“With as many twists and turns as an 18th-century Parisian alley, Falcon in the Dive draws readers into the dark, beating heart of the French Revolution.”
—Ashley Shelby
“No one is lucky in Angstman’s Paris, and the realism with which she crafts her tale will have readers white-knuckling the book, cringing and cheering on the same page.”
—Eric Shonkwiler, author of 8th Street Power & Light
Falcon in the Dive
A Novel of the French Revolution
by Leah Angstman
“There is no one writing today who can approach Angstman’s ability to blend profound erudition with a rollicking plot and indelible characters.”
—Ashley Shelby, author of South Pole Station
Upcoming Appearances
- Manhattan, NY: NES Book Awards Panel, 9-14-23
- Kansas City, MO: AWP Writers Conference Bookfair, 2-7-24 to 2-10-24
“Entrenched in historical detail, Angstman’s Falcon in the Dive is the kind of book most authors wish they had the stomach for.”
—Eric Shonkwiler, author of Above All Men
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About Leah Angstman
Leah Angstman is a historian and transplanted Michigander living in Boulder, 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 the recipient of over 20 awards. Her debut collection of short histories and novellas, Shoot the Horses First, was released by Kernpunkt Press in February 2023 the won multiple awards, including the NIEBA Juror’s Choice award; and her next book, Falcon in the Dive, a novel of the French Revolution that’s already been a finalist for multiple awards, is releasing from Regal House Publishing in February 2024.
Out Front the Following Sea was the winner of the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA) Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Historical Fiction, CIPA Evvy Book Award Gold Medal for Cover Design, Herb Tabak CIPA Choice Award for Fiction, Pencraft Seasonal Book Award for Adventure Fiction, Tyler R. Tichelaar Award for Best Historical Fiction, Self-Publishing Review (SPR) Book Award Overall for Fiction, New England Society Book Award for Fiction, Feathered Quill Book Award (FQBA) Gold Medal for Historical Fiction, FQBA Silver Medal for Adult Fiction, FQBA Silver Medal for Debut Fiction, Reader Views (RV) Gold Award for Historical Fiction, RV Silver Award for General Fiction/Novel, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Medal for Best New Voice in Fiction, Independent Publisher Book Award Ippy Silver Medal for Best U.S. Northeast Regional Fiction, and Readers’ Favorite Book Award Bronze Medal for Adventure Fiction; was a finalist for the Chaucer Book Award for Early Historical Fiction, Eric Hoffer Book Award, Da Vinci Eye Award, National Indie Excellence Award (NIEA) for Historical Fiction, NIEA for Northeast Regional Fiction, American Writing Award (AMA) for Historical Fiction, AMA for Cover Design, Colorado Authors League Book Award for Historical Fiction, and Big Other Readers’ Choice Award; was shortlisted for the Hawthorne Prize; and was longlisted for the Reading the West Book Award for Debut Fiction and Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.
Shoot the Horses First was the winner of the Shorts Award for Americana Fiction, Next Generation Indie Book Award Gold Medal for Short Story Collections, National Indie Excellence Award (NIEA) Juror’s Choice, and NIEA Gold Medal for Short Stories; and was a top-50 finalist for the Launch Pad Prose Competition.
Falcon in the Dive was a finalist for the Clue Book Award for Historical Suspense and a semifinalist for the Goethe Book Award for Historical Fiction. The Only Way to Cheat a Hangman was a finalist for the Laramie Book Award for Pioneer Fiction. Reverse Migration: not coming home was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award judged by author Charles Martin, Cowles Poetry Book Prize from Southeast Missouri State University Press, Richard Snyder Memorial Prize from Ashland University; and was a semifinalist for the Hillary Gravendyk Prize and Willow Run Poetry Book Award.
Leah is also 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 additionally been a placed finalist in the 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. She has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination.
Leah serves as founder and executive editor for Alternating Current Press and The Coil magazine and as copyeditor for Departures. She has also previously served as a fiction and nonfiction reviewer for Publishers Weekly; a contributing editor, culture writer, and proofreader for Pacific Standard magazine; a copyeditor for Mother Jones; and a copyeditor for Underscore News, which 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 has also served as 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
Shorts Award for Americana Fiction WINNER: Shoot the Horses First (Chanticleer 7/5/22)
National Indie Excellence Award Historical Fiction FINALIST: Out Front the Following Sea (6/6/22)
National Indie Excellence Award Regional Northeast Fiction FINALIST: Out Front the Following Sea (6/6/22)
Laramie Book Award FINALIST: The Only Way the Cheat a Hangman (Chanticleer 5/1/22)
Da Vinci Eye Award FINALIST: Out Front the Following Sea (Eric Hoffer Book Award, 4/29/22)
Eric Hoffer Book Award FINALIST: Out Front the Following Sea (4/29/22)
Goethe Book Award SEMIFINALIST: Falcon in the Dive (Chanticleer 4/27/22)
Clue Book Award FINALIST: Falcon in the Dive (Chanticleer 3/16/22)
Chaucer Book Award FINALIST: Out Front the Following Sea (Chanticleer 3/12/22)
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)
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
- Jul 5 ➤ Shoot the Horses First won the Shorts Award for Americana Fiction.
- Jun 6 ➤ Out Front the Following Sea was named a National Indie Excellence Award FINALIST in both Historical Fiction and Regional Northeast Fiction.
- May 1 ➤ Leah’s forthcoming novel The Only Way the Cheat a Hangman was named a Laramie Book Award FINALIST.
- Apr 29 ➤ Out Front the Following Sea was named an Eric Hoffer Book Award FINALIST and a Da Vinci Eye Award FINALIST.
- Apr 27 ➤ Leah’s forthcoming novel Falcon in the Dive was named a Goethe Book Award SEMIFINALIST for Post-1750s Late Historical Fiction.
- Mar 16 ➤ Leah’s forthcoming novel Falcon in the Dive was named a Clue Book Award FINALIST for Historical Suspense & Mystery.
- Mar 12 ➤ Out Front the Following Sea was named a Chaucer Book Award FINALIST for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction.
- Jan 11 ➤ 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!
Contact
for Shoot the Horses First
For media inquiries or to request an ARC:
Email Lori Hettler at mescorn (at) ptd.net
For sales or general inquiries:
Email Kernpunkt Press on their contact form
For film, audio, or other rights inquiries:
Email Elizabeth Copps at ecopps (at) coppsliterary.com
for inquiries into available 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 Out Front the Following Sea & 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 audiobook rights inquiries:
Email Jennifer Thompson at jennifer (at) nordlysetagency.com
For film rights inquiries:
Email rightscoordinators (at)
gotham-group.com
For other rights inquiries:
Email Jaynie Royal at jaynieroyal (at) regalhousepublishing.com
for event booking or to contact Leah
