A short story collection by Zoé Mahfouz is set to travel farther than most literary debuts. ADHD in D Minor, published by North Meridian Press in 2026, is heading to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah, USA, where it will be available for crews to explore.
Operated by The Mars Society, MDRS provides a simulated Martian environment where crews conduct research and experience the challenges of living and working in an isolated habitat. The collection's arrival brings a literary work into an environment dedicated to exploring the human experience beyond Earth.
The placement matters because it puts a small-press literary title inside a research setting usually associated with science and engineering. For readers and publishers watching how independent literature finds new audiences, the move shows an unconventional route for a debut collection to reach people thinking about life in extreme isolation. It also raises the profile of a book already recognized within literary circles: ADHD in D Minor is a nominee for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and is held in university library collections internationally, including Brown University, the University of Helsinki, and University College Cork.
For Mahfouz, the placement marks an unexpected milestone and a fitting plot twist for someone whose elementary school teachers often said she had her head in the clouds. As the announcement puts it, dreaming big took her from the clouds all the way to Mars. The detail gives the news a personal dimension that resonates with anyone who was told as a child to stop daydreaming.
The book remains available to general readers as well through its listing at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZH5T4N3, meaning the same stories bound for a simulated Mars habitat can be read on Earth in the meantime.
The announcement also highlights the role of independent publishing in connecting literary work with unlikely venues. North Meridian Press is an independent humanities publishing initiative based in Northeast Alabama, bringing together writers, artists, academics, and scholars through literature, cultural criticism, and interdisciplinary scholarship. Established in 2019, the press encompasses The North Meridian Review, an interdisciplinary journal of culture and scholarship, and North Meridian Books, its book publishing imprint. Writer- and artist-led, North Meridian Books publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation, with a particular commitment to distinctive literary voices and works that might otherwise find limited opportunities within traditional publishing.
Its broader mission is to foster sustained intellectual, artistic, and cultural dialogue while championing independent literary expression. Placing a debut collection in a Mars analog habitat fits that mission in an unusually literal way, giving crews in an isolated setting something to read that speaks to human experience far from familiar ground. For the industry, the story is a reminder that a book's reach is not limited to bookstores and libraries, and that small presses can create moments of visibility that larger institutions might not attempt.
Media contact for the announcement is Wesley Bishop of North Meridian Press.
