On Self-Reliance, Mormonism and DIY Punk Culture: An Interview with Writer and Book Publisher Nathaniel Kennon Perkins

When I first met Nate Perkins I was giving a reading in a garage in a punk rock farmhouse way out east of Denver, in Brighton, where it’s more Great Plains than mountain country. Perkins was wearing tan Carhartt overalls. He approached Adam Gnade and me after the show and asked us if we had anything to submit to the press he was starting out of a bookstore in Boulder.

Since 1979, that shop, Trident Booksellers and Cafe, has been located on Pearl Street, what might be some of the priciest real estate in one of Colorado’s richest communities. It’s a classic storefront, one that calls to mind bookstores like Shakespeare and Co. in Paris. And like that legendary place, as well as the famous San Francisco bookstore City Lights, Trident is becoming a publishing house and indie book shop, beyond its role as a coffeeshop (with booze) and used bookseller. Walk inside and you’ll find titles from indie lit writers like Scott McClanahan, Mallory Whitten, Sam Pink and Lucy K. Shaw.

Behind the counter you’re likely to find Perkins, the bookstore manager and publisher of Trident Press. But Perkins is more than just a bookslinger. He’s also a writer. His most recent short novel, Cactus, is a spare, quick-moving account of a correctional…