Stephanie Barbé Hammer is an award-winning novelist, short fiction writer, and poet. Her most recent novel is the Foreword Indie recognized magical realist mystery Journey to Merveilleux City (Picture Show Press). Her other titles for Bamboo Dart Press are City Slicker: encounters with the outside and Rescue Plan. A former New Yorker, Stephanie moved to California in 1986 and has (mostly) been there ever since. In her latest book, The Warbler School Chronicles, Hammer returns to the New York of the 1960’s, an all girls prep school to be specific, where magical realism collides with the reality of adolescence and the oppressive nature of such a place. It is as perfect a collection/reflection of that time in ones life as I have ever read. The book is available worldwide and at finer book stores, as well as direct from us.
Stephanie Barbé Hammer turns the strict, cloistered world of a private, all-girl school in New York on its head to make it dance for us. She elevates routine class activities into Aimee Bender-like magical epiphanies. The author is in total command, and can access the time in youth when a new friend might just save your lonely, starving life. The Warbler School Chronicles is lyrical, poetic, and at times, surreal.
—Max Talley, author of Peace, Love & Haight
Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider in their own life will relate to this book. Scratch that. Everyone will find something relatable, even if they never attended a fancy private school, contemplated a chair’s “chairness”, or admired someone’s floor-length hairpiece. As I read these vividly embodied stories, my own childhood couldn’t help but rise up like a zombie at recess. Shine up those saddle shoes. The Warbler School Chronicles will take you on a walk down memory lane.
—Cati Porter, author of Small Mammals and Novel