21st Century Literature discussion

Are there any small presses you've discovered this year or tried for the very first time? If so, are you likely to read more from their catalog?

Let's see, small presses I've read for the first time this year:
- Bad Betty Press (UK, focus on poetry; I tried them because I wanted to read more Matthew Haigh; didn't like Vampires as nearly as I did Death Magazine, which was put out by a different press)
- Charco Press (UK, first time trying them; reading the last of last year's Republic of Consciousness Prize shortlist, A Musical Offering--impressive!)
- Peninsula Press (UK, chosen solely to read some more Isabel Waidner)
- Honford Star (UK, focussing on East Asian lit; currently enjoying the stories in Cursed Bunny)

Plan to try a few titles from Tilted Axis Press (UK), New Vessel (US), and a few more from Charco before the year is done.

I always think that I’ve discovered a new press, then find that I’ve read some of their catalog, or have one or more of their books on my shelf.

Any recommendations here are welcome!

Great topic. Thanks, Marc!

Mark, I'm currently working on Father May Be An Elephant and Mother a Small Basket, But… from Tilted Axis. (And I really loved One Hundred Shadows from them.) Earlier this year, I read Whisper from Honford Star.

I was looking through my books read to see which, if any, would fit/were new for me this year...

Telegram (an imprint of Saqi).
https://saqibooks.com/imprint/telegram/
They focus on the Middle East & North Africa. I read Jamilia, which a friend sent to me after she read it. Now that I've looked up the publisher, I'm sure I'll find other books to read!

Lazy Fascist Press (which has apparently closed but the books are still available some places).
https://www.bizarrocentral.com/2017/0...
I read Motherfucking Sharks because my son (who loves to find me weird books as gifts) gave this one to me. I'd definitely seek out more from them.

ETT Imprint, an Australian company. I have no idea if they are big or small & can't find much about them online. I read The Darkening Ecliptic, which was quite fascinating.

Not technically a small press but a small subset of books is the Global African Voices from Indiana University Press.
https://iupress.org/search-results-gr...
I read Kaveena, my only 5-star read this year.

And, Lancer Books, a publisher from (mostly) the 1960s, now out of business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancer_...
I read an old, cheesy book from them, Assassins from Tomorrow.
Probably won't be going out of my way to collect their books. Lol.

Other small (?) or indie presses that I've read this year (but they're not new for me):
Coffee House Press
Pushkin Vertigo
New Directions
Tin House
Soho Crime
Two Dollar Radio
Dalkey
Open Letter
Tilted Axis
Honford Star

I follow far too many, on the mailing list and/or regularly read titles from:

And Other Stories - literary
Angry Robot – cult/quirky
Archipelago – literary/obscure classics
Broadview – new editions of neglected classics mostly by women from 18th/19th century
Charco
Coffee House Press
Dalkey Archive Press – literary/cult
Daunt - literary
Dorothy
Feminist Press CUNY
Fitzcarraldo
Galley Beggar
Girls Gone By - reprints of vintage children’s books mainly boarding school/pony/ballet stories
Grove Press
Handheld Press – vintage middlebrow, mainly by women
Honford Star – East Asian
McNally – new US publisher of vintage/neglected classics
New Directions
Open Letter
Pushkin
Stone Bridge Press – specialise in Japan
Swan River – vintage ghost stories etc
Tilted Axis - East Asian
Tin House
Tramp Press – Irish authors
Transit
Two Lines
Valancourt – vintage pulp, ghost stories, genre novels
Verso – mainly non-fiction, political, history, and environmental but some fiction

Marc wrote: "Plan to try a few titles from Tilted Axis Press (UK), New Vessel (US), and a few more from Charco before the year is done."

Marc, thanks again for this thread. And for your mention of New Vessel (which I wasn't previously aware of). I just finished their book The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal thanks to your heads-up for this small press.

Came to my attention thanks to the new U.S./Canada Republic of Consciousness Prize, Stacia. New Vessel submitted Pollack's Arm to be considered for next year's award. I had never heard of them either. How was The Missing Year... ?

3TimesRebel is a new one I just heard of (thanks to the Mookse group). Looks enticing!
(Gotta whittle some piles down before I let myself off-leash again... )

Marc wrote: "Came to my attention thanks to the new U.S./Canada Republic of Consciousness Prize, Stacia. New Vessel submitted Pollack's Arm to be considered for next year's award. I had never heard of them eith..."

I really liked it. (Gave it 4 stars.) It's understated but says a lot with few words. And I really wish the artwork described existed because I'd love to see it. (Sadly, it's just a fictional description.) I'll definitely be trying more of their books. (Fyi, for those with Hoopla access through their libraries, I was able to read it that way. I love that Hoopla lets you search by publisher.)

I am so behind in keeping up with the Mooske group & various award nominees!

Interesting that Stephen King was witness against large publishers merging as it would hurt small publishers and authors.

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/02/111511...

Stacia wrote: "And I really wish the artwork described existed because I'd love to see it. (Sadly, it's just a fictional description.)."
This sounds really fascinating (and right up my alley)! You can create the artwork now with a little AI help (I just saw a video about a site called midjourney that lets you create art with text prompts--it's crazy!). I can't keep up with all the groups, new publications, potential awardees, etc.

Jennifer wrote: "Interesting that Stephen King was witness against large publishers merging as it would hurt small publishers and authors."
King really seems to use his fame and power for good whenever possible. I've seen his stories often included in pretty low-budget/indie story collections, as well. Thanks for sharing this (I'd forgotten all about the proposed merger).

Marc wrote: "You can create the artwork now with a little AI help (I just saw a video about a site called midjourney that lets you create art with text prompts--it's crazy!)."

Funny that you mention that. My son has been experimenting with that lately and was just showing me some of his creations a day ago. Wow. Such cool artwork. He's working on it for some art for D&D games. He is using Midjourney. He also mentioned another one called Dall-e (which I may have to try for the name alone as I'm a Dali fan, lol).

Fascinating stuff.

And hooray for Stephen King!

Stacia wrote: "My son has been experimenting with that lately and was just showing me some of his creations a day ago. Wow. Such cool artwork."
Serendipitous, no?!! That sounds like a fun application. (And I also love the Dall-e name of the other AI artwork site/platform. Some of those creations have made for some funny/haunting memes.)

A lot of my reading is from small presses. It's hard for me to keep track of whether a book is my first from that press. But I'll just use this as an excuse to name some small presses whose offerings I've enjoyed recently.

Hobart Pulp: Garielle Lutz, Worsted
CLASH books: Kyle Muntz, The Pain Eater
Dark Ink: Elin Olausson, Growth: A Collection of Short Stories
Firebird Creative: Craig Laurance Gidney, The Nectar of Nightmares
11:11: David Leo Rice, Drifter: stories
Spuyten Duyvil: Brooks Sterritt, The History of America in My Lifetime
Amphetamine Sulphate: Josiah Morgan, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I actually remember another book from Spuyten Duyvil, but I thought I'd give them a plug! I also want to plug Infinity Land and their gorgeous edgy art books.

(Omitting the usual suspects like Dorothy, Tin House, Dzanc, Tartarus, Two Dollar Radio, New Directions, Coffee House...)

I am not sure if Quirk Books is considered a small press, but
The Last Policeman series is really good.

At least that is where I got the book originally.

I think I've only heard of the first two on your list, Bill.

Quirk Books seems like small press to me, but we didn't set out any hard and fast parameters to define what that means in this thread.

Earlier this year, I forgot I'd tried Third Man Books (musician Jack White's publishing company)---alas, I didn't finish Nine Bar Blues (a collection of short stories; it started off strong, but it just didn't gel with me). I plan to give the press another try. They have a fascinating nonfiction book on music that just came out, I think.

One of our current group reads here came from eLectio Publishing, which is new to me and seems to publish everything, but with a Christian twist/bias (it's very hard to find out anything about them; their social media accounts are generic, their website throws up security warnings, and there are no articles/reviews about them that I could find quickly).

Of course, I threw caution to the wind and ordered books from 3TimesRebel yesterday.

Marc wrote: "I think I've only heard of the first two on your list, Bill.

Quirk Books seems like small press to me, but we didn't set out any hard and fast parameters to define what that means in this thread.
..."

That's great Marc they're so new and tiny sure they'll appreciate the support and both their titles sound worth trying

Bill wrote: "A lot of my reading is from small presses. It's hard for me to keep track of whether a book is my first from that press. But I'll just use this as an excuse to name some small presses whose offerin..."

Those sound worth checking out, I never have much luck with the really teeny horror publishers, I always find out about a book I want when it's already completely sold out.

Marc wrote: "I think I've only heard of the first two on your list, Bill."
I haven't heard of any of the presses on your list, Marc! We're even.

Alwynne, I do try to keep an eye on small-press horror releases. Staff at our local genre bookstore have joked that I never ask for anything that they carry, haha. I'm one of the Literary Horror group's moderators, and try to encourage the group to check out the more obscure presses and books. Our monthly reads often end up with the more popular options though.

Alwynne wrote: "That's great Marc they're so new and tiny sure they'll appreciate the support and both their titles sound worth trying."
Pure altruism on my part. :p

I see a lot of small press horror releases specifically on Twitter. I'll never understand how the feed on that platform works...

Marc wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "That's great Marc they're so new and tiny sure they'll appreciate the support and both their titles sound worth trying."
Pure altruism on my part. :p

I see a lot of small press hor..."

I don't understand it either, so no Twitter for me.