To shop for my artist’s books and chapbooks under Janus Point Press,
To shop for my zines, visit the ANDROMEDA zines store at
https://andromedazines.square.site/
“In both fiction and nonfiction there’s a sense of unflinching honesty; the reader knows she can trust you.”
– Juror, Sustainable Arts Foundation
PROSE & COMICS
“Compelling scientific and emotional explorations that raise the question: What awaits us when we cross the line?… Pitsirilos has assembled an eclectic roster of creators from many different mediums, resulting in a work that is diverse in both forms and perspectives… All should prove a delight for SF aficionados.” –Kirkus Reviews. Read the full review here.
Sci-Fi, Sensual & Literary
my debut short story collection told in prose, comics, canvas work and photography. Publishing December 2024.
Event Horizon: Stories of No Turning Back is a prose-driven collection of stories themed around the astrophysical phenomenon of black holes and their unforgiving boundaries of “no return”—their event horizons. What arises is a tantalizing question for characters grappling with cosmic decisions in their lives, whether in their living rooms, on space stations or exoplanets: what awaits on the other side of the “event horizon”? An array of celebrated artists help answer this through the sequential art of comics, canvas work, and photography. The collection is introduced by comics, prose and astrophysics academia.
244 pages full color: 6 prose stories with art. 3 short comics. 1 one-shot comic (25 pages). 3 letters of introductions by academia. Original canvas work. Original photography throughout. Successfully funded on Kickstarter in May 2024 as a “Project We Love”. Preorder. For more about the book, visit Janus Point Press. Download our Press Release and book summary.
NOT YOUR PAPI’S UTOPIA: LATINX VISIONS OF RADICAL HOPE, an anthology edited by Matthew David Goodwin, Alex Hernandez, and Sara Rivera, art by Luis Valderas, Cover design by Cloud Cardona . Mouthfeel Press, Dec 2024. “The Event Don Juan of Mycelia”. Preorder
Anthology: Prose and Poetry
ISBN 978-1-957840-35-2
“Not Your Papi’s Utopia: Latinx Visions of Radical Hope is the final installment of the Latinx Archive speculative fiction trilogy. The first two anthologies, Latinx Rising and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers, were designed to demonstrate the history and vibrancy of the Latinx speculative. This third anthology summons the innovative utopian visions and radical hope needed to directly face the environmental and social problems of our current moment. “
Featured authors:
Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos; Lysz Flo; Daniel Figueroa-Arias; Ruth Joffre; Lesley Téllez; Florencia Manóvil; Rolando André López; Carlos Julio Paredes Minango; Richie Narvaez; Rodrigo Culagovski; Cesar L. De Leon; Sarah Dalton; Roxane Llanque; Kristian Macaron; Illimani Ferreira; Joy Castro; Yoss ; Eugene Speakes; Wenmimareba Klobah Collins; Amanda Torres
Osmani R. Alcaraz-Ochoa; EG Condé; Daniel Jose Ruiz; Gabriela Santiago; Olga García Echeverría
“Jean” is Winner of the 2022 Chautauqua Janus Prize. The Anthology was a 2022 Ignyte Finalist for Best Anthology/Collection. A LOCUS Award Finalist 2022. A 2022 Utopian Anthology Finalist. A World Fantasy Award 2022 Nominee.
“…a bold and masterful rearranging of genres, part speculative fiction, part family memoir, that uses comic book pop culture to tell a deeply moving story of intergenerational trauma in the United States.” – Sony Ton-Aime, the Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts at Chautauqua Institution
“…These sentences are magical, loaded with history and memory and color and space-time and sound…” -Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Janus Prize guest judge
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The above 2022 Chautauqua Janus Prize lecture by author Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos “Jean, Janus & Comic Book Realism”, delivered at the Chautauqua Institution Athenaeum Hotel on August 10th 2022, is also available in both handmade chapbook and ebook form. Chock-full of craft, comic book realism, family history, historical notes for Puerto Rico and Nuyorico, and astrophysics from a fangirl–the lecture is an exploration of literary craft and labels that exist within, and in defiance of, the eye of an observer. While weaving in and out of what is fiction and what is family memoir, the lecture also demonstrates pop culture as a new modern myth in language and experience, the vehicle of science fiction in mediums of comics and prose, and different faucets of marginalization, including in publishing, with a particular focus on the Latino/a/x/e and Puerto Rican/Nuyorican experience. This chapbook is great for classroom reads of the short story “Jean”, those with an interest in Latino a/x/e literature, and fans of small press and chapbooks. Read more and purchase.
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“Outstanding,” “masterful,” “a knockout”…
“…Themes of family, migration, and community resonate throughout these 38 masterful stories, as in “Jean” by Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos, which uses wormholes as a metaphor to consider intergenerational trauma…”
–Starred Review in Publishers Weekly
“Teen and adult readers alike will appreciate this greatly entertaining compilation, especially if they’re fans of Octavia Butler, Ursula K. Le Guin, N. K. Jemisin, and Ray Bradbury.” – Verónica N. Rodríguez, BOOKLIST.
“Packed with 38 YA pieces by Latinx authors, this anthology is a must for short story readers…”. – Margaret Kingsbury of BuzzFeed News, “35 New And Upcoming Sci-Fi Thrillers You Won’t Want To Put Down”
Included in “The 20 Best Books by Latinx Authors You’ll Want to Read Right Now” Priscilla Bloom, Reader’s Digest.
“…an exciting and mind-expanding collection of short stories by contemporary Latinx authors.” -Erika Harlitz Kern, Foreword Reviews.
Locus Magazine Recommended 2021 Reading List
Get a sneak peak! Handpicked and read by LeVar Burton is Lisa M. Bradley’s short story “Tía Abuela’s Face, Ten Ways”.
Read more reviews or groove to our video with review clips!
From the Kickstarter, Oct 20th 2020: “Speculative Fiction for Dreamers, edited by Alex Hernandez, Matthew David Goodwin, and Sarah Rafael Garcia, will be the first collection of YA Latinx speculative fiction. The book will be published by the non-profit Ohio State University Press, and will be coming out in August 2021. Latinx Speculative Fiction may not have had much of an audience in the past, but it certainly does now. There are many Latinx authors who are writing science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres, and many more Latinx fans. Our previous success with Latinx Rising: An Anthology of Latinx Science Fiction and Fantasy demonstrated the hunger of this growing audience for themes and characters that mirror the Latinx community. We are particularly excited about Speculative Fiction for Dreamers because it is the book that we wish had existed when we were younger and certainly want to exist for our children as they enter adolescence and begin to navigate their identity in the ever-shifting cultural landscape of the U.S. The anthology presents in five parts: 26 short stories, 7 poems, 2 short plays, and 3 graphic short stories. The Preface is written by the fantastic Latinx scholar Frederick Luis Aldama and the Introduction is written by the three co-editors Alex Hernandez, Matthew David Goodwin, and Sarah Rafael Garcia.” Featured in two panels at AWP 2021 where Stephanie read from her story with fellow contributors on the panel 3/3/2021 “W118. Soñando Juntos: Latinx Speculative Futures.” On Bookshop’s list of “Brilliant Books Brought to Life on Kickstarter”.
A little about my story from its editors: “Jean” by Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos finely interweaves the Nuyorican experience with the mythology of the X-Men, exploring trauma from the distant perspective of Nova, a Rigellian Recorder. This story is a love-song to comics and their life-transforming potential!” CW for “Jean“: Cursing, suicide, drug use, racism, loss.
Here is a list of some of the bookstores and public libraries around the world where you can order this book. Remember, you can always give your local indie/library a ring to carry it!
Cover art is by the Ohio State Press team and work from Victor Tongdee.
Posters below created by the Mexican artist Alfredo Conrique (Pogo). Find his amazing work here: https://www.heypogo.com/
THE FUNERAL SINGER
A story with an Einstein-Rosen Bridge between 1922 Anatolia and 1944 Greece: Haunting memories and buried desire are resurrected by the funeral song as war binds the lives of a widow, refugee, and partisan soldier fighting for the liberation of Greece. Limited 100 print artists’ book, published on the 100-year anniversary of The Great Catastrophe. September 13th 2022. Janus Point Press. Visit Janus Point Press to learn more and to order. For more information, here’s our gifting sheet.
A Washington Post Best Graphic Novel of 2021 and a New York Public Library must-read comic published in 2021! I have two stories in the debut of Graphic Mundi Imprint with Penn State University Press, with a starred Kirkus review. One of Comic Beat’s “…Most Anticipated Graphic Novels for Winter 2021.” School Library Journal (SLJ) recommends it for grades 8 and up. One of my stories got highlighted in Comics Grinder.
From the book: “In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to its knees. When we weren’t sheltering in place, we were advised to wear masks, wash our hands, and practice social distancing. We watched in horror as medical personnel worked around the clock to care for the sick and dying. Businesses were shuttered, travel stopped, workers were furloughed, and markets dropped. And people continued to die. Amid all this uncertainty, writers and artists from around the world continued to create comics, commenting directly on how individuals, societies, governments, and markets reacted to the worldwide crisis. COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology collects more than forty such short comics from a diverse set of creators, including indie powerhouses, mainstream artists, Ignatz- and Eisner-Award winners, and mainstream media cartoonists. In narrative styles ranging from realistic to fantastic, they tell stories about adjusting to working from home, homeschooling their kids, missing birthdays and weddings, and being afraid just to leave the house. They probe the failures of government leaders and the social safety net. And they dig into the racial bias and systemic inequities that this pandemic helped bring to light. We see what it’s like to get the virus and to live to tell about it, or to stand by helplessly as a loved one passes.” Buy your copy.
From Press Release in The Hollywood Reporter: “Chock-full of crafts, comics & cats, INSIDER ART is a digital anthology designed to entertain readers of all ages who are stuck indoors or just in search of new creative outlets. Set within the walls of eight different rooms in one peculiar house, eight editors were tasked to curate and edit comics, prose, games and how-to crafts. From recipes for comfort food and quarantine bread, to attic treasures and a brief history of Garage Rock, INSIDER ART is guaranteed to conquer the tedium of the great indoors.“ Grab your beach gear and look for my graphic prose story in the bathroom of the house. Art by Ashley Ribblett. Available on Gumroad, pay-what-you-can, suggested donation $10. Proceeds go to the benefit fund. Softcovers had a limited print!
We’ve got a really cool series on Webtoons: DR163! A long-lost graffiti artist and trauma surgeon form an unlikely friendship when the magic of their hands turns them into midnight vigilantes. Aaron Guzman‘s art is a magical scroll down a mind-bending story of a doctor in need of healing and the artist who has the medicine. You can share the love by reading it and engaging in heartfelt comments. Webtoons are best viewed on your phones. Detailed instructions for those new to Webtoons here. Season 2 news coming mid-2021. #CuzComics
You can also view the comic, free and outside of Webtoons, on our own website. Scroll away!
Happy to have a story in the benefit comic anthology Heroes Need Masks that raised $2,000 donated to GetUsPPE.org to buy PPE for healthcare workers. The anthology also thanked a few healthcare worker backers with their portrait. Illustrator Seth Martel and I have a comic in this anthology: “Small Acts“ where a devoted father shows us how everyday acts of kindness, and a healthy dose of art, can make us all into heroes. Near and dear to my heart with healthcare worker husband. A later version of “Small Acts” is in the print book COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology.
Book Riot: DIGITAL ESCAPES FOR READERS & WRITERS: 20 MUST-READ ONLINE LITERARY JOURNALS Lyndsie Manusos Sep 23, 2021 (includes Mermaids Monthly).
If Scooby-Doo and the Puertopian gang vacationed on Vieques. Full of pirate curses, ghosts and cryptocurrency. Funded on Kickstarter! Available as paperback.
Illustrator Rafael Romeo Magat and I take you to “51 Solstice“, in the debut issue of Women in Comics Magazine: Dear Summer, 30-plus pages of poetry, microfiction and comics. In “51 Solstice” NYC summers are reflected in life on a space station in the Pegasus constellation, with some planet hopping, and love. Click to purchase from WinC website (pdf), GlobalComix for a generous peak inside and a purchase, or Amazon Kindle.
You can also read my prose short “Gumercinda’s Flower” in WinC’s March Equinox 2022 Issue: Blooming.
NOVELS & GRAPHIC NOVEL PROPOSALS
Novels
THE SAINTS OF COLUMBUS
Unburied secrets from 1492 haunt the world of a Nuyorican preteen on a quest to reinvent home and rewrite history.
MEMORIES OF MYRRH
Ruins of a lost city bind the lives of men, women and country in wartime Greece. Suspenseful and moving, Memories of Myrrh is a journey through the interwoven memories of individuals struggling to place loss, displacement and the promise of renewal.
To Love Like Venus
Alita Melusine is the embodiment of desire. Her appetite for pleasure
drives much of her twenties and is deliciously displayed in her roller-disco
dancing, a niche retro craze in New York’s 2050s, itself a scene of gentrified
cyberpunk. That her heart remains untouched by Eros’s arrow is one of the
many attributes Jean loves about her. Yet her aged Casanova-like mentor is
also the first to point out Alita’s greatest flaw. Though Alita is a wiz at making
sense of data sets detailing the sexual habits of the city at her job assisting AI,
she’s less certain of her own personal life. She’s always quietly believed that
somewhere in relationships there is room for love. Now, it seems, she is ready
to try this theory out, despite Jean’s objections, no matter the costs.
So when she pairs with the winsome Kaveh, she finds herself on uncharted
roads—and facing the rabid objections of Kaveh’s mother, Claire, who
disapproves of Alita and her shameless flaunting of selfhood in the roller-disco
rink. When the latest superstorm hits the city, Alita’s world begins to unravel.
Jean’s imprint on her life is more than she realized—as is, unfortunately,
Claire’s. Haunted by the limitations of being a mortal woman in a century
when fantasy image is worshiped over the complex realities of flesh, Alita
confronts the woman she is in order to put together the pieces of her mosaic:
what it means to love like Venus.
Graphic Novels
KLON
read the first chapter in Event Horizon: Stories of No Turning Back
A mineral in the moon’s Sea of Islands mends the Achilles heel of human DNA—
aging—offering clones a life span long denied. How long can the Antillano family
leverage this secret before the world discovers that the end of human fertility has
birthed the beginnings of human immortality?
On the eve before the last wild strand of human DNA degrades on earth,
Runners are scavenging human burial sites. Reproductive cloning has kept the
human race alive but against the wishes of Charon’s Children—a religious order
that believes the dead belong to history. For most of Puertopia—an island with
a robust Bitcoin banking center, solar farms, lunar mining and gene therapy
monopolies—the price of cloning is shortened life spans.
Clone age has caught up with Ramon, an Antillano teen with one wish: to
reach the moon before he dies. After generations of family lunar mining, an
unexpected door opens when an Antillano brings back an illustrious mineral
shown to suspend aging, giving clones a life span long denied. If the Antillano
family can harvest this secret, it means saving clones like Ramon. But it also
means accepting that they are not an arbitrary collection of pre-twentysecond-
century DNA: they are the orchestration of a single DNA archivist with
grand plans for the islands of the Antilles. And accepting immortality means
remaining a character in his story. No matter a clone’s individual decision, one
fact cannot be escaped: the end of human fertility has birthed the beginnings of
human immortality. This means reckoning with Charon’s Children. And there
is a price to pay for the fantasy of ignoring what we inherit, whether from our
genes or from human history.
Sisters of the Attic Sun
Pitch Package and art by Aaron Guzman
Some girls have sweet sixteens. Some get quinceñeras. If you’re a nut-tree sister, your party to young womanhood is leading a procession with your mother to the beach and leaving an offering to the sea. Mom’s your aunt, actually, the war vet who raised you and your five sisters (okay, half-sisters) until one of you was suddenly taken away from the house. Which no one talks about. Except if you’re Corri.
Corri’s the last sister to move out of the storied house with sun-drenched porches that sits on a hill above the city. It also has a wishing well, a salty uncle, Aunt Lucy’s pet snake who lives under a rock by the front door and—the most amazing attic light. Corri’s got quite the to-do list before she flies the coop, with everyone coming back for her ceremony and the city’s quadrennial summer carnival. Not only does Corri have to figure out how to say goodbye to Aunt Lucy, but as the sappy, crazy-glue of the family, she wants all loose ends tied up in a neat fuchsia bow. That means tracking down Carya. Which doesn’t seem humanly possible given that her only footprints are in her sisters’ memories. Luckily for Corri she’s offered help from the metalsmith next-door who’s no stranger to Aunt Lucy’s other-world rituals. He says he’ll forge special charms that’ll bring Carya back—if Corri can extract unique elements from each sister to add to the metal, with their consent.
In a contemporary reimagining of the Porch of the Caryatids of Erechtheion—six maiden statues that are both architectural support and visual adornment to the most holy site on the Acropolis—Corri journeys through the tangled rooms of family and learns how each woman bears the weight of their lives differently, how home moves with you wherever you go. And how sometimes, broken can be its own perfect.
Janys
If there’s one thing Janys sees, it’s the future. Hers, and yours, in all their quantum probabilities. But Janys knows nothing of her past. Just that presently: the guy in front of her loves her despite her keeping him at arm’s length; the girl next to her is yum; and that there’s an interstellar wormhole with a hungry mouth out there trying to get her. Because so far Janys is an anomaly: the one version of self who—up until now—never seems to die. And something out there is bent on fixing this.
Judging by the sky, Janys calculates that she has one day left before the wormhole arrives in her quaint neighborhood of friends and quirky shop owners like the coin collector, a hoodie-loving guy who arrived in town shortly after Janys. If Janys does what she does best, she’ll spend the next twenty-four hours breaking hearts and planning her exit to save the one precious thing she seems to infinitely possess: a future. Unless it’s the past Janys has been running away from, and the only way to move forward now is to ride the wormhole and embrace all the woman that she is.
ESSAYS
Black Eyes, a morning short short, written after breakfast coffee along the Aegean.
JAWS, THE MILK-DRINKING KIND. Featured on Salud America! Motherhood, pop culture, mythology, public health advocacy and feminism meet in this humorous essay on the challenges and triumphs of breastfeeding.
THE SEXUALIZATION OF QUERY: HOW SNAGGING AN AGENT HAS BECOME A GAME OF CUPID Pondering the query dating game of writers seeking agents.
MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE MANDARIN
A woman’s steamy account of her love affair… with a luxury hotel. Short story meets Essay meets Travel Review. Available for purchase as a handcrafted litzine and artbook.
