but Wilson distills our anger with skill and wit. Arranging deck chairs on the Titanic might be the futile gesture of those who refuse to see impending disaster, but it might also be an assertion of human dignity in the face of madness. ~Sherry Chandler
Released in February: After the Race by Pamela Dae
Alexandra was raised to be the next Jackie Kennedy. Just as her mother intended, Alexandra's summer internship on Capitol Hill results in the perfect fiancé, a future job, and D.C. political savvy. But when Alex returns to college for her final year and falls in love with a handsome, blue-jeaned bike champion, she must choose between the two men and the lives they represent, and decide whether she can defy her mother's designs to fulfill her own dreams. Ultimately, Alexandra must find within herself the power to confront the one unplanned event that could derail everything.
Released in December: Transcendental Voyages from Kentucky to Kathmandu by Nancy Royden
Nancy Royden traveled the world wild with curiosity in search of an authentic spiritual path. After being admonished for her open-mindedness of heart and spirit, she extracted herself from naysayers and went on a journey that catapulted her across oceans to discover the many different ways to experience divine truth. Among many life lessons from her voyages, came this beautiful book of poetry.
Released in November: Bad Sex in Kentucky by Kevin Lane Dearinger
American culture runs on sex. Sex sells music, movies, cars, careers, and celebrity, but the subject of sex, the actual intimate act, can quickly reduce a conversation to a dirty joke. Growing up gay and Catholic in the state of Kentucky in the mid-twentieth century, author Kevin Lane Dearinger was puzzled by what he heard about sex: the sneers, lies, misrepresentations, distortions, guilt, and secrecy. Some of his experiences were traumatic, but most just contributed to a life-saving sense of the absurd. The natural was made unnatural by gossip and judgment, fear and cruelty, and sex was “bad” in Kentucky, but language, humor, and time have provided protection and perspective. Bad Sex in Kentucky is about seeking grace under pressure, even at the risk of a pratfall. It is about place, family, and heritage. It is about survival at a price and a kind of ferocious forgiveness. It is about the search for the tangled intersection of sex and love.
Our
Authors
Mike Wilson’s work has appeared in magazines including Cagibi Literary Journal, Stoneboat, The Aurorean, The Ocotillo Review, London Reader, and in anthologies including for a better world 2020 and Anthology of Appalachian Writers Vol. X. He received Kentucky State Poetry Society’s Chaffin/Kash Prize in 2019. He resides in Lexington, Kentucky, but summers in Ecstasy and winters in Despair.
Born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Pamela Dae received degrees in English Literature and Journalism from Indiana University. She graduated with a J.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Law and has worked as a federal criminal defense practitioner for nearly two decades. Pamela has been published in AvantAppalachia and Nowhere Magazine. After the Race is her first novel.
With more than twenty years of full-time newspaper and substantial online media experience, Nancy Royden earned her bachelor’s degree in communication arts from Georgetown College in Kentucky. Her writing has been published by The Associated Press, Texas Highway Patrol Magazine, JET magazine, South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Times, Nu Magazine of Austin and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her photo credits include The Baltimore Sun, The Huffington Post, NBC4 (Washington, D.C.) and Kentucky Living. Her volunteer photography encompasses Latinitas Austin, The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and the Ward Hall Foundation. A native of Ashland, Kentucky, Nancy has traveled extensively, living in Germany for five years and residing in Texas, Alabama, Maryland, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Nancy lives and works in Frankfort, Kentucky with her husband and cats, regularly posting nature and architectural photos on social media. She is the proud mother of Ian Riddle, a college student in Maryland.
Kevin Lane Dearinger enjoyed a professional acting career that took him to Broadway, on national and international tours, and to many regional stages. He retired from performance and from his second career as an educator, returning to live and write in Kentucky. He is the author of The Bard in the Bluegrass, Marie Prescott, a “Star of Some Distinction,” Clyde Fitch and the American Theatre, and several plays, including Regarding Mrs. Carter and Naked on Request. He is currently working on a new play, two theatrical biographies, and a volume of poetry.
Rob Greene earned his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology with a minor in Genetics and his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from NC State University, where he taught poetry writing as a graduate student. Greene is the editor of Raleigh Review and he is a postgraduate researcher with University of Birmingham (England) as well as an assistant professor at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has a recent poem in the Berlin based annual Herzattacke, and others in Poem of the Week, Sport Literate, Open Minds Quarterly, Great River Review, and WLA War, Literature & the Arts. Greene relocated 46 times prior to moving to Raleigh close to two decades ago. His first chapbook, Biloxi Back Bay, became available through Rabbit House Press in 2017.
Erin Chandler holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University and both BA and Masters in Theatre from University of Kentucky. Her celebrated memoir, June Bug Versus Hurricane was published in 2018. The original play of the same name was produced at the Lost Studio in Los Angeles in 2009. Cinderella Sweeping Up, a collection of essays by Chandler was released in June 2019. Erin lives in Versailles, Kentucky and teaches playwriting and screenwriting at the Carnegie Center and Creative Writing privately. She is on the Speakers Bureau for the Kentucky Humanities, has a weekly column in the Woodford Sun and a second novel, Nervous Blood in the works.
Editor in
Chief
Erin Chandler entered the publishing arena with twenty years-experience producing theatre and independent film. Struck by the wealth of unproduced and anonymous talent with which she found herself, Erin decided early on it was imperative to rally the troops. She found venues, cast the most extraordinary actors, directors, musicians, set designers and lighting technicians in order to put them on stage or in front of a camera. What came from these labors of love were many creatively and financially successful endeavors. Productions include a Dramalogue Award winning run of David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room at the Ventura Court Theatre in Studio City, California, critically acclaimed rock opera, Orpheus: A Season in Hell by Daniel Gilboy at 21 Square Feet Theatre in Los Angeles, John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo at Theatre, Theatre, Leslie Caveny’s Love of a Pig and Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart at the Complex Theatre in Hollywood.
Chandler produced Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel, an independent film which was one of twelve chosen for a premiere at the Seattle Film Festival. With famed Producer’s Rep, Jeff Dowd ‘The Dude’ at the helm, the film won a slew of awards including Best Script at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and Best Independent Film, New York International Film Festival. Just before leaving Los Angeles her original play, June Bug Versus Hurricane was produced at the Lost Studio in West Hollywood. Moving back to her old Kentucky home, her personal creativity shifted from theatre and film to literature. Upon arrival, she returned to Graduate School, obtaining a Masters in Theatre in 2012 from the University of Kentucky and an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University in 2017. Her memoir, June Bug Versus Hurricane was published through Rabbit House Press in 2018 to popular and critical acclaim. As fate would have it, Erin again found herself surrounded with extraordinary talents, now in the literary field. As organic as any natural progression she is now moved with passion to share literary works and with this in mind, she created Rabbit House Press.
Staff &
Board
Staff:
Rabbit House Press is a small but growing company. At present we have several talented and educated workers who lend their services.
Brooke Lee (Book Designer) is a creative consultant, book designer, writer, editor, media and web designer who grew up in Lexington, Ky. She has been a lover of all things musical and literary since childhood, writing and designing her first book at the age of ten. She was inspired to write by her poetess grandmother and great-grandmother, both teachers, who taught her to appreciate quality literature. She has been formally involved in the making of newspapers and books since serving as the managing editor of her high school newspaper. She first attended University of Louisville Music School and later received two degrees from Midway College. Currently she enjoys assisting other creatives and focuses on music artists and authors, web design, social media platforms and marketing. Her indie consulting business, Red Pill Creative Consulting, was founded in August of 2015. In her spare time Brooke enjoys literature, music, art, her fur babies and spending time with loved ones exploring the beauty of nature.
Judy Mathews (Resource Development) has an MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University in Louisville and a BA in English from Lourdes University. Her work has been published in The Round Table Literary Journal, Avalon Literary Review, The Badlands Literary Journal, and The Tau. Judy is passionate about animals and her American Indian heritage, raising funds for Cherished Cocker Rescue and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Judy Mathews is dedicated and tenacious, skilled at grant proposal writing and fundraising. With a strong desire to create awareness of the First Nation cultures through art, literature and oral tradition, she possesses a gift for empowering others and building positive relationships between individuals from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Jlmathews1972@hotmail.com
Vickie Elkins (Administration) is a regular on the lecture circuit in Lexington, Kentucky. An Employee trainer at the Veterans Administration, Vickie has served as Keynote Speaker for Home health reimbursement, physical therapy and all things advanced care. She received her business degree from Southern State Community College. A comedian, comic writer, and longstanding teacher at the Young Pioneer’s Club and Sunday School, Vickie wrote, starred in and produced, Hillbillery, Better Than Rubies and Psychoanalyzing the Rapture. She also wrote, produced and directed, Christmas at the Madd’s Houseand and At War with Christmas. Love of the arts prompted Vickie to study playwrighting at the Carnegie Center with Rabbit House Press editor, Erin Chandler and came on board to help with all things literary. kingsonshine@yahoo.com
Board:
Whitney Chandler - Editor of the Woodford Sun newspaper, Versailles, Kentucky
Mark Thomas - Developer of Educational Programs, Smithsonian Institute
Lynne Chandler Brown - Writer, Psychotherapist, Southern Pines, North Carolina
Denise Lutz - Author of Thumbs and Lipschitz House, Glenlake Farm, Kentucky
Events
Media
Gallery, video, and audio.
June Bug Versus Hurricane Book Trailer
Pamela Dae on Doug Dahlgren May 1, 2020
WRFL Accents Interview with Katerina Stova and Erin Chandler
