Locrian Books
The literary imprint of F-flat Books.
A small, independent press in Philadelphia, PA for books that live in the space between knowing and living.
Our debut novel · by David Allen
A Free Will Manifold
If you were given access to a library with your entire history — from birth to death — what would change?
Buy — all retailers & formats →
GET IT “A beguiling tale of people trying to edit their lives…” — Kirkus Reviews
Why “Locrian”?
In music, the Locrian is the seventh mode — the only one built on a diminished fifth, the most unstable of them all, forever leaning toward a resolution it never quite reaches.
It seemed exactly right for a literary imprint. We publish books that hold their tension; that are at home in ambiguity; that ask more than they answer. Books that, like the mode they’re named for, resolve on their own terms — or refuse to. Whether that book is a novel or not matters less to us than whether it does that.
What we publish
The book of ideas that still keeps you turning pages.
Locrian Books publishes literary, philosophical, and speculative work — novels of ideas, and nonfiction that reads like literature. Books curious about mathematics and art, memory and choice, free will and the fragile lives lived under it. We favor the book that doesn’t fit a single shelf.
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Ideas, embodied
Fiction that thinks — grounded in characters you believe and prose you want to live in.
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Across the shelves
Literary, philosophical, speculative. We follow the story wherever it leads, past any single genre.
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Made with care
A small list, closely edited and beautifully made — books built to be kept.
Submissions
We’re reading.
We publish a very short list each year and read every query ourselves. Send a query letter, a synopsis, and your first 20 pages — literary fiction, or nonfiction that works like literature. Allow 12–16 weeks; we reply when we’d like to see more.
An imprint of F-flat Books Our list is small and growing. For rights, press, or submissions inquiries, write to [email protected].