Middle West Press

An Iowa-based independent micro-press has launched an on-line store of T-shirt, coffee mug, and other designs inspired by its literary projects, communities, and anthologies. Themes include "aggressively midwest" and "Greetings from Flyover Country!"  The latter was inspired by the cover of a recently launched anthology of science-fiction flash and poetry, "Midwest Futures." Product designs inspired by the Midwest Futures project include: “Greetings from Flyover Country! ”  (a Golden Age rocket ship flying across a contrail-filled sky) “Mars Needs Bacon!”  (flying saucers abducting ... hogs?) “Astro-Cornfield”  (an astronaut kneeling on a mutant blue-corn planet) "We're always looking for new ways to engage people in constructive conversations," says editor-publisher Randy Brown . "Featuring the work of our writers and artists on a T-shirt or sticker seems like a fun way to further build awareness, community and conversation!" Inc...

NOW ON SALE! In a first-of-its-kind anthology,  30 emerging and established voices  of  science-fiction, fantasy, and horror  tell fresh  new narratives of environmental and social transformation  set in the American Midwest! Corn-fueled rocket ships! A jungle in Minneapolis! A Kansas City on Mars! Flooded suburbs! Tourist-trap family farms! A popcorn apocalypse! With  insight, humor, and empathy , each creator offers responses to the turbulence of 21st century life, work, environment, and place . Through considerations of real-world challenges—including  climate change, drought, wildfire, flood, and social isolation —they provide  stories of resilience and growth.  “The best anthologies result in  a collaborative act of magic and alchemy —writers become a generative hive-mind of possibilities,” writes anthology editor Randy Brown. “Our contributors cultivated  new visions and interpretations  of the American Midwest’s...

Now available for Kindle e-book pre-order !  Launching in print and Kindle e-book  March 4, 2025 ! In a first-of-its-kind anthology, 30 emerging and established voices of science-fiction, fantasy, and horror tell fresh new narratives of environmental and social transformation set in the American Midwest! Corn-fueled rocket ships! A jungle in Minneapolis! A Kansas City on Mars! Flooded suburbs! Tourist-trap family farms! A popcorn apocalypse! With insight, humor, and empathy , each creator offers r esponses to the turbulence of 21st century life, work, environment, and place . Through considerations of real-world challenges—including climate change, drought, wildfire, flood, and social isolation —they provide stories of resilience and growth.  “The best anthologies result in a collaborative act of magic and alchemy —writers become a generative hive-mind of possibilities,” writes anthology editor Randy Brown. “Our contributors cultivated new visions and interpretations ...

Middle West Press LLC , an independent micro-publisher based in Central Iowa, has issued a call for human-generated poems and micro-prose (300 words max.) telling fantastic stories of monsters in a 21st century American Midwest. The working title of this project is Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn: Poems and Micro-Stories about Modern Midwest Monsters . Deadline for submissions is Mar. 3, 2025. This anthology will published in both print and Kindle e-book formats . Publication is projected for Fall 2025. Contributors will receive one complimentary digital contributor’s copy. Submit via Submittable here at this link . This is explicitly a speculative poetry (and related micro-flash-prose) market. We welcome both established artists, and those experimenting with such genre narratives and forms for the first time. We want to read your poems and stories of monsters —whether your protagonists are giant or relatively human-sized; traditional, pop-cultural, or newly created —as set in (or against...

In an exciting new 190-page anthology, 66 emerging and established voices from the science-fiction-poetry and war-poetry communities have joined forces to deliver visions and explorations regarding 
how humans, Artificial Intelligence, and robots may learn to live, work, grow, and fight.  “Every day, our news feeds are crowded with dystopian reports of flame-throwing robots, killer drones, and cyber implants, ” writes anthology editor Randy Brown. “Against this virtual crush of ash and black, we wonder: If futurists and fictionalists, warriors and wargamers can deploy their respective toolkits to probe potential threats and opportunities, why not poets ?”   The anthology GIANT ROBOT POEMS: On Mecha-Human Science, Culture & War collects 92 poems involving concepts, narratives, and cautionary tales of “human-electro-mechanical-cyber interaction, connection, and competition.” To motivate other writers, veterans, and readers, the anthology includes a special section of...

  With a tip of the campaign hat to both April Fools’ Day and National Poetry Month , Middle West Press LLC has today launched a new digital chapbook featuring 10 humorous “war poems” about coffee. The $3 sampler, available as a Kindle e-book , collects new and previously published poems by the award-winning citizen-soldier-poet Randy “Sherpa” Brown, as well as the classic drill-sergeant essay “Listen Up, Maggots! It's National Poetry Month!” Find the digital chapbook at Amazon  here at this link . Randy “Sherpa” Brown embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit—the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division —as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. He served in uniform for 20 years, with one overseas deployment in 2003. He subsequently authored the award-winning poetry collection  “Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire.” He is a former editor of community and metro newspapers, as well as national trade and ...