Announcing Our Upcoming Catalogue Until Fall 2026!

DarkWinter Press is excited to announce the authors and their books that we've secured as of now for the remainder of 2025 until Fall 2026! There's something for everyone in this fantastic list of upcoming titles!

September 2025: Geri Lipschultz, Grace Before The Fall

From the foreword by John Irving:

“It’s New York in the ’80s, the summer solstice. Grace Rosinbloom is 30; a woman on a spiritual quest, seeking romance, she stumbles on activism. A civil servant, Grace has a part-time life as an underground actress; she also hides out in a serial dream, which resembles the psychedelic ’60s. When her waking life begins to mirror her dream, a feminist tale turns into a nonbinary Cinderella story. Just imagine a messianic meeting of a nonbinary Cinderella with Joan D’Arc… Just imagine magical realism meets Alice in Wonderland, and have a good time.” Grace Before the Fall had just been released and you can order it here!

October 2025: Janet Frances Lopes, Beyond Hover: Dimensional Weaves

After escaping a shadow invasion that swept them from their parents’ arms and took them from their home in the Orfa Dimension, Ben fights his own tormenting shadows in his new home on Earth. Travels to the Myrra Dimension trap him in a retro-return that locks him in a replay of the same event over and over. Time wasted prevents Ben from finding his lost twin, Lacey. Frank (Benjamin Franklin) searches for Lacey with the children, teaches Ben how to get the girl, and learns how to hover--well, sort of. Young Ben must save Frank from a sinkhole while fending off Daniel, who bullies and teases Ben and his sisters. Even worse, Daniel flirts with Chloe, the new girl in town, and Ben is jealous. DarkWinter Press's first Middle School novel is creative, imaginative, and exciting!

Here's a sneak peak at the cover mock-up!

October 2025: Paul Robert Mullen, little town blues

Home is not just a backdrop. It’s your “Go” on the Monopoly board. The square you return to. The beginning point of every journey. It’s the compass point of safety, and the magnetic north of the self. Even as you move outward, into new roles and places and relationships and adventures, your birthplace remains base camp. The orientation mark on the map of your life. To step back into it is to recognise where everything began – your own big bang, your own detonation.  In Paul Robert Mullen's latest poetry collection, a childhood street is never just a street. The sound of bus brakes, the tang of salt on a sea breeze, the chipped paint of a corner shop shutter. All these details enter you like codes, become part of the body’s long memory. Part of your DNA. Decades later, stepping back onto the same pavement, your pulse quickens. Not from recognition, but from something stranger: the uncanny confirmation that you were once here. That the world has not erased the scene of your arrival. The town remembers you, whether or not you remember it. But let’s face it, you always remember it too, don’t you?

November 2025: Tom Vaine, The Ballad of Omega Brown

A mercenary and fighter adrift in the galaxy, Omega takes life as it comes. No job too far flung, no problem that can't be solved. Omega moves from planet to planet, completing contracts, fighting monsters, and making a fair paycheque along the way. From the jungles of Karackas, where he meets his towering new bodyguard Hoonra, to the junk-fields of Telleria, there's little of the galaxy Omega hasn't seen.

That is, until Omega and Hoonra take a job working for The Galactic Syndicate, and stumble across an ancient and eldritch curse. Suddenly, even the most remote corners of the galaxy are no longer safe. As Omega and Hoonra are drawn deeper and deeper into a battle they have no way to avoid, both will have to choose who, and what, they will become. The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance. 

Heartbreak! Terror! Adventure! All this and more awaits in The Ballad of Omega Brown.

December 2025: Chris Klassen, Harold Koenig

Harold Koenig is a quirky and unusual tale that takes place in an unidentified European-feeling town in an unspecified era.  Harold lives in a small rooming house with a couple other tenants and a landlady.  Financially secure, his occupation in life consists solely in observing his surroundings and trying to discern and record philosophical truths from what he sees and who he encounters.  He is an Arthur Schopenhauer-type figure - genius and outcast and sometimes a challenge to tolerate.  The deeper Harold gets into his own head, however, the more his life seems to deviate from "real" reality so that what he thinks he experiences may actually be nothing but delusion.  And while Harold is mostly a kind man, his insecurities sometimes cause him to react erratically when he feels he or others have been wronged.  This, the second novel by Chris Klassen, has already received excellent advance reviews:

"Harold Koenig can’t tell a fairy from a troll, up from down, faith from fact. Studied observation and impeccable manners are his problem, for neither can bring peace and quiet to his twilight world. Maybe not to ours either." — James Carson, editor, Queen’s Quarterly    

January 2026: Hope Thompson, Dark Thoughts

Dark Thoughts is a collection of ten stories linked by a noir aesthetic; characters are cornered, caught and facing their own demise. An advice columnist receives a letter from a murderer and discovers she is the next intended victim. A drifter obsessed with the exploits of a serial killer falls in love, and into a trap. A painter contemplates her final brush stroke—with death. Set on city streets from the 1930s and 1950s to the present day and beyond, these stories bristle with the grit of noir. While some are lighter, and others darker, all are about characters forced by circumstances to escape their situation, or die trying.

January 2026: Chris Butt, The Wreckhouse

A collection of short stories built around the unknown as only Chris Butt can do. Bizarre, humorous, and sometimes strange, these stories in Chris's second collection build upon the choices we make, the circumstances of which we make them, and the results. 

February 2026: Gordon K. Jones, Conflict: Mars

In the mid 2100s, a new mineral was discovered on Mars. Expelerite. It was found that with little processing, the mineral would release an abundance of clean energy. Enough that, finally, Earth could solve their energy and pollution issues as little was needed to heat, cool, and light homes, power factories and vehicles.

Soon, Mars was settled. The European Federation and the UNA, United North America, were the first to arrive and drill mines, which they did on the same side of the planet. Zhongguo, also known as the Zhong, arrived years later, taking over an expanse of land on the opposite side. However, Zhongguo found it lacked the amount of Expelerite that the country closest to them, the UNA, possessed. Their answer? Attack and conquer United North America.

Squadron Commanders, Neco Cooper from Earth and his girlfriend, Martian-born Zully Candor, commanding her own squadron, are part of the UNA’s military space force. When the Zhong attack, they and the rest of UNA’s squadrons are tasked with defending Mars Station, their military installation above the planet, and the city below. 

Together, the two commanders, when not fighting the enemy, are busy back on the station trying to make a life together. Love and war. That is life for the two of them. Their plan is to live a happy life together. First, though, they must protect the station and the planet, defeat the enemy, and ultimately survive the war. 

March, 2026: Stephen Denehan, Hopper

Hopper is a collection of ekphrastic poems inspired by the work of Edward Hopper.

March 2026: Stephanie Wyeld, The Book of Maggie

Mary Magdalene was named after a whore, apparently, by her sick mother, so everyone calls her Maggie. Maggie tries to do good. She tries to be good. She tries everything: charity work, youth support, missions, she even tries praying for her enemies and speaking in tongues. As Maggie struggles, men with power, bibles, and guns threaten everything she loves. This Maggie's story.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11:15

April 2026: Bill Garvey, Leaning in the same direction

Leaning in the same direction is a poetic portrait of the people and places that make Canada a proud nation. From Toronto's subways to Nova Scotia's coast, it is a collection of poetry focused on the Canadian experience intended to unite people as much as poetry can. Leaning in the same direction looks at Canada and Canadians from a poet's point of view during difficult times. 

May 2026: Karolina Bednarek, Consumed

Through unconventional forms and vivid imagery--from the shadow within to leaves rustling--Consumed invites readers to rediscover poetry in the everyday. Karolina's experimental verses and creative use of space offer a fresh perspective on the world around us. Her poems challenge traditional structures and societal norms, blending introspection with innovation, and encourage us to listen closely to our inner wisdom. With each line, the poet invites us to pause, reflect, and embrace the richness of life's simple details. A remarkable debut, Consumed explores the depth beneath ordinary things.

June 2026: DJ Kavanaugh, Little River Bridge

Set during the years of prohibition, abortion, and baby trafficking in Canada, Little River Bridge, a novel of 73,700 words, in a structure of connected short stories, reveals events that occur among seven unlikely characters whose lives become interwoven— and result in an unpredictable ending that brings readers into these characters identities and hearts.  

Under questionable circumstances, Sister Brigid has been transferred from Montreal to teach in Ojibwa, a small town along the Detroit River. When she meets Gerald Humphries, “Hump,” a one-armed discharged soldier, now alcoholic janitor living in the Back-End of Ojibwa, their paths collide in an event that could lead them both to prison.

The Little River Bridge connects the lives of those in the Back-End with those In-Town, and occurrences on one side have long standing implications on the other side.   

July 2026: Cypher, The Self Is an Ocean

 Cypher's first full-length poetry collection, The Self is an Ocean, is the document of a woman learning to live after a lifetime of surviving. The poems delve into a range of topics, including trauma, religion, sexuality, art, culture, and grief. Through striking metaphors and images, combined with a deeply musical writing style and wide-ranging references, this sensorial collection crawls beneath the reader’s skin and unfolds from the inside out.

 August 2026: Ray McGregor, Caught Looking

Eddie Conway is a gifted athlete with a secret he has kept since childhood, while playing baseball on the school ball field. Without being able to explain how, Eddie can slow down time and identify a pitch before he decides where to swing. This unbelievable ability allows him a profitable career in the sport he loves. However, when video is presented to the media of Eddie’s swing showing an anomaly, questions begin to arise about his sincerity toward the game. Even his wife, Liz, becomes leery of the lies Eddie has kept from her and their two children. The overwhelming weight of being expelled from the sport he loves and losing his wife and kids engulfs Eddie as he struggles to convince them of the impossible. Can Eddie prove his superhuman-like ability and clear his name, or will he be regarded as the biggest cheater to ever play the game?

September 2026: Cindy Matthews, Audrey Droop

This collection is Cindy Matthews' love letter to small-town life in southern Ontario and the quirky, flawed, and deeply relatable characters who inhabit it. Set in the fictional town of Lamlash, these animated stories centre on the unforgettable Audrey Droop—a sharp-tongued, fiercely independent woman who navigates life with a resilience that both startles and inspires.

From a young mother in the throes of a complex labour to a single woman grappling with the isolation of pandemic lockdown to a Chinese-Canadian child who idolizes a decathlete, Audrey’s encounters with others are as unpredictable as they are poignant. Whether she’s navigating the awkward intimacy of a Truth or Dare game with old friends, providing sage advice to a pair of pre-teen tobogganers, or confronting her own vulnerabilities during a mammogram recall appointment, Audrey Droop provides a deep dive into the human condition.

With wit, heart, and a touch of irreverence, these stories delve into the messy, beautiful, and often absurd realities of life. Through Audrey’s eyes, we glimpse the full spectrum of what it means to be human—the quiet triumphs, aching losses, and strength it takes to endure. The stories span from pre-teen to senior, offering a panoramic view of life’s stages and the connections that bind us.

What do you think? Isn't this an incredible line-up? We can't wait to get these amazing books out into the world!