We are book readers, book lovers and book creators. We are three women who survived the pandemic by sheltering together in a house called Toad Hall at the edge of the Penobscot Bay in midcoast Maine. We are great friends. Two of us are married to each other. We are admirers of good food and good conversation and good coffee. We like to make music videos wearing inflatable animal costumes.
{photo by Chris Battaglia}
We launched Toad Hall Editions because we want to publish potent and thought-provoking work, and because we are committed to creating and deepening community. For us, this means dedicating more space to voices and stories that for too long have lived in the margins.
Our collaborative publishing model means a greater sense of transparency and accountability to our authors and supporters, as well as thoughtfully sourced partners in printing and distribution of our books and literary magazines. Our goal? To break from the mold of traditional publishing processes and practices and build deeper alliances between our authors and our readers, and to create a sturdy and sustainable platform for new voices to be heard.
Maya Stein
Editorial Director
Maya is a Ninja poet, writing guide, and creative adventuress. At nearly 9 years old, she earned perfect scores on her spelling tests 6 weeks in a row, an accomplishment noted by her teacher at Wenonah Elementary in a bright pink report card. Forty years later, she is still a stickler for good spelling (and grammar) and when she can’t sleep, plays word games in her head. She’s the author of two collections of creative nonfiction, two books of poetry, several writing prompt booklets, and two recent books—Grief Becomes You and The Poser: 38 Portraits Reimagined (the latter being the inaugural publishing effort of Toad Hall Editions) that, despite their wildly disparate subject matter, are fairly good representations of Maya’s character and personality. When she’s not attending to serial commas and split infinitives, Maya can be found riding her bicycle and working on perfecting her lip-sync skills.
Her favorite books when she was 10 were any Judy Blume novels she could get her hands on, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.
Amy Tingle
Creative Director
Amy has been an artist and writer since she can remember. She began her career in publishing at Prentice-Hall before moving to Simon & Schuster Children’s Books where she was a managing editor and then, after her sons were born, continuing to work as a freelance copy editor. She is the founder, with her wife Maya Stein, of The Creativity Caravan, a mobile arts organization and a founding member of the collage collective She Said, She Said, She Said. Her work has been featured in Kolaj Magazine, Uppercase magazine, and Mabel Magazine. She has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows, including Dedo National Fine Arts Gallery (Valdosta, GA), Gallery Aferro (Newark, NJ), Larkin Arts (Harrisonburg, VA), and MERZ Gallery, Scotland. Tingle has curated numerous exhibitions and she self-published the book Strange Diary, Or How to Make a Collage (designed by Liz Kalloch) in 2017.
Her favorite books when she was 10 were Danny The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl and Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume.
Liz Kalloch
Design Director
Liz was born in Virginia beside the Atlantic Ocean and raised in an eclectic mix of Europe, South America, and New England. As the perpetual new girl, she counted books as her first friends. Liz majored in Fine Arts with a minor in Comparative Literature, and she’s worked as a weaver, a pattern designer, a research assistant, a garden designer, a net mender, an illustrator, a ceramic painter—among other things—and then along came book design and she knew she’d found her thing. She’s worked as a designer and art director for several book and gift publishers and for the last many years she’s focused on book design and art direction for self-publishing authors and artists—but hasn’t forgotten all the things that came before. Liz is the co-founder and creative director of Mabel Magazine: Making a Living Creating a Life and her first book, Tools & Talismans: 100 Conversations in Watercolor was published in 2019.
Her favorite books when she was 10 were Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh and Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer.