“Leah Angstman has written the
historical novel that I didn’t know
I needed to read.” —Kevin Catalano
“Angstman reveals herself as a brave
—Taylor Brown, author of Pride of Eden
new voice in historical fiction. With
staggering authenticity, Angstman
gives us a story of America before it
was America—an era rife with witch
hunts and colonial intrigue and New
World battles all but forgotten in our
history books and popular culture.
This is historical fiction that
speaks to the present.”
Out Front the Following Sea
A Debut Novel of King William’s War
in 17-Century New England
by Leah Angstman
“A fascinating book, the kind of historical novel that evokes its time and place so vividly that the effect is just shy of hallucinogenic.”
—Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest
“Steeped in lush prose,
—Rilla Askew, author of Fire in Beulah
authentic period detail, and
edge-of-your-seat action,
Out Front the Following Sea
is a rollicking good read.
Angstman keeps the story
moving at a breathtaking
pace, and the result is a
compelling work of
adventure and historical
illumination that pulls the
reader straight in.”
About Leah Angstman
Leah Angstman is a historian and transplanted Midwesterner, unsure of what feels like home anymore. Her debut novel, Out Front the Following Sea, a look at King William’s War in a brutal 17th-century New England, was released by Regal House Publishing in January 2022 and was a finalist for the Chaucer Book Award.
Leah is the winner of the Loudoun Library Foundation Poetry Award and Nantucket Directory Poetry Award, and is a two-time top-10 finalist for the Saluda River Prize for Poetry, judged once by South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Heath Wentworth and once by poet Ray McManus. Her writing has been a placed finalist in the Chaucer Book Award for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction, Cowles Book Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press, Able Muse Book Award judged by author Charles Martin, Richard Snyder Memorial Prize from Ashland University, Bevel Summers Prize for Short Fiction from Washington and Lee University, Pen 2 Paper Writing Competition in both poetry and fiction categories, Blue Bonnet Review Poetry Contest, Baltimore Science Fiction Society Poetry Contest, and West Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition; and a semifinalist in the Hillary Gravendyk Prize. She has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. Her second forthcoming novel is currently longlistlisted for the Goethe Award for Post-1750s Historical Fiction, and her third forthcoming novel is currently longlisted for the Laramie Book Award for Americana Fiction.
Leah serves as editor-in-chief for Alternating Current Press and The Coil magazine; a fiction and nonfiction reviewer for Publishers Weekly; a former contributing editor, culture writer, and proofreader for Pacific Standard magazine; and a copyeditor for Underscore News, which has included editing partnerships with Portland Tribune, High Country News, and ProPublica. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, Tupelo Quarterly, Electric Literature, Midwestern Gothic, The Nashville Review, The Adirondack Review, Atticus Review, Slice Magazine, Pacific Standard, The Maine Review, and Shenandoah.
She is an appointed government-advisory vice chair of a Colorado historical commission, an appointed liaison to a Colorado historic preservation government-advisory committee, and a member of the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Ohio History Connection, and Louisville (Colorado) History Foundation, as well as a founding Quartermaster member of the American Battlefield Trust and a volunteer at her local mining-history museum. You can find her on social media as @leahangstman.
Awards &
recognitions
Click here to see Leah’s list of awards and recognitions
Richard Snyder Memorial Prize FINALIST: Reverse Migration: not coming home (Ashland Poetry Press at Ashland University 10/12/21)
Hillary Gravendyk Prize SEMIFINALIST: Reverse Migration: not coming home (Inlandia Institute 10/3/21)
Goethe Book Award LONGLIST: Falcon in the Dive (Chanticleer (9/18/21)
Laramie Book Award LONGLIST: The Only Way to Cheat a Hangman (Chanticleer 8/9/21)
Chaucer Book Award FINALIST: Out Front the Following Sea (Chanticleer 4/26/21)
Pushcart Prize NOMINEE: “The many deaths of the wives” (Likely Red 11/30/17)
Cowles Poetry Book Prize FINALIST: Reverse Migration: not coming home (Southeast Missouri State University Press 9/20/17)
Able Muse Book Award FINALIST: Reverse Migration: not coming home (9/9/17)
Best of the Net NOMINEE: “The many deaths of the wives” (Likely Red 7/13/17)
Saluda River Prize for Poetry FINALIST: “An examination of one endangered Scarlet Loosestrife” (Fall Lines 5/7/17)
Saluda River Prize for Poetry FINALIST: “Old farmhouse: The living room” (Fall Lines 6/8/16)
Blue Bonnet Review Annual Fall Poetry Contest FINALIST: “Step into this photograph with me” (1/6/16)
Pushcart Prize NOMINEE: “Music knows no color” (Atticus Review 12/2/15)
Pen 2 Paper Creative Writing Competition Fiction FINALIST: “Every time it snows” (10/24/15)
Pen 2 Paper Creative Writing Competition Poetry FINALIST: “To be happy” (10/24/15)
Rhyme On! Poetry Award WINNER: “The cleaning of the fish” (Loudoun Library Poetry Foundation 5/31/15)
West Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition HONORABLE MENTION: “When the Caerphilly Castle was cardboard,” “Llan–vire–pooll–guin–gill–go–ger–u–queern–drob–ooll–llandus–ilio–gogo–goch,” “In the Ages of Bronze and Iron,” and “On the Talyllyn and the Rheilffordd Ucheldir Cymru” (Americymru 10/14/13)
Baltimore Science Fiction Society Poetry Contest HONORABLE MENTION: “Salem Witch House” (5/24/13)
Bevel Summers Prize in Short Fiction HONORABLE MENTION: “Corner to corner, end to end” (Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review 5/23/13)
Nantucket Directory Poetry Award WINNER: “The Gray Lady of the harbor” (4/29/13)
Pushcart Prize NOMINEE: “Teddy” (The Broadsider Series 11/23/09)
Pushcart Prize NOMINEE: “Discussions with Julia” (The Gut 11/15/07)
The Irene Ryan Award and Scholarship NOMINEE (2001)
Outstanding Figure in the Zine Industry WINNER (The J Man Times 9/9/99)
The Christopher J. Kranz Memorial Scholarship for Liberal Arts WINNER (5/99)
Lansing College Liberal Studies Full-Ride Scholarship WINNER (5/99)
News
- Jan 8 ➤ It’s pub day for Out Front the Following Sea! You can buy it or request it from any online or in-person retailer anywhere that books are sold, or request it from your local library!
- Jan 8 ➤ Leah will be taking part in the AWP panel “Close to Zero: Publishing without a Budget” on Thursday, March 24, 3:20 to 4:35 p.m., for those attending the AWP conference.
- Jan 5 ➤ Leah’s essay, “Perspective and Book Promotion in a Time of Disaster,” was published at Novels Alive.
- Jan 5 ➤ Out Front the Following Sea was reviewed at The Literary Assistant.
- Nov 13 ➤ Out Front the Following Sea has a review upcoming in the December issue of Booklist. Be on the lookout for that to drop in print and online on Nov 29.
- Nov 11 ➤ Out Front the Following Sea was reviewed at Quail Bell Magazine.
- Nov 11 ➤ Two new book tour dates have been added to the calendar. Leah will be reading and signing at the Barnes & Noble in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Feb 5, 2022, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and at Wind City Books in Casper, Wyoming, on Feb 19, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mark your calendars!
- Oct 12 ➤ Leah’s poetry manuscript Reverse Migration: not coming home was a finalist in the Richard Snyder Memorial Prize from Ashland Poetry Press at Ashland University.
- Oct 9 ➤ The three reviewers at Readers’ Favorite each gave Out Front the Following Sea a five-star review.
- Aug 9 ➤ Leah’s third novel, The Only Way to Cheat a Hangman (forthcoming), was longlisted for the 2021 Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction.
Contact
for Out Front the Following Sea and Falcon in the Dive
For media inquiries or to request an ARC:
Email Lori Hettler at mescorn (at) ptd.net
For sales or general inquiries:
Email Regal House at info (at) regalhousepublishing.com
For film, audio, or other rights inquiries:
Email Jaynie Royal at jaynieroyal (at) regalhousepublishing.com
for inquiries into other titles
Email Elizabeth Copps of Copps Literary Services at ecopps (at) coppsliterary.com
Copps Literary currently has one completed unsigned novel and two completed full-length unsigned poetry collections available for editor request.
for event booking or to contact Leah
