American Folklore

From critically acclaimed podcaster and bestselling author Aaron Mahnke comes this engrossing and macabre exploration of the folklore and early medical practices that led to the New England Vampire Panic in the 1890s. What would drive a man to exhume the body of his daughter and remove her heart?...

“Nervous takes the focus from the abstract and does what doctors (and historians) failed to do: makes her story, her pain, and her life as real as any history that proceeded. Nervous gives face and weight to those forgotten women whose suffering has become little more than anecdotal...

“Hoffman’s characters are always moving back and forth, challenging our perceptions, daring us to judge them.”—New York Times Book Review The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting world of Blackwell, Massachusetts. Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town...

“Melinda Sewak's tender, sometimes sinister, delivery of food descriptions enhances the story's evocative language.”—AudioFile Just add garlic, lemon, and a dash of the one percent. This smart, biting novel, which features multicast narration, explores what happens when a Haitian American...

""Simply the most exciting book on black folklore and culture I have ever read."" --Roger D. Abrahams Mules and Men is the first great collection of black America's folk world. In the 1930's, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her ""native village"" of Eatonville, Florida to record the oral...

In this unique collection, Literary Witches co-creator Katy Horan unearths the true and fictional stories behind twenty traditional murder ballads, exploring the beauty and horror of the art form through stories, lyrics, and original interpretations. The audiobook includes covers of various folk...

Original tales inspired by Native American and Norwegian folklore that highlight the wisdom of the divine natural world Shares unique stories about Earth Medicine and animal magic, inspired by the author’s unusual Native American (Hopi) and Norwegian upbringing Interwoven with ancient...

A beginner’s guide to an inclusive Hoodoo practice--history, spellwork, folklore, and herbs Hoodoo is a folklore tradition that was created by and for enslaved African Americans in the southern United States. And before there were honey jars, red brick dust, and everything else you may...

A romance editor looks for love where you’d least expect it—and discovers what our favorite horror films can tell us about sex, society, and ourselves If Sinners and the 1999 cult classic The Mummy taught Emma Cole anything in the year she spent bingeing scary movies, it’s that we love to...

Which came first--the monster or the myth? Journalist Linda Godfrey investigates present-day encounters with mysterious creatures of old. The monsters of ancient mythology, folklore, and more contemporary urban legend have long captured the popular imagination. While most people in America today...

New England's history is marked with witch executions, curses, and an untold number of cemeteries hiding mysteries beneath their stones. In this sometimes harsh landscape, the truth is often stranger than fiction. Examine the footprints burned into the ledge of Devil's Foot Rock in Rhode Island. Spend a night at the Kennebunk Inn in Maine, where the mischievous specter of Silas Perkins still resides.

Rediscover the "most important book on black-white relationships" in America in this special 50th anniversary edition.

The Bourbon Drinker's Companion is a narrative journey into the heart of American craft distilleries, taking listeners from the well-known Jim Beam Booker Noe plant to craft whiskey brewers on the West Coast to the emerging new traditional distillers of the South, in search of America's best whiskey. Bestselling author Colin Spoelman is back to celebrate all things whiskey as he explores the effect branding, taste, region, and distilling processes have on America's beloved and most notorious drink.

A mother and daughter must break their family’s curse through trials of war and immigration, love, loss, and redemption in this riveting multi-generational saga with a shimmer of magic, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate. 1940s Hong Kong When Japanese soldiers...

Two of Greek mythology’s most complex and powerful women—Medea and Atalanta—join forces on Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece in this suspenseful, sapphic reimagining from the acclaimed author of Psyche and Eros. Medea possesses both witchcraft and cunning, yet she endures a lonely and...

A Voodoo witch must navigate a magically and racially divided nineteenth-century New Orleans to save her mother—and the soul of the city itself—in this lush debut novel inspired by the life of Marie Laveau. “An edgy, intoxicating novel pulsing with the dark heartbeat of 1840s New Orleans...

A spellbinding story collection from Booker Prize finalist Ruth Ozeki, about the lives we almost lived, the people we can’t quite forget, and the stories that shape us long after the last page is turned In this spirited and emotionally resonant collection, award-winning novelist Ruth Ozeki...

In popular mythology, the Overland Trail is typically a triumphant tale, with plucky easterners crossing the Plains in caravans of covered wagons. But not everyone reached Oregon and California. Some 6,600 migrants perished along the way and were buried where they fell, often on Indigenous land. By the 1850s, cholera epidemics, ordinary diseases, and violence had remade the Trail into an American burial ground. In subsequent decades, U.S. officials and citizens leveraged Trail graves to claim Native ground.

A sweeping debut inspired by the Chinese folk practice of necromancy, Deathly Fates is perfect for fans of Descendant of the Crane, The Bone Shard Daughter, and A Magic Steeped in Poison. As a priestess paid to guide the deceased home, Kang Siying has never feared death. However, when her...

Established early in the last century as a memorial to O. Henry, this annual collection has consistently offered a remarkable sampling of contemporary short stories. Each year stories are chosen from large and small literary magazines and a panel of distinguished writers is enlisted to award the...