Coming March 2023 - "An Anthology of East African Literature"

A video on the upcoming book:

300+ pages, 50+ contributors, 10+ countries

This is not just a collection of poems and short stories; it is a granary of artistic abundance! For here, will you find a rich variety of masterfully crafted pieces in a range of style, including those that draw from the African oral storytelling tradition. It is a montage of pieces of literary art, curated in a manner that allows for the ‘strict grammarian’ forms of expression to coalesce with those given to poetic licentiousness. 
The anthology’s poetry is rich and sundry, mirroring the diverse spectrum of literary expression to be found across the East African region. Verb repetition – a familiar linguistic form often used to create a sense of frequency or emphasis in many Bantu languages – is at play as the persona in Aquagasm playfully draws us into her romantic entrancement with nature.

She dip dips in the Ocean with her toes,
Smack smacks the waves with her breasts 
Lick licks the sand with her fingers
Point points at the sky with her nose

Ngonjera, a Swahili word for a conversational poem with more than one persona’s voice, comes to the fore in Who Will Marry Her? This conversational form, a characteristic of many an African poetry recital rooted in the oral poetic tradition, is more overtly recognizable in the opening line of Poetic Justice:

First wait I tell you!

The anthology’s short stories section features some of the finest writing yet, both in terms of form and meaning. Thematically, the writings cover a range of issues, from the societal to the personal. This way, you have terrorism juxtaposed with romantic cravings; political disenchantment residing side by side with justice and gender equality issues; sexual exploitation and human/family relations finding acres of space in both the prose and the poetry, and an unmissable glimpse into racial and ethnic issues. In some cases, the themes have a bearing on the style employed. 

Whichever your favourite genre is, this anthology of East African literature has delivered something that has not been served to readers in many years. It is a fitting gift to the lovers of literary art in this first quarter of the 21st century.

 - Josh Mali

Coming Soon! - "Don't Expect the Sun to Shine - A Wake for Robin Blaser"

"Don't Expect the Sun to Shine" is a record of the wake of the American-Canadian poet Robin Blaser, who taught a generation of Canadian poets American techniques derived from the WWI experience, techniques of blowing apart meaning, deriving meaning from the arrangement of text on the page, and using pages as cloud chamber bowls. Anything on them derived meaning only from their relationship in space to the other objects in that space. 

These were called poems, but they were really scripts to tease the cognitive patterns of biological readers. Unlike book-based poetry, they did not interact with the technological constraints of books but with the neurological constraints of humans. Their purpose was to turn space into time. Their purpose was to stop death. Every poem was a wake.

In Don’t Expect the Sun to Shine, Rathwell and Rhenisch turn time back into space.

We want readers to wander around wherever they like. We don’t control their hike. Their biological history does that. We are just hosting a party, so they can meet. — Harold Rhenisch

Don’t Expect the Sun to Shine responds to three ongoing trends in the development of written language in the age of images: the treatment of words as images in art writing, the evolution of criticism as a form of creativity that fails its potential because it remains enslaved to the academy, and the contemporary world of narrative fiction, which sees fictional worlds as the greatest truths, enjoys being dominated by normative narratives, and treats characters as clothing taken on for public display. 

Novels have become self-help, identity racks in a mall that you page through to find the one that fits. Then you wear it. — Harold Rhenisch

New 8th House books released June 2022!

Check out these new releases. Fresh off the press! 

In Nietzsche's Footsteps 2nd Ed. by Jonathan R. Cohen  248 pages | 5.5 x 8.5 | ISBN 978-1-926716-48-0 | Softcover A thrilling, vicarious journey through Friedrich Nietzsche’s favorite haunts, “In Nietzsche’s Footsteps” walks us through an earnest discussion and pragmatic reflection on elements of Nietzsche’s biography and philosophical discoveries throughout the philosopher’s journeys. “In Nietzsche’s Footsteps” is a thrilling, vicarious journey through Nietzsche’s favorite haunts: Nice, France; Turin, Italy; and Sils Maria, Switzerland. Within the author’s personal reflection lies a pragmatic rumination on the many aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy that arise throughout the voyage. What does it mean to remain an individual while nurturing the bonds that make life worth living, chiefly those we have with family? Along the way, we explore this quandary as well as the foundational elements of Nietzsche’s philosophy, considering the ways in which our own culture may or may not have followed in his ever-reverberating footsteps. In a book that will appeal to academics and enthusiasts alike, Nietzsche’s complex philosophical ideas are accessibly framed as they arise in the day-to-day, so that we may tackle the question of what it is to lead a meaningful life, both as individuals and alongside those we love.

The Confessions of Aleister Crowley 686 pages | 234mm x 156mm | 50+ photos | ISBN 978-1-926716-65-7 One of the most famous books on the occult ever written, this is a record of Crowley's journey into strange regions of consciousness: his initiation into magic his world-wide travels and mistresses, his experiments with sex and drugs, and the philosophy of his famous Book of the Law. Aleister Crowley, self-styled "the Beast", founder of his own spiritual orders, was already a legend the world over when he penned his biography. Known as a novelist, poet, magician, mountaineer, chessmaster, guru, he was a famous voluptuary and accomplished mystic. Born in England in 1875, son of a brewer and evangelizing Plymouth Brother, Crowley rejected Victorian life and mores and pursued a life of rebellion where he sought to push the limits of experience and human knowledge. Soul searching mysticism led to sexual excess, debauchery, drug use and daring physical and mental exploits whether on the most dangerous of mountain cliffs or in the most profound psychological experimentation. A master of Eastern and Western philosophy he travelled Egypt, China, Mexico, Thailand and more... Living in London, Paris, New York, he collected disciples, mistresses and lovers of both sexes, while pouring out unparallelled manuscripts on occultism, mysticism and the practice of the spiritual sciences. His prolific literary career and adventurous feats never far behind, he also produced a number of novels, volumes of verse to fill a library while breaking world records in mountaineering and climbing. Via his spiritual writings and experiments, he has left humanity with a legacy to decipher for ages to come.

"Holy Moly! It's Rolli" feature article in Degrees Magazine

The latest issue of Degree Magazine features Rolli and his work. Check it out today: 

https://www.degreesmagazine.ca/meet-rolli-2/2022/05/26/