Steven Leech

New and Revised Second Editions in PDF

of Select Works by Steven Leech

Distributed by Special Arrangement with Mr. Leech and Dreamstreets Press

$8.00

We've heard the theories about the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but about the descendants of Judas Iscariot?

In this novel, brimming with the erotic and the blasphemous, that story is told.

Inspired by the works of Bram Stoker and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Judas emerges unrecognized in our modern world to face his final martyrdom.

$8.00

This is the second edition of four stories that convey the crushing weight of failure amidst the inevitable tenacity of hope. Beginning with a fable inspired by Delaware author Christopher Ward's novel "Starling," the central figure assumes an unworldly character so that his true self can survive in an alien world.

$8.00

While Poe's daughter never makes an appearance in this novel, her presence is felt in the lives of those most affected by slavery and impending Civil War. Poe's daughter becomes a force that brings people together to change history from the one that actually transpired. The novel also uses the actual words of John Lofland, Delaware's first renown and today largely unknown literary artist. Selections from this novel earned the author two fellowship grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts.

Free!

Wilmington writer Patrice Gibbs said, "The 'Wedgehorn Manifesto' is a call to action, a demand, an impassioned plea for the recognition, respect and support of Delaware's artistic past, present and future."

Wilmington born artist Jonathan Bragdon said that Steven Leech " . . . has a poet's feel for the way words work, and a journalist's sense of the significant. 'Wedgehorn Manifesto' marks, I hope, a turning point in the effort to preserve from destruction the habitat in our collective memory of the many talented story tellers, poets, picture makers, and musicians, who helped make life bearable for innumerable ordinary folk, and in fact made possible the fine culture of the luckier few."

For free copy, send request to publisher@brokenturtlebooks.com

Still Available in Hardcopy

Original Versions of Steven Leech's Pinhead Magazine

This site offers my final works, particularly because I can’t afford to give them away anymore. I must deplete some inventory. Here I provide that inventory. You may find my novels Raw Suck and Untime elsewhere at the brokenturtlebooks.com site. Two other novels are out of print and two others are manuscripts, though excerpts of these two have been published in Dreamstreets #3 and Dreamstreets #5. Below are from a series of personal magazines called PINHEAD. The series is from #4 through #9. Each edition pertains in one way or another to Wilmington, Delaware. Whether in fiction or essay, points of view are from a mix of historic, literary, personal, and cultural perspectives. Each edition may be purchased separately. The entire set is available for $20.00.

The cover of PINHEAD #4 displays my great-grandfather and grandfather in front of the family store at 7th & Church Streets around the time Tux Munce may have been living nearby as a young man. Munce is a fictional Wilmington author of the early 20th century, who gets involved with the characters created in Delaware fiction as well as with real life people like 3 Gun Wilson, Daisy Winchester, Crash Peyton, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Pauline Young and others. His travels take him from Argentina to the underbelly of the Cold War. Munce’s only novel is the newly discovered Willow Run about the 1903 lynching at Price’s Corner. Samples of Munce’s published work are included. 78 pages. $5.00.

The Wedgehorn Manifesto advocates preserving the legacy of Delaware literature, especially that which was produced by Wilmington authors. It is a survey of cultural activity over the past century with respect to visual art, music, cinema and the press. It exposes the flaws in today’s environment and suggests remedies for a cultural revival. It is personal. It is informed and seeks to be open minded. PINHEAD #5 is a call to action for all who are tired of applauding politely at poetry readings, tired of trying to figure what amount of time is right while standing before a painting to convey authentic thoughtfulness, and tired of those long rides on the bus. The Wedgehorn Manifesto is a vision that is within our grasp because we already embody its elements. 51 pages. $5.00.

Breath & Glamour is the general title for 4 related stories in PINHEAD #6. Each story finds Wilmington to be the hub around which each story is told. From a paraphrase of Christopher Ward’s novel, Starling, to poverty and trauma driven epiphany, from a warped vision of time to entrapment by enforced reclusion, Breath & Glamour is a depiction of psychic pain splashed across the ineffable, where names are lost and where lives remain with mind numbing sameness, while Wilmington watches dispassionately harboring its secrets. Introductory comments by C. Spangler delivers a strong sense of authenticity to the stories. 90 pages. $10.00.

PINHEAD #7 or “An Expatriate Among the Branches” tells the story of my short friendship, while a teenager in the 1950s, with the artist Jonathan Bragdon. Bragdon, who was born in Wilmington, is a successful European artist living in Amsterdam. I often wonder what Jonathan’s artistic career would be like if he had stayed in Delaware. Certainly his work would not have hung in the best galleries in Europe and bought by the continent’s more dedicated art buyers. Illustrated. 15 pages.

Free

with the purchase of any or all Pinhead titles.

PINHEAD #8 is the third abridged edition of RAW SUCK. For those who find the postliterate style too daunting, here’s the short version. This 3rd edition cuts to the chase. None of the muses, no Vietnam War or literary references, just the effects of petroleum addiction.

“Like a bumpy journey with square wheels, Harry Bye carries us through a vision of lands bankrupted by capitalistic philosophies.” mOtHeRtUcKeR, poet. 28 pages. $5.00.

PINHEAD #9 comprises “The Last Place on Earth,” a place where hope itself conveys hopelessness. It is a place where humanity verges on becoming abstract, without identity, without recourse to recourse. It is where we’ve been waiting in disbelief for our world to crumble. It is finally the place where we disappear. It is simply too late! 45 pages. $5.00

Buy the whole set, Pinhead 4-9: $20