Announcing the Broken Turtle Booklist

Broken Turtle Books is proud to announce the online Broken Turtle Booklist, a catalogue of Delaware regional authors, local publishers, and literary communities operating in Delaware. The Booklist includes audio and video recordings of Delaware authors, as well as their major works. It provides easy links to Amazon, Paypal, or publishers for folks who want to buy.

Each month we will feature a selected work by a Delaware author. In our inaugural offering, we are featuring A Visit With Uncle Richard, a compilation of the popular series written by Spectator columnist and Editor Pat Gibbs. Uncle Richard is familiar to listeners of Even Steven’s Boptime, where Gibbs as Uncle Richard holds forth cantankerously and provocatively on issues of the day. Boptime’s DJ is our own Steven Leech, of course.

There are lots of great writers in our hidden corner just off I-95. The Broken Turtle Booklist hopes to raise our profile and contribute to your success.

Broken Turtle Books, if you don’t already know,  is a group of writer-editor-publishers who have been part of the Delaware literary scene for four decades. Most of us have been associated with Dreamstreets Press, which published Dreamstreets Magazine, produced radio programs on WVUD 91.3 FM (University of Delaware), and a television clip on WHYY TV (Wilmington/Philadelphia) and founded the 2nd Saturday Poetry Readings at various venues in Wilmington, Delaware. We also blog occasionally on matters literary, artsy, historical, and political at the Broken Turtle Blog.

For a while we were Broken Turtle Books LLC, intending to publish our own and historical works through a small company that we controlled. However, as most writers and publishers know, alternative vanity presses, small run printers, and publish-on-demand opportunities have proliferated in cyberspace, making our business model obsolete. Yet our mission remains the same: to promote diversity and cutting-edge literature in a state known for its insularity and paucity of opportunities “downwind from chateau country.”

Our list is a work in progress. We have a number of authors in our in-box ready to be added. For the most part, we are limited to poetry and fiction by Delaware authors who have their work available as a collection, print or electronic.

Check out the site and see what we have added so far. If you believe you have been overlooked, would like to recommend a Delaware author, or just have suggestions for the website, follow the instructions at the “About the Booklist” page.

Spread the word, peruse the site, and buy local books!