Small Press

Underground Voices started as an online literary magazine showcasing writing that was hard-hitting and raw. I didn’t see any magazine that embraced that style of fiction and poetry so I wanted to fill the gap and offer a platform to those kinds of writers: a space where their work could be seen and read. I love books, though, so I slowly moved Underground Voices in the direction of a small press: first publishing annual short story collections and finally publishing novels, which is where it’s at now.

The mission is embodied in our tagline: “Publishing the Best Literature of the American Jewish Experience.” We’ve attempted to take the best practices observed throughout the book-publishing business and adapt them to our particular style. We only publish a small number of books so we’re highly selective in our acquisitions. We’re looking for manuscripts that tell a story (whether via fiction or non-fiction) in a compelling, unique way that all readers will learn from and enjoy.

You know, the typical publishing story. I was sitting in a bar in the year 2000 with some freak I knew from a miserable job I had at the time and he turned to me and said, “I want to start a press and you should be the editor because you are very outgoing.” I downed my tenth or so beer and told him that was a great idea and he could count me in. At this miserable job, I had written a novel called For Fucks Sake, and we decided to launch the press with my book. At the same time, I started dating my future wife Elizabeth, who already worked in publishing, at a literary agency. The three of us spent the next two years meeting at the freak’s apartment with occasional assorted other freaks making detailed plans on how we would publish our one book; after the meetings, we would all go to dinner and get drunk.

I look for something that is so undeniably original and singular, it might as well be something that you can’t quite explain. I love it when something gets around but everyone that reads can’t easily explain what it’s about. Typically people use associations—it’s SOME MOVIE crossed with ANOTHER MOVIE, or SOME NOVEL crossed with SOME AUTHOR VOICE/STYLE.

I admire the hell out of how Barney Rosset ran Grove back in the day. He took risks for literature—much bigger risks than I’m taking now. It is that blood-in dedication to brave books that I want Sator to embody, regardless of scale. Since the press is basically a one-man operation, Sator’s aesthetic is my aesthetic, and so is as mutative and day-to-day as my tastes.