nonfiction

We started out of a framepack & computer screen tight-roping language, trying to figure out what can’t be said & how to say it. I guess the ramble can be summed up with—narcissism leading to boredom leading to community leading to fulfillment.

I think Poets & Writers summed our aesthetic up perfectly when they described WILDNESS as a journal “that embraces the mysteries of the self and the outside world.” Our tastes run along two parallel paths: the internal and external savagery and peace of the lived life. We love to experience the calm of a studied life, but also the rawness and pain of a truth expressed.

Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape by Marc Nieson Ice Cube Press, 2016 272 pages – Ice Cube / Amazon   This memoir is an absorbing and unsparing account by…

When I’m looking for a book, I look for stylists. It’s not the just the story, it’s how it’s told. That’s a pretty boring thing to say, but it’s true. Our first writer we published was Kyle Coma-Thompson. That’s a writer who has a lot to say, and he says it in a way that really isn’t like anyone else. His stuff can be polarizing, and often puzzling, but the way he writes, the way he pays attention to the sentence is remarkable. He’s soon to be a force.

On a daily basis, we’re inspired and influenced by every other indie press around: it’s a lot of hard work to run a press—often thrilling, but frequently full of difficult and thankless tasks—and I admire everyone who is doing this, who is giving of themselves to help facilitate the continuation of independent literature, all the other editors and publishers working hard to bring new books out into the world.

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.

The Grind Daily Writing Series is never far from my experience of Bull City Press: the invitation to pursue hard, solitary work, and not alone, but with other like-minded writers. For me this pervades the Bull City ethos… hard working writers celebrating the work of other hard working writers. That is the vision Bull City has of a community—to connect writers with writers as well as readers, to foster & challenge writers, and to celebrate/broadcast writers’ accomplishments.

Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger Translated by Michael Hoffmann, Foreword by Karl Marlantes Penguin Deluxe Editions, 2016 320 pages – Penguin / Amazon   I was surprised when I heard Ernst Jünger’s…

I assumed upon my arrival in rural, southern France to teach ESL to children at an English immersion camp, that there’d be some sense of magic surrounding French students. I…

Website Submission Guidelines Interview with Joshua Young, Founder & Editor; Abigail Zimmer, Poetry Editor; and Ian Denning, Prose Editor How did The Lettered Streets Press start? Joshua: My father and I wanted…

When the World Breaks Open by Seema Reza Red Hen Press, 2016 240 pages – Red Hen / Amazon   There are long tones of loneliness, self-discovery, and memory in Seema Reza’s…

“Fear of danger is a funny thing, too. It … definitely has an agenda of its own. It’s ironic how danger doesn’t present itself when we’d expect, but instead creeps…

I Can Give You Anything But Love by Gary Indiana Rizzoli Ex Libris, 2015 240 pages – Rizzoli / Amazon   I Can Give You Anything But Love opens with the author’s…

“Do it,” I command myself. My hands wobbling, I take the shallow pink plastic bucket, brimming with water and baptize myself with water while standing on my bathroom floor. I…