“Soaring and vast and lyrical,
this book is a must-read.”
—Kathy Fish
“I’m astonished by the historical breadth in this collection of stories and by the sensibility that unites them. It’s a thrill to be dropped, so vividly, into such a wide variety of settings and periods—and even more of a thrill to discover the strong new voice of Leah Angstman.”
—Ethan Rutherford, author of Farthest South
Shoot the Horses First
A Debut Collection of Short Histories
by Leah Angstman
“Angstman astonishes us with complicated characters and crystal-clear prose. She is the literary heir to Shelby Foote, Willa Cather, and E.L. Doctorow.”
—Ryan Ridge, author of New Bad News
Book Tour Dates
- Chicago, IL: Printers Row Lit Fest, 9-10-22 to 9-11-2022
- Lansing, MI: Hooked Bookstore, 9-12-22
- Topeka, KS: Kansas Book Festival, 9-24-22
- Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Book Festival, 10-2-22
- Nashville, TN: Southern Festival of Books, 10-14-22 to 10-16-22
- Las Vegas, NV: Vegas Book Festival, 10-22-22
- Austin, TX: Texas Book Festival, 11-5-22 to 11-6-22
- Miami, FL: Miami Book Festival, 11-18-22 to 11-20-22
- Seattle, WA: AWP Writers Conference & Bookfair, 3-8-22 to 3-11-22
“Each one of these stories breathes troubling, beautiful life into the history that inspires it. The exhaustive research that must have gone into this collection lives in an easy harmony with the stories it undergirds, and it’s Angstman’s chief achievement here to strike that balance with poise and grace.”
—Schuler Benson, author of The Poor Man’s Guide to an Affordable, Painless Suicide
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, National Indie Excellence Award, Da Vinci Eye Award, and Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her debut collection of short histories, Shoot the Horses First, the winner of the Shorts Award for Americana Fiction, will be released by Kernpunkt Press in February 2023; and her second novel, Falcon in the Dive, a semifinalist for the Goethe Award and a finalist for the Clue Book Award, has been picked up by Regal House Publishing for a spring 2024 release.
Leah is the winner of the Loudoun Library Foundation Poetry Award, Nantucket Directory Poetry Award, and Shorts Award for Americana Fiction; 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, and a two-time finalist for the Chaucer Book Award for Pre-1750s Historical Fiction. Her writing has been a placed finalist in the Laramie Book Award for Pioneer Fiction, Clue Book Award for Historical Mystery, Eric Hoffer Book Award, Da Vinci Eye Book Award, National Indie Excellence Award for both Historical Fiction and Regional Northeast 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 and the Goethe Book Award for Post-1750s Historical Fiction. She has earned four Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination.
Leah serves as editor-in-chief for Alternating Current Press and The Coil magazine. 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; 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
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 Falcon in the Dive
For sales or general inquiries:
Email Regal House at info (at) regalhousepublishing.com
for event booking or to contact Leah
