Drawings by Gabriel Liston, for the novel Parts per Million by Julia Stoops

Parts per Million is a story of loss and transformation, and the importance of holding fast to ideals. Finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, it is published by Forest Avenue Press in April 2018. Described as “reading for the resistance” and “like the bastard offspring of Graham Greene and Naomi Klein,” Parts per Million resonates with the tumult of our times.

From the back of the book:

Three activists let a photographer with a hazy past join their unlikely household in Julia Stoops’s debut novel, a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. As the scrappy crew takes to the streets in anti-war protests and reports on the explosive political climate, the newcomer’s secret threatens to destroy their alliances—even as they uncover the biggest scoop of their careers. Set in Portland, Oregon, in 2002, Parts per Million dives into the space between ideals and reality, where risk and love twist into a tragic climax that challenges everything the activists believe. The novel throws a timely spotlight on recent American history, illuminating the power of individual transformation during social upheaval.

The Illustrations

In 2017, Julia Stoops and Gabriel Liston ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund several full-page illustrations for the book. They also created a 44-page zine of deleted scenes and more illustrations, as a Kickstarter reward. This site showcases Gabriel’s sketches and experiments, as well as many of the final drawings for the novel and the zine.

Why “Omnia Mundi”?

Omnia Mundi (Latin for “all the world”) is the name of the main characters’ environmental media group.


Reviews, events, location photos, Bush-era protest art and other goodies at partspermillion.net.