We’re excited to announce that we’ve signed a second collection from Ohio poet E.F. Schraeder. The Case for Cryptids: Field Notes from a Believer will be coming in 2026 and is a follow up to The Price of a Small, Hot Fire which was published in 2023. Stephanie M. Wytovich will again be the editor. This new collection of poetry explores the nature of belief through the lens of urban legends, mythical monsters and mysterious sightings. Something IS out there.

Throughout this work the reader gets to spend a little time with hometown favorites like The Mothman and Bigfoot as well as check in on Nessie and the less-often-invoked Snallygaster among many others. But the overarching question is why are these stories are so persistent? How do the things we so fervently WANT to believe shape the ways we think? In a time when deeply held convictions weigh heavier than the most accurately documented facts this is certainly worth giving some thought to. 

Inspired by unexplained events and my own unapologetic fondness for cryptids, these poems center liminal spaces where cryptids thrive. Schraeder says, “I’m at home with the cryptids and comfortable with the doubt they inspire, yet deeply concerned about the inexplicable human tendency to have confidence in the impossible and untrue. So this collection comes from a personal place that’s curious about (and afraid of) how belief and information, identity and belonging, and a sense of otherness converge. If cryptid-cons have taught me anything, and I’ve attended my fair share, cryptids are great unifiers. Almost everybody I know has seen, heard, or experienced unusual events in the wilderness.  Sometimes a belief in the other worldly offers comfort, sometimes it’s a source of terror, and these poems are a playful invitation to sink into that tension where fear, doubt, and infatuation linger in the strangeness.”