The Great 2017 Indie Press Preview

A comprehensive look at what’s in store for small presses in 2017

Michael J Seidlinger
Electric Literature
28 min readApr 20, 2017

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Well, this was surely a long time coming — the third edition of the Great Indie Press Preview. In previous years, I encouraged the participation of the indie lit community in both nominating and endorsing their most anticipated titles of the forthcoming year. With the 2017 edition, I discovered how much the community has grown. In just a little over a year, so many new presses have been founded (including 7.13 Books, Catapult, Cinestate, andUnnamed Press). 2017 is already underway, but from one quick scroll through you’ll see just how much independent publishing is flourishing.

Indie presses are also really refining their own unique aesthetics. There’s no confusing a Two Dollar Radio book for a Copper Canyon title, no way to confuse a Coffee House Press title with a Soho Press book.

I’d also like to note — to all publishers and presses not included in the preview, fear not: Electric Literature will be adding to this preview throughout the year. I tried my damnedest to make this comprehensive, and that also means keeping it malleable, evolving with the year itself. Comment on this post with your press schedules, and I’ll be sure to make sure every small press is accounted for.

I’m raising my coffee mug as a toast to the year ahead. Hope you’re all caffeinated and ready to dive into your next great read.

1913 Press was founded in 2003 by l’editrice and is committed to publishing transcending poetry, poetics, and prose with a focus on their intersections with arts of all forms.

  • A Turkish Dictionary by Andrew Wessels (April)

7.13 Books, founded by Leland Cheuk (Letters from Dinosaurs, Thought Catalog), is a press committed to publishing experience that’s respectful to and even reverent of first-time authors.

  • The Glamshack by Paul Cohen (June)
  • Planet Grim by Alex Behr (October)

Akashic Books is an acclaimed Brooklyn-based independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and nonfiction by authors ignored by the mainstream.

  • The Painted Gun by Bradley Spinelli (March)
  • Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre (May)
  • Trinidad Noir: The Classics edited by Earl Lovelace and Robert Antoni (May)
  • Getting It Right by Karen E. Osborne (June)
    In Search of the Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea by Danny Goldberg (June)
  • ME: A Novel by Tomoyuki Hoshino (June)
  • This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake by Garbage and Jason Cohen (June)
  • The Tower of the Antilles by Achy Obejas (July)
  • Atlanta Noir edited by Tayari Jones (August)
  • New Haven Noir edited by Amy Bloom (August)

Algonquin Books was founded in 1983 in a woodshed behind co-founder Louis Rubin’s Chapel Hill, N.C., home. It has since become a widely-regarded publishing house responsible for launching the careers of Julia Alvarez, Amy Stewart, Larry Brown, and more.

  • Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein (March)

Alternating Current was founded in 1993 aimed as a boutique independent press dedicated to creating chapbooks, paperbacks, zines, online resources, zine libraries, spoken word events, poetry readings, national book tours, and literature collections, as well as offering services in author and press promotions, such as blog tours, book tours, book trailers, audio recordings, merchandising, editing, critiquing, and book clubs.

  • A Room in Dodge City by David Leo Rice (February)

Ahsahta Press champions and promotes surprising, relevant, and accessible experimental poetry that more commercially minded small presses avoid; in making it widely available, they aim to increase its readership.

  • On a Clear Day by Jasmine Dreame Wagner (February)
  • Civilization Makes Me Lonely by Jennifer Nelson (April)

Astrophil Press was founded in 2008 as a press dedicated to publishing innovative literary work that is fertile in imagination and mind — literary art that many major presses and independent presses overlook.

  • Buckskin Cocaine by Erika T. Wurth
  • The Whitmire Case by Joanna Ruocco
  • The Strangers Among Us by Caroline Picard

Atelier26 is an indie press based out of Portland, Oregon that exists to demonstrate the powers and possibilities of literature through beautifully designed and expressive books that get people listening, talking, and exchanging ideas.

  • A Thousand Distant Radios by Woody Skinner (November)

Awst Press endeavors to feature impressive work from diverse voices. By enlisting the help of guest curators from a variety of genres, emerging authors gain the exposure their unique voices deserve.

  • Bronzeville at Night: 1949 by Vida Cross
  • The Brick House by Micheline Aharonian Marcom.

Bellevue Literary Press is devoted to publishing literary fiction and nonfiction at the intersection of the arts and sciences under the belief that science and the humanities are natural companions for understanding the human experience.

  • Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America’s Lingua Franca by John McWhorter (January)
  • Sleeping Mask: Fictions by Peter LaSalle (January)
  • Jerzy: A Novel by Jerome Charyn (March)
  • The Topography of Tears by Rose-Lynn Fisher (May)
  • Freud’s Trip to Orvieto by Nicholas Fox Weber (May)
  • A Fugitive in Walden Woods by Norman Lock (June)
  • Autopsy of a Father by Pascale Kramer translated from the French by Robert Bononno (July)
  • Wolf Season by Helen Benedict (October)

BLF Press is an author-centered independent, Black feminist press dedicated to amplifying the work of women of color. The goal of the press is to create a space for forward thinking through exceptional writing.

  • A Failure to Communicate by S. Andrea Allen (January)
  • Solace: Writing, Refuge, and LGBTQ Women of Color edited by S. Andrea Allen and Lauren Cherelle (January)

Bull City Press was founded in 2006 to publish books, a small quarterly magazine, Inch, and poetry chapbooks through the Frost Place Chapbook Competition. In 2015, Bull City merged line of fiction and nonfiction chapbooks originally published by Origami Zoo Press.

  • Then Winter by Chloe Honum (April)
  • In Defense of Monsters by B.J. Hollars (April)
  • Behind This Mirror by Lena Bertone (Summer)
  • Everything, Then and Since by Michael Parker (Summer)
  • Little Climates by L.A. Johnson (Fall)

Cardboard House Press is an independent press that takes the name from the first book of the Peruvian writer, Martín Adán, published in 1928, which is considered a precursor to the Latin American literary boom. The press is dedicated to helping to break the mold and give literature a new dimension.

  • My Lai by Carmen Berenguer, translated from the Spanish by Liz Henry (March)
  • Litane by Alejandro Tarrab, translated from the Spanish by Clare Sullivan (May)

Catapult is an all-encompassing publishing house that publishes books of the highest literary caliber, offers writing classes taught by acclaimed emerging and established writers, produces an award-winning daily online magazine of narrative nonfiction and fiction, as well as hosts an open online platform where writers can showcase their own writing, find resources, and get inspired.

  • The Middlepause: On Life After Youth by Marina Benjamin (March)
  • Exes by Max Winter (April)
  • Guesswork: A Reckoning With Loss by Martha Cooley (April)
  • Large Animals by Jess Arndt (May)
  • Dirt Road by James Kelman (July)
  • Beyond The High Blue Air by Lu Spinney (August)
  • Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary (August)
  • PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2017 (August)
  • A Loving, Faithful Animal by Josephine Rowe (September)
  • Landslide by Minna Proctor (September)
  • As Lie Is To Grin by Simeon Marsalis (October)
  • I, Parrot by Deb Olin Unferth and Elizabeth Haidle (November)
  • Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (November)

Cinestate is a Dallas-based entertainment company seeking to connect bold, authentic creators with audiences who love bold, authentic content. Award winning producer Dallas Sonnier (Bone Tomahawk, Bad Milo) and publisher Will Evans (Deep Vellum Publishing) founded Cinestate to improve upon the status quo entertainment by eliminating the arbitrary separation between mediums.

  • The Narrow Caves by S. Craig Zahler (Audio) (May)
  • Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child by S. Craig Zahler (September)
  • My Pet Serial Killer by Michael J. Seidlinger (October)
  • The Megarothke by Robert Ashcroft (November)

Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM) is a DIY kind of press aiming to publish raw, innovative, and honest voices through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid forms. The press advocates an undying sense of authorial outreach via its online community, Entropy, and the blog, Enclave.

  • The Yellow House by Chiwan Choi (February)
  • A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault edited by Joanna C. Valente (February)
  • Swallow the Fish by Gabrielle Civil (#RECURRENT) (February)
  • As I Stand Living by Christopher Higgs (#RECURRENT) (February)
  • One Way Down (Or Another) by Calder G. Lorenz (February)
  • Wild Heather by Siân S. Rathore (February)
  • Aviary by Seth Berg and Bradford K. Wolfenden II (Artistically Declined) (March)
  • Work Safe or Die Trying by Bud Smith (September)
  • The Doubles by Scott Esposito (September)
  • How to Keep You Alive by Ella Longpre (#RECURRENT) (September)
  • Drowsy. Drowsy Baby by Jared Joseph (#RECURRENT) (September)
  • In this Quiet Church of the Night, I Say Amen by Devin Kelly (Siren Songs) (September)
  • Dumbface/Stupidheart by Cooper Wilhelm (Siren Songs) (September)

Coach House Books is a collaborative press between a dedicated staff and an ever-changing number of people from the writing, artistic and publishing communities.

  • Shot-Blue by Jesse Ruddock (April)

Coffee House Press is an internationally renowned independent book publisher and arts nonprofit based in Minneapolis, MN; through their literary publications and Books in Action program, the press acts as a catalyst and connector — between authors and readers, ideas and resources, creativity and community, inspiration and action.

  • The Long Dry by Cynan Jones (April)
  • At the Lightning Field by Laura Raicovich (April)
  • The Gift by Barbara Browning (Emily Books) (May)
  • The History of the Future essays by Edward McPherson (May)
  • Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash (June)
  • Fugitive, in Full View by Jack Marshall (June)
  • Thousand Star Hotel by Bao Phi (July)
  • Little Boxes: Twelve Writers on Television edited by Caroline Casey (August)
  • Good Stock Strange Blood by Dawn Lundy Martin (August)

Common Deer Press is a small Canadian press established in 2016.

  • MOM by Collin Piprell (April)
  • Genesis 2.0 by Collin Piprell (October)
  • Unwrap Your Candy by Jesse Miller (September)
  • The Great and the Small by Andrea Torrey Balsara (October)
  • Resurrections by Collin Piprell (2018)
  • Captain NoBeard by Cody B. Stewart and Adam Rocke (2018)

Copper Canyon Press was founded in 1972, as a nonprofit publisher that believes poetry is vital to language and living. The press has published more than 400 titles including works by Nobel Laureates Pablo Neruda, Odysseas Elytis, Octavio Paz, Vincente Aleixandre, and Rabindranath Tagore.

  • Where Now: New and Selected Poems by Laura Kasischke (April)
  • The Lice by W.S. Merwin (April)
  • Together and By Ourselves by Alex Dimitrov (April)
  • Patient Zero by Tomás Q. Morin (April)
  • Time Will Clean the Carcass Bones: Selected and New Poems by Lucia Perillo (April)
  • Hard Child by Natalie Shapero (April)
  • The Essential W.S. Merwin by W.S. Merwin (May)
  • The Silence That Remains: Selected Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan (August)
  • Early Hour by Michael McGriff (August)
  • Selected Poems by Dan Gerber (Fall)
  • blud by Rachel McKibbins (Fall)
  • Book of Twilights (Crepusculario) by Pablo Neruda (Fall)
  • Unaccompanied by Javier Zamora (Fall)
  • Saudade by Traci Brimhall (Fall)
  • Maps by John Freeman (Fall)
  • Late Empire by Lisa Olstein (Fall)
  • Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang (Fall)

Counterpoint LLC and Soft Skull Press is an author-driven press devoted to fresh, cutting-edge literary voices. The press publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels, and anthologies, all of which collectively focus on current affairs and politics, counterculture, music, history, memoir, literary biography, religion, and philosophy.

  • Sam Shepard: A Life by John J Winters (April)
  • Gifted by John Daniel (April)
  • David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter Poet by Thomas Dilworth (April)
  • That Wondrous Pattern Essays on Poets and Poetry by Kathleen Raine (April)
  • Eating Promiscuously Adventures in the Future of Food by James McWilliams (May)
  • The Use of Fame by Cornelia Nixon (May)
  • Tracks Along the Left Coast Jaime de Angulo and the Pacific Coast by Andrew Schelling (May)
  • The Round of a Country Year A Farmer’s Day Book by David Kline (May)
  • The Widow Nash by Jamie Harrison (June)
  • The Romance of Elsewhere by Lynn Freed (June)
  • Because It Is So Beautiful by Robert Leonard Reid (June)
  • Tamed by a Bear: Coming Home to Nature-Spirit-Source by Priscilla Stuckey (July)
  • Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz (July)
  • Pages for Her by Plyvia Brownrigg
  • The Complete Poison Blossoms: The Zen Record of Zen Master Hakuin (July)
  • Tower Dog by Douglas Scott Delaney (April)
  • Turf by Elizabeth Crane (June)
  • Night Class by Victor P. Corona (July)
  • Hollow by Owen Egerton (July)

Curbside Splendor was conceived as a punk rock band in the early 1990s and re-established as an independent press in 2009. The press seeks work that explores hybrid forms and examines contemporary culture. In August 2016, Curbside opened the Midwest’s first indie-only bookstore, Curbside Books & Records, located in Chicago’s South Loop.

  • Revise the Psalm edited by Quraysh Ali Lansana and Sandra Jackson-Opoku (January)
  • Body Horror by Anne Elizabeth Moore (April)
  • Tacky Goblin by T. Sean Steele (April)
  • The Hypothetical Man by Paul Maliszewski and James Wagner (May)
  • Kedzie Avenue by Darryl Holliday, Jamie Hibdon, and E.N. Rodriguez (May)
  • Ars Botanica by Tim Taranto (July)
  • Charlatan by Cris Mazza (September)

Deep Vellum Publishing is a not-for-profit literary arts organization that seeks to enhance the open exchange of ideas among cultures and to connect the world’s greatest writers with English-language readers through publishing international literature in translation, while fostering the art and craft of translation, and promoting a more vibrant literary community in the Dallas community and beyond.

  • Recitation by Suah Bae (January)
  • The Magician of Vienna by Sergio Pitol (April)
  • Not One Day by Anne Garréta (May)
  • The Golden Cockerel & Other Writings by Juan Rulfo (May)
  • Bride and Groom by Alisa Ganieva (September)
  • Moonbath by Yanick Lahens (August)
  • The Imagined Land by Eduardo Berti (October)

Disorder press was founded by siblings Mik Grantham and Joseph Grantham to publish books that defy and are difficult to categorize, work that is sometimes a struggle to put into words.

  • Dust Bunny City by Bud Smith with illustrations by Rae Buleri (March)
  • SISTER SUITE by Christine Stroud (April)
  • Temporal by Troy James Weaver (November/December)

Dostoyevsky Wannabe is a strange and unwieldy dissident underground publishing house. It’s sister-site Swimmers Club is the same but for pop culture (well…what we call popular culture anyway).

  • Napalm Recipe by Shane Jesse Christmass
  • Exit Ambition by Jake Reber
  • Abstract Slavery by RC Miller & Gary J Shipley
  • 150 Pornographers by Victoria Brown
  • Marcel by Grant Maierhofer
  • Five Women by Philippa Snow
  • Girl at End by Richard Brammer
  • For We Are Young And Free by Maddison Stoff
  • Cassette 94 Guest-Edited by Elle Nash
  • u make me laugh in a different way by Richard Barrett
  • Gross in Feather, Loud in Voice by Judson Hamilton

Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and to impact communities nationally with our efforts to promote literary readership and advocacy of creative writing workshops and readings offered across the country.

  • Heritage of Smoke by Josip Novakovich (January)
  • All Back Full by Robert Lopez (February)
  • The Lost Daughter Collective by Lindsey Drager (March)
  • Inside My Pencil by Peter Markus (March)
  • Dreamlives of Debris by Lance Olsen (April)
  • A Moral Tale and Other Moral Tales by Josh Emmons (April)
  • Seven Years to Zero by Amy Benson (May)
  • The Australian by Emma Smith-Stevens (May)
  • Not Constantinople by Nicholas Bredie (June)
  • The Veneration of Monsters by Suzanne Burns (July)
  • Darkansas by Jarret Middleton (August)
  • The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism by Jason Tougaw (October)
  • Dead Girls and Other Stories by Emily Geminder (October)
  • This Book Is Not for You by Daniel Hoyt (November)

Elderfly Press is an independent press established in 2016 to shine a light on the excellent niche fiction and non-fiction stories that would never find their way in the traditional publishing world. The press is dedicated to telling stories that illuminate the mundane and celebrate everyday people living in an everyday world.

  • Valley of the Bees by Amanda L. Webster (March)

Ellipsis Press was started in 2007 by Johannah Rodgers and Eugene Lim. Ellipsis Press takes advantage of cheaper production methods to promote works that succeed in making new forms in order to express something previously unexpressed, to expand the realm of the articulable.

  • Sonata in K by Karen An-Hwei Lee (February)

The Feminist Press is an educational nonprofit organization founded to advance women’s rights and amplify feminist perspectives. The press publishes classic and new writing from around the world, creates cutting-edge programs, and elevates silenced and marginalized voices in order to support personal transformation and social justice for all people.

  • Tell Me About Sex Grandma by Anastasia Higginbotham (April)
  • August by Romina Paula translated by Jennifer Croft (April)
  • And the Spirit Moved Them by Helen LaKelly Hunt (May)
  • Since I Laid My Burden Down by Brontez Purnell (June)
  • Sea Girl Feminist Folktales from Around the World: Volume III (August)
  • We Were Witches by Ariel Gore (September)
  • The Hunter Maiden Feminist Folktales from Around the World: Volume IV (October)
  • The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza translated by Sarah Booker (October)
  • Radical Reproductive Justice edited by Loretta Ross, Erika Derkas, Whitney Peoples, Lynn Roberts, and Pamela Bridgewater Toure (November)
  • Translation as Transhumance by Mireille Gansel, translated by Ros Schwartz (November)

Fiction Advocate is a small press and online publication devoted to exceptional fiction. The operation specializes in literary criticism and conversation in and around other mediums including music, movies, and politics.

#gods by Matthew Gallaway (Spring)

Forest Avenue Press was founded in 2012 in Portland, Oregon to publish page-turning literary fiction. The work published strikes a balance between the fresh, complex, sometimes nutty, and often-wondrous approach to storytelling. Forest Avenue is the home of the Main Street Writers Movement.

  • The Hour of Daydreams by Renee Macalino Rutledge (March)
  • Queen of Spades by Michael Shou-Yung Shum (October)

Fig Tree Books publishes novels and nonfiction (including memoirs) that chronicle and enlighten the beautiful and sometimes challenging mosaic of the American Jewish Experience.

  • My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew by Abigail Pogrebin (March)

Future Tense was started in Spokane, Washington in 1990 by Kevin Sampsell and had a brief stint in Arkansas before moving to Portland, Oregon in 1992. The press has published authors like Gary Lutz, Chelsea Hodson, Jamie Iredell, Zoe Trope, Susannah Breslin, Aaron Gilbreath, Wendy C. Ortiz, Myriam Gurba, Jay Ponteri, Sarah Grace McCandless, Shane Allison, Mike Topp, Elizabeth Ellen, May-Lan Tan, Chelsea Martin, and more.

  • Assisted Living by Gary Lutz (Scout Books)
  • I Don’t Think of You (Until I Do) by Tatiana Ryckman

Gramma Poetry is an independent press established in 2016 to publish a diverse array of poetry, both online and in print. Gramma seeks to broaden its audience and to be poetry ambassadors by collaborating with people and organizations in other art mediums.

  • Ugly Time by Sarah Galvin (March)

Graywolf Press is a leading independent publisher committed to the discovery and energetic publication of contemporary American and international literature. The press has discovered and/or published the work of Deborah Baker, Leslie Jamison, Ander Monson, Maggie Nelson, Claudia Rankine, Tracy K. Smith, and more.

  • 300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso (February)
  • Whereas by Layli Long Soldier (March)
  • Wait Till You See Me Dance by Deb Olin Unferth (March)
  • A Little More Human by Fiona Maazel (April)
  • FEN by Daisy Johnson (May)
  • Broken River by J. Robert Lennon (fMay)
  • Confessions Of A Recovering Environmentalist by Paul Kingsnorth (August)
  • Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith (September)
  • Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (October)
  • Bunk by Kevin Young (November)

Hawthorne Books is an independent literary press founded in 2001 and is based in Portland, Oregon, with a national scope and deep regional roots. Many of their titles have gone on to win numerous awards. Hawthorne is a go-to independent small press for the playful and deeply literary.

  • Narrow River, Wide Sky by Jenny Forrester (May)

Brian Alan Ellis started House of Vlad Productions in 2003, mainly to publish his poetry via zines, chapbooks, and broadsides and has since become a means of collaboration among talented illustrators (Waylon Thornton, Michael Seymour Blake, and JB Roe), audio/visual wizards (Andrew Seward), ass-kicking rock and roll juggernauts (Strange Lords and Room Full of Strangers), literary outsiders (Sam Pink), and New Jersey construction workers moonlighting as poets (Bud Smith).

  • Failure Pie in a Sadness Face: New and Selected Stories by Brian Alan Ellis (January)
  • Something to Do with Self-Hate: A Novel by Brian Alan Ellis (July)

Hub City Press is a non-profit independent press in Spartanburg, SC that publishes new and extraordinary voices from the American South. The press is committed to high-caliber novels, short stories, poetry, memoir, and works emphasizing regional culture and history. Hub City is particularly interested in books with a strong sense of place.

  • Magic City Gospel by Ashley M. Jones (January)
  • Flight Path by Hannah Palmer (April)
  • Strangers to Temptation by Scott Gould (June)
  • Ember by Brock Adams (September)

Ig publishes original literary fiction from writers who have been overlooked by the mainstream publishing establishment, and political and cultural nonfiction.

  • Somebody in Boots by Nelson Algren (March)
  • Malcom Lowry’s Under the Volcano: Bookmarked by David Ryan (April)
  • Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves: Bookmarked by Michael J. Seidlinger (May)
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: Bookmarked by Jaime Clarke (May)
  • Empire of Glass by Kaitlin Solimine (July)
  • Ash Falls by Warren Read (July)

Influx Press is an independent publisher founded by Gary Budden and Kit Caless. The press specializes in stories from the margins of culture, specific geographical spaces and sites of resistance that remain under explored in mainstream literature.

  • Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams (March)
  • Signal Failure by Tom Jeffreys (April)
  • Ghosts on the Shore by Paul Scraton (June)
  • Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials and the Meaning of Grime by Jeffrey Boakye (July)

Ink Press Publications is a collaborative effort directed by Amanda McCormick and Tracy Dimond. Their mission is to blur the lines of genre in writing, visual, and performance art in Baltimore and the universe through the publication of handmade books, manual printing, and experimental events.

  • She Named Him Michael by Heather Rounds (May)

Instar Books publishes literature in electronic form, embracing contentious new models, welcoming the creative chaos of a destabilized industry. In addition to digital publications, the press is intrigued by the possibilities of texts as social destinations, as performance, and also as digital sculptures, or “seeds.”

  • Nerve Endings: The New Trans Erotic edited by Tobi Hill-Meyer (February)
  • Getting Off by Jonathan Reiss (March)
  • Shifting: Part Two of The Fold by Miracle Jones (April)
  • If I Have a Thesis, It Is This: The Collected Stereotype Threat, 2011–2015 by Imogen Binnie (July)
  • Partners by Simon Jacobs and Meghan Murphy (August)
  • Escape to Chokeland by Anna Anthropy (December)

Literary Wanderlust was founded in 2014 with the goal of helping new and experienced authors achieve their dreams of publishing. The press is a coalition of college graduates with degrees in publishing, marketing, production, and design, and other writing professionals.

  • Apocalypse All the Time by David S. Atkinson (January)

Little A is dedicated to publishing literary fiction and nonfiction. Its publishing list includes compelling short stories, risk-taking novels, memoirs and biographies, and narrative nonfiction.

  • The Practice House by Laura McNeal (April)
  • Hemingway Didn’t Say That by Garson O’Toole (April)
  • A Small Revolution by Jimin Han (May)
  • North Haven by Sarah Moriarty (May)
  • The Sky Below by Scott Parazynski (July)
  • Beautiful Bodies by Kimberly Rae Miller (July)
  • The Man Who Could Be King by John R. Miller (July)
  • Kings of Broken Things by Theodore Wheeler (August)
  • Rummage by Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa (August)
  • City of Spies by Sorayya Khan (September)
  • Mad City by Michael Arntfield (October)
  • The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves by James Mattson (October)
  • Halsey Street by Naima Coster (October)
  • I Wore My Blackest Hair by Carlina Duan (November)

Little Island Press is an independent publisher of fiction, poetry and essays. Based in the UK, it is the work of a few dedicated individuals who believe that great literature survives in great books: each one a little island of its own.

  • White Plains by Gordon Lish (June — UK/July — US)
  • The Way of Florida by Russell Persson (Aug — UK/Sept — US)
  • Darker With the Lights On by David Hayden (Sept — UK)
  • A German Picturesque by Jason Schwartz (Oct — UK)

Magic Helicopter Press was founded in 2007 in Ashland, Oregon. It teethed in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts from 2007–2011, lived in Baltimore for a year, moved back to Northampton, MA in 2012, spent 6 of 2015 and 2016’s seasons in Portland, OR, and now lives under vigas in Santa Fe, NM.

  • When There is No One and There is Everyone by Rex Leonowicz
  • The End Part One by MC Hyland
  • Holodeck One by Jess K. Baer
  • Gladness and Other Stories by Amy Bergen

Mason Jar Press has been publishing handmade, limited-run chapbooks and full-length books since 2014. The Press is dedicated to finding new and exciting work by writers that push the bounds of literary norms. While the work Mason Jar seeks to publish is meant to challenge status quos, both literary and culturally, it must also have significant merit in both those realms.

  • Not Without Out Laughter by The Black Ladies Brunch Collective (May)
  • The Bong-Ripping Brides of Count Drogado by Dave K. (November)

McSweeney’s is a publishing company based in San Francisco.
As well as operating a daily humor website, we also publish Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and an ever-growing selection of books under various imprints.

  • Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell (March)

New Meridian Arts is a creative community dedicated to giving voice
to original writers of talent and scope.

  • Flashlight Girls Run by Stephanie Dickinson (February)

Noemi Press is a 501(c)(3) literary arts organization based in Las Cruces,New Mexico, dedicated to publishing and promoting the work of emerging and established authors and artists. Noemi is housed at New Mexico State University.

  • The Gospel of Regicide by Eunsong Kim (Spring)
  • MOUTHS by Claire Marie Stancek (Spring)
  • A Manual for Nothing by Jessica Anne Chiang (Spring)
  • You Da One by Jennifer Tamayo (Spring)
  • Beast Meridian by Vanessa Angelica Villarreal (Spring)
  • Still Nowhere by Roberto Tejada (Spring)
  • Indictus by Natalie Eilbert (Fall)

Founded in 2001, Ooligan is a teaching press dedicated to the art and craft of publishing. Affiliated with Portland State University, the press is staffed by students pursuing master’s degrees in an apprenticeship program under the guidance of a core faculty of publishing professionals.

  • Seven Stitches by Ruth Tenzer Feldman (February)
  • Ricochet River: 25th Anniversary Edition by Robin Cody (April)
  • At the Waterline by Brian K. Friesen (May)
  • The Ocean in My Ears by Meagan Macvie (November)

The Operating System is a queer run small press, arts organization, and online platform/magazine based in Brooklyn NY. The OS focuses on underrepresented voices, mixed-genre, avant-garde, and politically critical work, as well as on community engagement with process writing and storytelling across creative disciplines, geographies, and language barriers.

  • To Have Been There Then: Memories of Cuba, 1969–1983/ Estar allí
  • Entonces by Gregory Randall (January)
  • The Science of Things Familiar by Johnny Damm (February)
  • The Color She Gave Gravity by Stephanie Heit (March)
  • agon by Judith Goldman (April)
  • What The Werewolf Told Them / Lo Que Les Dijo El Licantropo by Chely Lima (May)
  • INCANTATIONS — 2017 Chapbook Collection (June)
  • A Flag of No Nation by Tom Haviv (June)
  • Nothing is Wasted by Shabnam Piryaei (July)
  • Secret Telling Bones by Jessica Tyner Mehta (July)
  • Flower World Variations (Expanded Edition, original edition 1982) by Jerome Rothenberg and Harold Cohen (August)
  • Marys of the Sea by Joanna C Valente
  • The Furies by William Considine
  • Love, Robot by Margaret Rhee (September)
  • Lost City Hydrothermal Field by Peter Milne Greiner (September)
  • Fugue State Beach by Filip Marinovich (October)
  • The Book of Everyday Instruction by Chloë Bass (October)
  • Viaje de Regreso / Return Trip by Israel Dominguez (November)
  • One More Revolution by Andrea Mazzariello (December)
  • In Corpore Sano: Creative Practice and the Challenged Body edited by Lynne Desilva-Johnson and Jay Besemer (December)

Platypus Press is a boutique publisher based in England. The press seeks to unearth innovative contemporary poetry and prose from a broad variety of voices and experiences.

  • Mannish Tongues by jayy dodd (February)
  • Shards of Glass by L.G. Corey (May)
  • The Going and Goodbye by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood (August)
  • Malak by Jenny Sadre-Orafai (November)
  • A Portrait in Blues (an anthology)

Plays Inverse Press is an independent publisher of dramatic literature, publishing plays and performance texts based on literary merit rather than production records from new, established, and cross-genre writers.

  • Medea by Catherine Theis (February)
  • Psalms for the Wreckage by Joshua Young (Spring)
  • Arcadia, Indiana by Toby Altman (Summer)
  • Your Healing is Killing Me by Virginia Grise (Fall)

Prelude is a journal of poetry and criticism based in New York. The magazine publishes online each month, in addition to a yearly print issue. Likewise, Prelude also publishes full length books.

  • The Portable Man by Armando Jaramillo Garcia (February)
  • Here High Note, High Note by Catherine Blauvelt (March)

Schaffner Press has been in operation for 15 years and have published over 30 titles, all but four of which are still in print. The press has garnered awards and accolades, and one title has enjoyed the status of simultaneously appearing on the NY Times, Wall Street and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists.

  • Cages by Sylvia Torti (May)
  • Do Geese See God?: A Palindrome Anthology by William Irvine, Illustrations by Steven Guarnaccia (July)
  • Day In, Day Out by Héctor Aguilar Camín, translated from the Spanish by Chandler Thompson (November)

Soho Press is an independent book publisher based in Manhattan’s Union Square. Founded in 1986, Soho Press is known for introducing bold new literary voices, award-winning international crime fiction, and compelling young adult mystery and thrillers.

  • Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac, translated from Spanish by Roy Kesey (January)
  • Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi (March)
  • Mad Country by Samrat Upadhyay (April)
  • The Boy in the Earth by Fuminori Nakamura, translated from Japanese by Allison Markin Powell (April)
  • D’Arc by Robert Repino (May)
  • Marriage of a Thousand Lies by SJ Sindu (June)
  • Sip by Brian Allen Carr (August)
  • Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (September)

Sundress Publications is a (mostly) woman-run, woman-friendly non-profit publication group founded in 2000 that hosts a variety of online journals and publishes chapbooks and full-length collections in both print and digital formats. The press is also known for publishing the annual Best of the Net Anthology, celebrating the best work published online, and the Gone Dark Archives, preserving online journals that have reached the end of their run.

  • Big Thicket Blues by Natalie Giarratano (January)
  • Babbage’s Dream by Neil Aitkin (February)

The Song Cave is dedicated to recovering a lost sensibility and creating a new one by publishing books of poetry, translations, art criticism, and making art prints and other related materials.

  • HAIRDO by Rachel Glaser (March)
  • Motor Maids across the Continent by Ron Padgett (May)
  • Professionals of Hope, The Selected Writings of Subcommander Marcos (June)
  • Songs for Schizoid Siblings by Lionel Ziprin (July)
  • Fort Not by Emily Skillings (September)
  • Riddles, Etc. by Geoffrey Hilsabeck (November)

Split Lip Press, an independent publisher of poetry collections, short fiction collections, novellas and anthologies was launched by J. Scott Bugher, the founder of Split Lip Magazine. The Split Lip Press mission is to get well-designed, quality books into the hands of appreciative readers, and to bring this undertaking to life, Split Lip is entering the scene with a different perspective on publishing.

  • Antlers in Space and Other Common Phenomena by Melissa Wiley (February)

Stalking Horse Press is a independent publishing house, launched by James Reich, novelist and chair of Creative Writing and Literature at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, New Mexico. The press is committed to radical voices in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.

  • The City, Awake by Duncan Barlow (March)
  • The Messenger Is Already Dead by Jennifer Macbain-Stephens (March)
  • Bigcity by Scot Sothern (March)
  • The Shaky Phase by Jessie Janeshek (April)
  • Pax Americana by Kurt Baumeister (April)
  • Absolutely Golden by D. Foy (September)
  • A Long Curving Scar Where The Heart Should Be by Quintan Ana Wikswo (October)
  • Epistolary by Julia Goldberg (October)

Subito Press is a non-profit publisher of literary works based out of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Confessional Sci-Fi: A Primer by Kirsten Kaschock
Genevieves by Henry Hoke
He Always Still Tastes Like Dynamite by Trevor Dodge
Sam’s Teeth by Patrick Culliton

Transit Books is a nonprofit publisher of international and American literature, based in Oakland, California. Founded in 2015, Transit Books is committed to the discovery and promotion of enduring works that carry readers across borders and communities.

  • Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba (April)
  • Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (May)
  • Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg
  • Lessons for a Child Who Arrives Late by Carlos Yushimito

Tilted Axis publishes the books that might not otherwise make it into English, for the very reasons that make them exciting to us — artistic originality, radical vision, the sense that here is something new.

  • The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon, translated by Mui Poopoksakul (March)
  • The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yujoo, translated by Janet Hong (May, UK + Commonwealth only, Graywolf have US rights)
  • Abandon by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, translated by Arunava Sinha (October)

Turtle Point Press is an independent publisher distinguished by books of superior literary content and elegant design. The Press has been actively publishing fiction, poetry, memoirs, translations, and rediscovered classics since 1990.

  • More Than Everything: My Voyage with the Gods of Love by Beatrix Ost (April)
  • A Piece of Me: My Childhood in Wartime Bavaria by Beatrix Ost (April)
  • Nomadologies by Erdag ̆ Göknar (April)
  • Taliban Beach Party by Eric Howard (April)
  • That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza (June)
  • Havana without Makeup: Inside the Soul of the City by Herman Portocarero (August)
  • Swinging on a Star by David Trinidad (August)
  • It’s My Party by Jeannette Watson (September)

Two Dollar Radio is a family-run outfit founded in 2005 with the mission to reaffirm the cultural and artistic spirit of the publishing industry. The press publishes books deemed too loud to ignore, and many of their books been featured in The New York Times Book Review, O, The Oprah Magazine, National Public Radio, Slate, Salon, The Believer, and more.

  • Seeing People Off by Jana Beňová (May)
  • Found Audio by N.J. Campbell (July)
  • White Dialogues by Bennett Sims (September)
  • They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib (November)

Ugly Duckling Presse is a nonprofit publisher for poetry, translation, experimental nonfiction, performance texts, and books by artists. The press has championed emerging, international, and “forgotten” writers, and its books, chapbooks, artist’s books, broadsides, and periodicals often contain handmade elements, calling attention to the labor and history of bookmaking.

  • The Happy End / All Welcome by Mónica de la Torre (April)
  • The Most Foreign Country by Alejandra Pizarnik (April)
  • Lowly by Alan Felsenthal (May)

The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publisher with distinguished books in several academic areas and in poetry and short fiction, as well as books about Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania for general readers, scholars, and students.

  • Jackknife: New and Selected Poems by Jan Beatty (February)

Unknown Press is a small press run out of apartments in New Jersey and New York City. The press publishes books and chapbooks of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Their books have been featured by Lenny Letter, The Rumpus, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and more.

  • Sexting the Dead by Joanna C Valente and Monica Lewis (November)

The Unnamed Press publishes literature from around the world. The press is particularly interested in unlikely protagonists, undiscovered territories and courageous voices.

  • For Love of the Dollar by J.M. Servin, translated by Anthony Seidman (March)
  • Hooper’s Revolution by Dennie Wendt (April)
  • Florence in Ecstasy by Jessie Chaffee (May)
  • Blue Money by Janet Capron (June)
  • Fingerprints of Previous Owners by Rebecca Entel (June)
  • Djinn City by Saad Z. Hossain (July)

West Vine Press is a press from Michigan that moves stuff around. We do our best to make physical books written by Future Dead Writers.

  • They Say by Kenyatta JP Garcia (May)
  • Black Water in Milk Glass by Octavia Sunday (May)
  • The Fear & The Going Part 2 by Andrew H. K. (June)
  • Charlatan Code by Kjartan Code (July)
  • Kingdom Machine by Jesse S. Mitchell (August)

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Michael J Seidlinger
Electric Literature

My Pet Serial Killer, Dreams of Being, etc. | Co-Founder: The Accomplices | Words: Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, CrimeReads, etc.