Small Press

We do a lot of work behind the scenes, but the writers create the work so they deserve the most credit and profit for it. They are the reason we even have a project to work on in the first place.

The small presses are absolutely essential in getting work into print that the big publishers won’t touch. It’s where you find the most originality and risk-taking, both essential to great writing.

Over time, The Blasted Tree has increasingly featured odd and eccentric content that just doesn’t seem to belong elsewhere, projects that beg for an out-of-the-box take on publication format or materials.

Our mission at Baobab Press is to utilize our decades of experience in the book industry to promote works of heart and substance that are relevant now and will remain relevant in the future.

Instead of seeing the world in such dualistic terms as East versus West, North versus South, we envision the gathering of the most progressive elements everywhere, and the publication of such a gathering in our list.

As a non-profit, mission-driven press, our goal is to ensure US culture includes, values, and reflects Hispanic contributions. Arte Público began publishing Latino authors of the US, including Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, and works by Ana Castillo, Denise Chávez, and Gary Soto.

Our aesthetic, I believe, has always been simple: find unique storytelling, conversational poetry, edgy work that takes risks but isn’t trying to trick anyone or talk in circles or over heads; keep the writing real, imaginative, and mind-opening.

I’m striving to reach milestones in contemporary Black lesbian writing by helping Black lesbian writers navigate the world of publishing—which marginalizes our contributions and stories.

Tangerine’s mission is very simple: to search out authentic voices and publish them, be they dead or alive, new or lost and forgotten. Talent is everywhere it seems, there’s no shortage of that. But original work is the key, a certain way of seeing things. We’re not after book-shaped mirrors.

While I can admire perfection, not only can I not achieve it, but it isn’t something I can engage with. The perfect poem or piece of art is on a pedestal. I am interested in text and art that rolls around in the dirt and plays.

It’s important to me to be part of the literary community, and it’s important that my authors participate in the literary community. This isn’t just about do-gooding either: the literary community buys literary fiction.

I’d like to see a return to the traditional handsell of bookselling that was the mainstay of the likes of the afore-mentioned J. Laughlin. There is nothing more exciting and satisfyingly rewarding than publishing a good book and getting it into the hands of truly engaged, concerned and discerning readers, regardless of what format they choose.

We hope to continue publishing work that fuses, deconstructs, grafts, (re)imagines, connects, & disentangles the myths, customs, language, narratives, ideologies, apparatuses, & presuppositions of the contemporary milieu & moment. There’s so many incredible people making incredible art. We’re here to help bring it alive.

We’re dedicated to cultivating innovative and unconventional work by both established and emerging writers that pushes the bounds of literary norms. Everything we publish is an extension of our own interests: we want writing that’s a little off, views the world a little askew. We really like self-aware work that operates within a genre, but at the same time pokes at the molding a little. The hard-to-classify.