21st Century Literature discussion

Which small press has been new to you recently? What did you read by them? Do you think you'll explore other books in their catalog? How did you discover them?

Probably the newest to me small presses would be:

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Piżama Press
https://www.neonpajamas.com/pizamapress
They have only put out a small chapbook poetry collection so far (Disintegration Made Plain and Easy by Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi)
I had read The Book of Kane and Margaret previously by the same author and the idea of reading his debut poetry collection piqued my curiosity. I saw a post on Bluesky by the founder--I probably wouldn't have ordered the book had I not know the author (but I was drawn to the title and cover, as well).

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Tenement Press
https://tenementpress.com/
"Discovered" because MUEUM (S.J. Fowler) was shortlisted for the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize, UK & Ireland. Haven't looked up their catalog and still don't know much about them.

Strictly speaking, it's been ages since I "discovered" a small press, though I've been busy with the ones I already know.

Influx Press (https://www.influxpress.com/) is based in the UK, and publishes a number of interesting authors of dark fiction. I'm really looking forward to the posthumous publication of Joel Lane's 3rd novel Midnight Blue next month; can't wait! A few months ago, they put out a new edition of Lane's The Terrible Changes, which had previously been available only as a limited edition hardcover.

I thought I'd read something by Influx, but maybe we just chatted about them before because I didn't see anything in their catalog I recall reading...

Marc wrote: "I thought I'd read something by Influx, but maybe we just chatted about them before because I didn't see anything in their catalog I recall reading..."

One of their best-known titles, at least in the UK, is one of my favourite books Eliza Clark's debut Boy Parts. They also issued another old favourite Eley Williams Attrib. and other stories. And they published Christine Lai's Landscapes and Frankie Miren's The Service both of which got a fair amount of attention when they first appeared.

Verve Books is a new one for me. It is very queer and feminist and weird. I read two books so far. The Book of X is a great feminist dystopian horrorish. The other was Isaac a gay coming of age story (a bit bland).

I've heard great things about another of their titles, A Language of Limbs, Sunburn, Ripe

They were founded in 2018, so I think is relatively new, compared to the big ones.

Alwynne wrote: "And they published Christine Lai's Landscapes..."
I keep forgetting Influx put out Landscapes; as I recall the parts I liked are rather Sebald-esque and quite different from their other books that I've read. And annoyingly, two editions have two different entries. Here's the one with Alwynne's review: Landscapes

Ah, I read the Two Dollar Radio edition of Landscapes and I know of Attrib—both titles familiar because of the Republic of Consciousness Prize. Thanks, Alwynne—I knew the press sounded familiar.

Carl, I quite enjoyed the Etter book but wasn’t as keen on her next one (Ripe). Looks like Verve put out editions of both (I’m not familiar with the press).

my favorite recent small press discovery is Fern Books! also due to the RoC Prize! they have only published three books so far & last month I finished the first one, ALL three are five stars for me & the most gorgeous books ever.
this is a fave of the year & was shortlisted for the RoC US/Canada Prize, Like a Sky Inside by Jakuta Alikavazovic, (tr. Daniel Levin Becker)

here’s a blurb about them: “Fern Books is a small press unhurriedly dedicated to forms of writing, and ideas about publishing, that are thoughtful and generous and expansive. We're interested in literary risk-taking, adventures in form and content and authorship, and the connections and relationships fostered between books and their readers.
We aim to think out loud, as it were, about whose imaginations literary text can stir, what makes text literary in the first place, and what shapes besides bound printed matter it might take. As we work on answering these questions, we plan to publish books— among other things—that we believe make the world a more enchanting, welcoming, and sane place.”

the press is based in Oakland & Paris, the three books published are all translated works from French to English, very autofiction style. absolutely love them.

Thanks for the info on Fern Books, I keep getting them confused with Fern Press which is a PRH imprint.

After poking around a bit, I think this is the most recent small press I discovered:
https://raphuspress.weebly.com/

The only book I have from them is Brian Evenson's Imagine uma Floresta Imagine a Forest

Really lovely design and Evenson-ian story. (Not too expensive yet... hurry fans.)