NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Nashville-based boutique publisher Rabbit Room Press has notched its biggest book launch to date with the history-making success of Galahad and the Grail, the debut volume in British poet and priest Malcolm Guite’s epic poem cycle, Merlin’s Isle: An Arthuriad. Landing in the Top 50 on Amazon’s overall “Best Sellers in Books” chart last week, Galahad and the Grail is currently sold-out in Amazon’s U.S. store.
Unprecedented demand for preorders made Galahad and the Grail a near sell-out even before its April 20 release and propelled the title to a Top 15 debut on Publishers Weekly’s “Hardcover Frontlist Nonfiction” chart. With undisputed proof that Guite’s fresh take on Arthurian legend has found deep resonance in the Digital Age, Rabbit Room Press is looking ahead to the second of four volumes in the Merlin’s Isle series, The Coming of Arthur. Slated for release November 2, the forthcoming work has already generated presales in excess of 2,000 books.
“I recognized early on that with Merlin’s Isle, Malcolm Guite was attempting something historic, something that only happens once in a generation,” explains Rabbit Room Press publisher Pete Peterson. “We’re in a cultural moment in which a lot of people are looking to the traditions of the past to give meaning to the present, and Malcolm’s work fulfills that desire wonderfully, it’s rooted in a kind of storytelling tradition that’s been nearly lost, and yet is incredibly relevant to our 21st century experience—we’re hungry for grace, courtesy, leadership, ecological restoration, connection to the land, and ultimately to the Source behind all those things. Malcolm is able to package all that up in a way that’s incredibly fresh and alluring.”
In addition to Guite’s newly minted bestseller, Rabbit Room Press boasts the top-selling Every Moment Holy series by Douglas Kaine McKelvey; Glad & Golden Hours by Lanier Ivester; Jonathan Rogers’ The Wilderking Trilogy; and Randall Goodgame’s Scripture Hymnal, among numerous other acclaimed fiction and nonfiction titles.
Rabbit Room Press is part of The Rabbit Room, a multi-faceted creative community birthed in 2007 by award-winning singer/songwriter and author Andrew Peterson. Inspired by a visit to C. S. Lewis’ home in Oxford, England, Peterson launched The Rabbit Room with a mission to create and curate stories, music, and other expressions of art to nourish the life of Christ-centered communities. Headquartered in a 150-year-old farmhouse in Nashville, Tennessee, since its inception nearly two decades ago The Rabbit Room’s scope has grown to include Rabbit Room Press, the Rabbit Room Podcast Network, Rabbit Room Theatre, a bookstore, and live events like the popular Hutchmoot conference held annually in both the U.S. and the U.K.
For further information, visit merlinsisle.com, rabbitroompress.com, or turningpointpr.com.
