novels

I believe very strongly in the mission of the small presses. Far beyond the froth of commercial publishers, independent and small presses are largely where literature is born and lives.

From the one ad we ran, we received 2,500 submissions the first 2 months and 6,000 in the four months that followed. We had enough to publish for a year or two and word of mouth carried us from there.

Ultimately, the one thing about literature is that it’s never static. As soon as something becomes a trend, readers are looking outside of that trend, wondering what new kinds of books are out beyond the breakers, or still an undertow.

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.

How to account for, much less explain, America’s malaise? Is it that our politics lack imagination, or that our imaginations too easily give into the temptations of ostensibly ideology-free escapism?…

Our mission is to publish literary fiction and nonfiction at the intersection of the arts and sciences because we believe that science and the humanities are natural companions for understanding the human experience. Our aesthetic is revealed through our books, and our influences are the totality of our experience as students and passionate readers of literary writing.

We must ask questions and work together—not just publishers, but authors and agents and readers and booksellers and everyone who has a stake in the literary community, in this era of content, content, content. Is the traditional publishing distribution model sustainable on a smaller scale, i.e. fewer than six to twelve titles per year? Why aren’t major awards moving the sales needle to a significant degree? If debut authors want independent presses to open more slots in our catalogs, then how can they help support our growth? How can we get everyday readers—people who aren’t industry stakeholders—reading more fiction?