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Welcome to White Hart

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Pub Date 20 Oct 2026 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2027


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Description

The quiet magic of 'Charlotte’s Web' collides with the raw survival of 'Winter’s Bone' in this YA novel of magical realism set one December in rural Alabama.

All her life, Mags longed to hear her horses talk. Now she’s fourteen and doesn’t believe in magic. Until today.

But the beast that speaks is not a horse. It’s a deer. It’s white. It’s wounded. And its blood glitters like gold.

When a gang of bloodthirsty hunters arrives at her Puppa’s motel, Mags risks everything to save the injured animal. With the help of her best friend and her Irish grandmother’s old diary, Mags and the deer escape into the forest, where ancient things lurk behind curtains of fog and kudzu.

There she discovers a secret cave, a forbidden island, and a portal that only opens on New Year’s Eve—the creature’s only way home.

But the hour is late and the hunters are closing in.

The quiet magic of 'Charlotte’s Web' collides with the raw survival of 'Winter’s Bone' in this YA novel of magical realism set one December in rural Alabama.

All her life, Mags longed to hear her...


A Note From the Publisher

Alex Dawson is a creative writing professor at Rutgers University, where he teaches courses steeped in folklore and leads fable-fueled Study Abroad programs to some of the planet’s most mystical places, including Ireland. He is the writer/director/star of The Devil & Daisy Dirt, a folk horror fairy tale with live bluegrass music and an eight-foot puppet, and Room to Swing an Ax, a Southern Gothic song cycle and memoiristic monodrama about growing up on a haunted horse farm in rural Alabama. Before becoming a professor, Dawson worked variously as a carpenter, carriage driver, bouncer, and bartender; he owned a bookstore for almost ten years. Welcome to White Hart is his first novel.

Alex Dawson is a creative writing professor at Rutgers University, where he teaches courses steeped in folklore and leads fable-fueled Study Abroad programs to some of the planet’s most mystical...


Advance Praise

"Charlotte's Web meets Winter's Bone. Cormac McCarthy does the Mabinogion. Narnia by way of Faulkner. Those comparisons come close, but, really, this is such a strikingly new sort of story, it defies even the most colorful of comps; so totally original, even the most unexpected mashup can't pin it down. Richly imagined. Visceral. Magical and masterful. With a villain that stands among the best, somewhere between Anton Chigurh and Agatha Trunchbull. This is a great book." — Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians

"White Hart is a wonder. It's impossible not to be swept away and amazed." — Samantha Hunt, author of Mr. Splitfoot

"This is the South you’ve always wanted to see on the page—lyrical, strange, funny, and haunting. The line between fantasy and reality is beautifully blurred: in this world, the inside of a barn is just as magical as a talking stag. It blew me away.” — Gin Phillips, author of Fierce Kingdom

"A Southern Gothic E.T., with a talking white stag standing in for Elliot's alien, deer hunters instead of federal agents, and a climactic Quadzilla chase every bit as thrilling as that flying bike scene. A new holiday classic. Short enough to kill in a snow day, but so rich and full, it'll haunt you forever." — Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters

“Exuberant, packed with surprise, and a contagious love of language, Alex Dawson's Welcome to White Hart reads like a work of wizardry!” — Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew 

"At one point in this thrilling, heartfelt book, a character remarks on the handwriting of her grandmother, how the ruled paper could not contain her wild words, and that's how I felt reading Alex Dawson's Welcome to White Hart, a kind of amazement that the bound material could contain the strangeness on display. In a perfect world, this would be the story we told our loved ones at Christmas." — Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here

"The Last Unicorn by way of Harry Crews. If Peter Beagle had fallen into a pig-scalding tank on a Bacon County tenant farm, he might have written Welcome to White Hart. A truly original, one-of-a-kind, Rough South fable. I loved it, and I can't wait to see what Dawson writes next!" — Jason Rekulak, author of Hidden Pictures

"Just as this tale’s interdimensional white stag jumps the border between the woods of Alabama and a land of high enchantment, Dawson deftly leaps over genre boundaries, mixing Southern Gothic with fantasy and mythic lore. Welcome to White Hart is a bold, narrative brew; a wild, new spell that will dazzle you." — Julia Liz Elliot, author of The New & Improved Romie Futch

“The power of Dawson’s writing is not just in how he writes magic, but how he makes everything magic—every texture, every look, every line. An electrifying, unforgettable debut.” — Dave Rudden, author of Sister Wake

“This is wonderful stuff. The opening chapter is a total jaw-dropper. This book will blow your socks off! (And make a great movie.) I loved it!" — Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl and Beanie the Bansheenie

"Charlotte's Web meets Winter's Bone. Cormac McCarthy does the Mabinogion. Narnia by way of Faulkner. Those comparisons come close, but, really, this is such a strikingly new sort of story, it defies...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781918353372
PRICE £9.99 (GBP)
PAGES 144

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