Stand-Alone Fiction
About Nasty Woman Press
Kelli founded Nasty Woman Press, the first non-profit publisher in the genre community, on November 9th, 2016. We released our first anthology, SHATTERING GLASS, on June 16th, 2020, to outstanding critical acclaim. SHATTERING GLASS won the prestigious Anthony Award for best anthology of the year. Proceeds from the book are donated to Planned Parenthood.
As a non-profit publisher, our goal is three-fold: to fight fascism, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, and bigotry while promoting human rights and civil rights in the United States and around the globe; raise money for other non-profits under threat; and provide comfort, succor and support to readers, writers, artists and everyone who embraces Resistance to dangerous authoritarianism and the erosion of education, science and human and civil rights.
Our hope is that our anthologies and literary efforts will offer readers a sense of support and empower those readers just through the act of reading. They will offer entertainment and inspiration, hope and commentary, a blend of stories and essays, journalism and narrative, built around a cogent theme.
Nasty Woman Press began as an idea of community, of coalescence, of positive strength in the wake of an American election with unprecedentedly horrific implications for our country’s legacy of human and civil rights, scientific leadership and social progress. We empower readers, writers, and people of heart and humanity to never give up, never give in; to empower them to resist and persist until liberty and justice for all means exactly that.
For more information and to sign up for a free membership, please visit www.nastywomanpress.com.
Welcome to the Creative Resistance!
“Hysterical” is Kelli’s fictional contribution to SHATTERING GLASS. See if you recognize the story that inspired it.
The all-star line up for SHATTERING GLASS includes in alphabetical order:
Maria Alexander, Sandi Ault, Eric Beetner, Cara Black
Rhys Bowen, Senator Barbara Boxer, Dana Cameron
Joe Clifford, Angel Luis Colón, Joshua Corin, Allison A. Davis
Hallie Ephron, Danny Gardner, Alison Gaylin, Heather Graham
Rachel Howzell Hall, Charlaine Harris, Libby Fischer Hellman
Toni L.P. Kelner, Ellen Kirschman, Bette Golden Lamb
Anne Lamott, James L’Etoile, Jess Lourey, Seanan McGuire
Catriona McPherson, Travis Richardson, Kaira Rouda,
S.J. Rozan, Clea Simon, Alexandra Sokoloff, Josh Stallings
Kelli Stanley, Wendy Corsi Staub, Robin Stuart
Kate Thornton and Jacqueline Winspear
Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns
Nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Anthology/Collection
For the first time, more than two dozen crime and mystery authors have joined together to use the strongest weapon at their disposal—words—in a call for reasonable gun control in the U.S.A. In this collection you get all the thrills and excitement you come to expect from a great crime story, but without any guns.
From best sellers and writing legends to the brightest stars of the next generation of crime writers, the twenty-five authors here have taken pen in hand to say enough is enough. Gun violence has got to stop and this is our way of speaking out—by showing that gun violence can be removed from the narrative, and maybe from our lives.
It’s not anti-gun, it’s pro-sanity. And above anything else, these are thrilling crime stories that will surprise and shock, thrill and chill—all without a gun in sight.
Proceeds from the sales of UNLOADED will benefit the nonprofit States United To Prevent Gun Violence (CeaseFireUSA.org)
Kelli’s story “The Escape” in UNLOADED is a feminist retelling of an ancient myth.
Washington Post article on the UNLOADED project.
“The 25 short stories in this thought-provoking theme anthology prove that clever crime writers can generate just as much mayhem, weirdness, and chills without the use of firearms.” —Publishers Weekly
Edited by Eric Beetner. Some of the contributors to UNLOADED include:
Eric Beetner
Joe Lansdale
Joyce Carol Oates
Reed Farrel Coleman
Joe Clifford
Alison Gaylin
Angel Luis Colón
Holly West
Hillary Davidson
Patricia Abbott
Keith Rawson
Thomas Pluck
Tom Pitts
Scoundrels: Tales of Greed, Murder and Financial Crime
Featuring stories by an all-star cast of bestselling and award-winning authors, SCOUNDRELS is a noirish anthology inspired by the contemporary financial crises, its victims and victimizers, and how some people will stop at nothing to protect their “assets”.
You’ll read stories of desperate grifters, brokers hedging big bets for the big take, schemers working the long con for the sure money, used car salesman with golden dreams and rusted hopes, crooked lawyers and bent clients, one percenters hustling for that last half-percent, kind-hearted killers and the lonely hearted who tell themselves any lie as the double down for the long count.
Edited by Gary Phillips and with stories by:
Reed Farrel Coleman
David Corbett
Tyler Dilts
Brendan DuBois
Seth Harwood
Darrell James
Gary Phillips
Travis Richardson
SJ Rozan
Kelli Stanley
Eric Stone
Bob Truluck
Lono Waiwaiole
Pamela Samuels Young
Kelli’s short story in SCOUNDRELS, “Survivor”, was partially inspired by “The Most Dangerous Game.” “Survivor” also marks the first piece of contemporary fiction Kelli has written or published.
Here’s an interview with Kelli from Down & Out Publishers about why she was proud to contribute to SCOUNDRELS and why she wrote “Survivor”:
Quick Hit Q&A: Kelli Stanley
An Excerpt from “Survivor” …
Cherry trees, birch trees, chestnuts, all rushing past the window, small byways winding toward Parker Dam State Park, white-tailed deer and wild turkey, beavers gnawing the conifers. Fresh cool scent of water from Parker Lake, kids digging in the beach, chasing each other while the blonde lady watched, smiling, her husband at the grill.
Daniel turned off on Mud Run Road. Exactly three cars had passed him going south, and one car was behind him. It continued on 153, and he breathed out, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He eased the truck into a pull-out and sat staring out the window, hands still on the wheel.
A year’s worth of work, finally over. The execution took nearly a month by itself.
Last one, last one.
Rebecca would be mad at him, he knew, for going underground, for disappearing, for stopping the treatments, for doing what he did. But he had no choice. They’d never had kids, and this was his legacy. To her. To America.
Read “Survivor” in Scoundrels, available in e-book or paperback.
Shaken: Stories for Japan
SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN is the brainchild of bestseller Timothy Hallinan and the first charity mystery anthology. Created in response to the horrific earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, SHAKEN features stories from a wide range of award-winning and bestselling authors, tales that cross centuries and genres but which all touch upon Japan and its enduring culture.
The book is available only through Kindle, and all proceeds–including those usually received by Amazon–is contributed directly to the Japan Relief Fund.
Kelli’s contribution to SHAKEN is “Coolie”, a story set in San Francisco on April 18th, 1906 … in the immediate aftermath of the Great Quake and Fire.
Contributors include Brett Battles, Cara Black, Vicki Doudera, Dianne Emley, Dale Furutani, Timothy Hallinan, Stefan Hammond, Rosemary Harris, Naomi Hirahara, Wendy Hornsby, Ken Kuhlken, Debbi Mack, Adrian McKinty, I.J. Parker, Gary Phillips, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Jeffrey Siger, Kelli Stanley, C.J. West, and Jeri Westerson.
Linking the stories are haiku by the 17th-century master Basho, translated by Jane Reichhold, and Issa, translated by David Lanoue. Both translators also donated their work.