Red Giant Books - Independent Publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry

“Michael Salinger is one of the most gifted and loved performance poets on the circuit today, and like his other poetry, Well Defined has the style and attitude that young readers love.  This approach to vocabulary can’t help but succeed because each poem’s story leaves an indelible image in the reader’s mind.  Noah Webster is surely smiling.” James Blasingame, Associate Professor, Department of English Education, Arizona State University Winner of the IRA Arbuthnot Award “The personifications are witty and evocative, and the vocabulary is choice enough that the explorations will be intriguing to veteran users and novices alike.” The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books  “The poems are as well-intentioned as they are well-written.” Voice of Youth Advocates

In her smart and sparkling new collection of poem, From the Park Bench, Sara Holbrook deftly switches personas from poet to provocateur, from teacher to trickster and from literary gumshoe to a shimmering shaman of the Spoken Word.  Her work will be treasured by open-hearted children of all ages for years to come. -Michael Heaton, Minister of Culture, author, screenwriter

“There were three things that made me want to take a hard look back at where I came from and what I’ve done and try to make sense of it. The first was getting shot, the second was getting old, and the third was working on this book. Getting shot came first. It happened in Cleveland on April 26, 1976, and except for the fact that I was shot from ambush that evening, it was pretty much like any other day at that period of my life. I was working as an enforcer for the black numbers rackets at the time, and since I sometimes made enemies and there were always other people who wanted to muscle in, I took sensible precautions.” So begins the memoir of James ‘Diz’ Long as told to William Siebenschuh.  Born in 1925 Diz Long’s  life brings him into the orbit of such luminaries as Billie Holiday and Jim Brown as well as nefarious characters like Don King and Reuben Sturman, the porn king of Ohio. From his duty in the Triple Nickel Black parachuting unit to semi-pro football to nightclub emcee to number running and bodyguard and enforcer, Diz bears witness to crimes high…

“During the 30 years I was active in politics I would read novels to relax, to reflect, or to just imagine myself anywhere other than in City Hall.  I ain’t never read anything as honest, imaginative and utterly scary as CITI.  At first I thought it was about me; shit, where has this guy been?” -Mike White. Former Mayor of Cleveland RA Washington’s new novel, CITI, simultaneously explodes and expands our notions of gender, race, identity, and storytelling itself.  Structured in vignettes that are by turns metafictional, narrative, and philosophical, the novel achieves a unified and electrifying effect.  Washington is equally fluent in the argot of the street and the lingo of postmodernism.  He can write a sentence that lures you in its effortless grace, and he can jar you to wakefulness with abrupt dissonance.  This is a beautifully brazen and important novel.  I cannot recommend it highly enough. -Okla Elliott, author of The Cartographer’s Ink and From a Crooked Timber CITI is Washington at the peak of his powers, its poetics achieve a frenzy that left me holding my delusions at bay.  I thought I changed, only to realize at its beautiful end that I never was in the…

“The Starlight Line, is a fascinating, complex, layer-cake of a book. The frame narra…tion is semi-autobiographical; the narrator is a frustrated writer from Cleveland, searching for inspiration. The other layers interpenetrate and enrich the frame story: Jack London’s drug-addled wanderings; Trotsky’s assassination in Mexico; a writer’s search for Jack Kerouac’s mysterious muse, Esperanza Villanueva. Marshall’s skillful technique allows him to experiment with a variety of narrative voices that work like various instruments in a symphony. The voices add texture and depth to the story. In effect, Marshall produces a novel that is about the process of fiction writing itself.” —Philip J. Skerry, author of Dark Energy: Hitchcock’s Absolute Camera and the Physics of Cinematic Spacetime and Psycho in the Shower: The History of Cinema’s Most Famous Scene

Leading American poet and international performing artist Ray McNiece has crafted a soaring love song for his hometown.  Adding to the melody are Tim Lachina’s black and white photos that capture the beauty, struggle and grit of a city reinventing itself.  This book is for anyone who has ever experienced the conflicted love for a city that is a symbol of post-industrial decline and its proud and resilient citizens who came the shores of Lake Erie in search of a better life, working in the mills, machine shops, and factories and living under the acrid cloud of industrial production.