List of English language small presses
Encyclopedia
This is a list of English language small press
es, small publishers, current or past, that have published (printed) works of fiction and nonfiction, poetry, short stories, essays, pamphlets, limited edition or collectible books
and chapbook
s, and other forms of literature. In addition to publishing few books per year, the print runs of their titles are often smaller than for books from larger publishers. This list does include periodic publishers of poetry, and literature journals and magazines, including alternative
comic books. This list does not include exclusively online publishers, academic publishers (who often publish very limited print runs, but for a different market), or businesses operating solely as printers, such as print-on-demand companies or vanity press
es.
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
es, small publishers, current or past, that have published (printed) works of fiction and nonfiction, poetry, short stories, essays, pamphlets, limited edition or collectible books
Private press
Private press is a term used in the field of book collecting to describe a printing press operated as an artistic or craft-based endeavor, rather than as a purely commercial venture...
and chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
s, and other forms of literature. In addition to publishing few books per year, the print runs of their titles are often smaller than for books from larger publishers. This list does include periodic publishers of poetry, and literature journals and magazines, including alternative
Alternative comics
Alternative comics defines a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to "mainstream" superhero comics which in the past have dominated the US comic book industry...
comic books. This list does not include exclusively online publishers, academic publishers (who often publish very limited print runs, but for a different market), or businesses operating solely as printers, such as print-on-demand companies or vanity press
Vanity press
A vanity press or vanity publisher is a term describing a publishing house that publishes books at the author's expense. Publisher Johnathon Clifford claims to have coined the term in 1959. However, the term appears in mainstream U.S...
es.
A
- A Raven Above Press
- Advent Press
- Adventures Unlimited Press
- Ahadada BooksAhadada BooksAhadada Books is a small press based in Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Canada, specializing in new and experimental poetry and prose. Established in 1998 by Jesse Glass, with the assistance of Daniel Sendecki, its authors include Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk, Eileen Tabios, Yoko Danno, Jack Foley, Skip...
- AK PressAK PressAK Press is a worker-managed independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. It is collectively owned and operated.-History:...
- Akashic BooksAkashic BooksAkashic Books is a Brooklyn-based independent publisher. Akashic Books' collection began with Arthur Nersesian's THE FUCK UP in 1996, and has since expanded to include Dennis Cooper's "Little House on the Bowery" series , Chris Abani's Black Goat poetry series, and the internationally successful...
- Albion Village Press
- Alternative ComicsAlternative Comics (publisher)Alternative Comics is a U.S. independent graphic novel and comic book publisher which operated from 1993–2007. Located in Gainesville, Florida, it is owned and operated by its founder, attorney Jeff Mason...
- Amra Press
- ArchetypeArchetypeAn archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...
- Arkham HouseArkham HouseArkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
- Armitage House
- Ashendene PressAshendene PressThe Ashendene Press was a small private press founded by Charles Henry St John Hornby . It operated from 1895 to 1915 in Chelsea, England, and was revived after the war in 1920...
- Atlas PressAtlas PressAtlas Press began publishing in 1983, and specialises in extremist and avant-garde prose writing from the 1890s to the present day. Atlas Press is the largest publisher in English of books on Surrealism and has an extensive list relating to Dada, Surrealism, Expressionism, the Oulipo, the Collège...
B
- Backwaters PressBackwaters PressThe Backwaters Press is a small press based in Omaha, Nebraska that publishes poetry. Many of the authors published by the press are also based in Nebraska....
- Bart Books
- Bear Star Press
- Belfire Press
- BenBella BooksBenBella BooksBenBella Books is an independent publishing house based in Dallas, Texas. Founded by Glenn Yeffeth in 2001, BenBella specializes in non-fiction books on popular culture, health, and nutrition, along with books on science, politics, psychology, and other topics....
- Bitter Lemon PressBitter Lemon PressBitter Lemon Press is a small London-based independent publisher, set up by Francois von Hurter in 2003 which specialises in translated literary crime novels and romans noirs from abroad. They currently publish novels by authors such as Gianrico Carofiglio, the famous Swiss crime-writer Friedrich...
- Black Sun PressBlack Sun PressThe Black Sun Press was an English language book publisher founded in 1927 as Éditions Narcisse by poet Harry Crosby and his wife Caresse Crosby , American expatriates living in Paris...
- Blue Moon Press
- Bottle of Smoke Press
- Boydell & BrewerBoydell & BrewerBoydell & Brewer is an academic press based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England that specializes in publishing historical and critical works. In addition to British and general history, the company publishes three series devoted to studies, editions, and translations of material related to the...
- Bricoleur Press
- Burning Deck PressBurning Deck PressBurning Deck is a small press specializing in the publication of experimental poetry and prose. Burning Deck was founded by the writers Keith Waldrop and Rosmarie Waldrop in 1961.-Overview:...
- Burning Shore PressBurning Shore PressEstablished in 2005, Burning Shore Press is a publisher of serious "underground" literature and is based in Long Beach, California. It has thus far published the novel Heaping Stones, by Rob Woodard, and the play Don Giovanni, by Dan Fante, and Songs From The Shooting Gallery, the debut book of...
C
- Calamari PressCalamari PressCalamari Press is an American small-press book publishing company, founded in 2003 by Derek White. It started as an outlet for White's own home-brewed chapbooks and collaborations of art, visual poetry and prose, and the literary magazine Sleepingfish. Early collaborators included Carlos M...
- Center One Publishing
- Cheap StreetCheap StreetCheap Street Press was a small publishing company started up and operated by the husband-wife duo, George and Jan O'Nale, in their rural home near New Castle, Virginia. Cheap Street concentrated on publishing limited edition books, signed and numbered, of science fiction and fantasy works...
- City Lights Bookstore & PublishersCity Lights BookstoreCity Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
- Coach House Press
- Coatlism Press
- Contact Editions
- Copper Canyon PressCopper Canyon PressCopper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
- Cuala PressCuala PressThe Cuala Press was an Irish private press set up in 1908 by Elizabeth Yeats with support from her brother William Butler Yeats that played an important role in the Celtic Revival of the early 20th century.-Origins:...
D
- Dagan Books
- Deadstar Publishing
- DNA PublicationsDNA PublicationsDNA Publications was an American publishing company which existed from 1993 to 2007 and was run by the husband-and wife team of Warren Lapine and Angela Kessler, who met at science fiction convention in Virginia. Although initially founded in Massachusetts by Lapine, the company later relocated to...
- Doves PressDoves PressDoves Press was a private press based in Hammersmith, London. It was founded by T. J. Cobden Sanderson before 1900 when he asked Sir Emery Walker to join him . Cobden Sanderson commissioned the press's type, which was drawn under Walker's supervision, and set up the Doves Bindery to bind the books...
- Dun Emer PressDun Emer PressThe Dun Emer Press was an Irish private press founded in 1902 by Elizabeth Yeats and her brother William Butler Yeats, part of the Celtic Revival. It was named after the legendary Emer and evolved into the Cuala Press.-History:...
- Dusie PressDusieDusie began in 2005 by publishing an experimental poetics journal online. In 2006, Dusie began publishing full length works in paperback format. Dusie's backlist of full-length collections of poetry includes books by Joe Amato, Anne Blonstein, Kirsty Bowen, Nicole Mauro, Logan Ryan Smith, and...
E
- Ebook God Publishing
- Eidolon PublicationsEidolon PublicationsEidolon Publications was a small press publisher based in North Perth, Western Australia. The company previously published the speculative fiction magazine Eidolon which ran to 1990 to 2000 and published books under the name of Eidolon Books.-History:...
- ENC PressENC PressENC Press is a small, independent publishing house founded in 2003, in Hoboken, New Jersey, by New York editor and writer Olga Gardner Galvin and California writer and PR maven Beth Elliott...
- Europa PressEuropa PressThe Europa Press was a publishing house founded and run by the Irish surrealist poet George Reavey. The press was based in Paris from its inception in 1932 until 1935, when Reavey moved to London...
- Exact ChangeExact ChangeExact Change is an independent book publishing company formed in 1990 by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang of Galaxie 500 and later of Damon and Naomi...
F
- Fanfrolico Press
- Featherproof booksFeatherproof booksFeatherproof Books is a small, independent publisher working out of Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 2005 by Jonathan Messinger and Zach Dodson. They publish perfect bound novels, short story collections and other works, and provide "mini-books" containing short stories and novellas for free...
- Fiction Collective Two
- Flying Fame Press
- Four Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight WindowsFour Walls Eight Windows was an independent book publisher in New York City. Its debut occurred in the fall of 1987, under the direction of two young editors, John G. H. Oakes and Daniel Simon. In 1995, Oakes and Simon parted ways...
- Fortune Press
- Fugue State PressFugue State PressFugue State Press is a small New York City fiction publisher, specializing in the experimental novel. It has published twenty titles to date, including work by Joshua Cohen, Noah Cicero, Shane Jones, Ben Brooks, James Chapman, Prakash Kona, Eckhard Gerdes, André Malraux, W. B. Keckler, Vi Khi...
- Fulcrum PressFulcrum PressFulcrum Press was founded in London in the mid-1960s by medical student Stuart Montgomery and his wife Deidre. Montgomery later was an eminent neurologist and expert in depression. The press published major American and British poets in the modernist and the avant-garde traditions in carefully...
H
- Hangman BooksHangman BooksHangman Books is a British independent small press founded in 1981 by Billy Childish, who remains its owner and editor. It publishes poetry and some fiction...
- Haymarket BooksHaymarket BooksHaymarket Books is a non-profit left-wing book publisher and distributor. It is published by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change...
- The Hermetic Press
- Hogarth PressHogarth PressThe Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond, in which they began hand-printing books....
- Hours Press
M
- Macleay PressMacleay PressMacleay Press is a small press Australian publishing company founded in 1993 by Keith Windschuttle.Authors published include Leonie Kramer, Michael Connor and Windschuttle.-Publications:Publications include:...
- Mandrake of OxfordMandrake of OxfordMandrake of Oxford is a specialist independent publisher based in Oxford, England primarily known for the publication of "hands-on" books for occult practitioners...
- Mandrake PressMandrake PressThe Mandrake Press was a British small press founded by Edward Goldston and P. R. Stephensen in 1929. In 1930 the company had financial problems and a consortium led by Aleister Crowley formed Mandrake Press Ltd. The new consortium was equally unsuccessful and the company was dissolved in 1930.In...
- Charles Elkin MathewsCharles Elkin MathewsCharles Elkin Mathews Charles Elkin Mathews Charles Elkin Mathews (1851 – 10 November 1921 was a British publisher and bookseller who played an important role in the literary life of late 19th and early 20th century London....
, publisher associated with The Bodley HeadThe Bodley HeadThe Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name has been used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books since 1987... - Marick PressMarick PressMarick Press is a non-profit publishing house that was founded in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, in 2005. Mariela Griffor, founder and publisher, has won prizes in Europe, South America and the US for her poetry. Under Griffor's leadership Marick has attracted nationally and internationally known...
- Matrix Press
- Mayapple PressMayapple PressMayapple Press is a small literary press started by poet and translator Judith Kerman in 1978. After a hiatus between 1982 and 1992, it became active again, publishing generally one to three titles a year until 2004, when the press became more active. For the past several years, Mayapple Press has...
- Melville House PublishingMelville House PublishingMelville House Publishing is an independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 by the husband and wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey, a location Johnson jokingly called "the Left Bank" of New York City...
- Menard PressMenard PressThe Menard Press is a small press publisher that started life as a magazine in 1969. Founded and run by Anthony Rudolf, the press specialises in literary texts and criticism, and writings on nuclear power, nuclear weapons and by survivors of Nazism. In 2007 it announced it would be publishing its...
- Mercury HouseMercury House (publishers)Mercury House, a project of Words Given Wings Literary Arts Project, a 501 nonprofit corporation, is an independent trade book publishing company, based in San Francisco, California. The press is distributed by Perseus Books Group and Small Press Distribution.The press has published over 130 titles...
- Migrant Press
- Milkweed EditionsMilkweed EditionsMilkweed Editions is an independent, non-profit publishing company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Milkweed's goal is to make a positive impact on society through the transformative art of literature. Milkweed is sometimes called the largest independent, non-profit literary publisher in the United...
- Mourne Press
- Moschatel PressMoschatel PressMoschatel Press is a small press publisher producing artist's books and poetry collections. It was founded in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, in 1973, by the artist Laurie Clark and the Scottish poet Thomas A...
- MuseItUp Publishing
N
- Necronomicon PressNecronomicon PressNecronomicon Press is an American small press publishing house specialising in fiction, poetry and literary criticism relating to the horror and fantasy genres. It is run by Marc A. Michaud....
- NESFA PressNESFA PressNESFA Press is the publishing arm of the New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. The NESFA Press primarily produces three types of books:...
- New Village PressNew Village PressNew Village Press is a not-for-profit book publisher based in Oakland, CA. It is a national publishing project of Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility ADPSR, an educational non-profit organization founded in 1982...
- New Writers PressNew Writers PressNew Writers Press is an Irish small press that specialises in poetry publishing. The press was founded in 1967 by the poets Michael Smith and Trevor Joyce and Smith's wife Irene in response to what they felt to be the stagnant state of Irish poetry at the time....
- Nonesuch PressNonesuch PressNonesuch Press was a private press founded in 1922 in London by Francis Meynell, his wife Vera Mendel, and David Garnett.-History:Nonesuch Press's first book, a volume of John Donne's Love Poems was issued in May 1923. In total, the press produced more than 140 books. The press was at its peak in...
P
- Permeable PressPermeable PressPermeable Press was a San Francisco-based literary publishing company founded in 1990 by Brian Charles Clark. A "micropress" operating on less than U.S.$100,000 per year, Permeable published a number of trade paperback books, chapbooks, and the literary magazines Puck, Shock Waves, Q-Zine, Naked...
- Pagan PublishingPagan PublishingPagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a Call of Cthulhu role-playing game fanzine, The Unspeakable Oath. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missouri to Seattle, Washington where it incorporated. The staff at this time...
- Phantasia PressPhantasia PressPhantasia Press Inc. was a small publisher formed by Alex Berman publishing short-run, hardcover limited editions of science fiction and fantasy books. It was active from 1978-1989. The company was based in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The publisher specialized in limited quality first hardcover...
- Pirate Press
- Poetry BookshopPoetry BookshopThe Poetry Bookshop operated at 35 Devonshire Street in the Bloomsbury district of central London, from 1913 to 1926. It was the brainchild of Harold Monro, and was supported by his moderate income....
- Press 53Press 53Press 53 is an independent publisher of literary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. The press was founded October 1, 2005 by Kevin Morgan Watson of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In November 2005, Watson partnered with Sheryl Monks of Hamptonville, North Carolina, and their partnership became...
- Press Gang PublishersPress Gang PublishersPress Gang Publishing was a [feminist]] printing and publishing collective active in [Vancouver, BC, Canada between the early 1970s and 2002.-Early history:...
- PS PublishingPS PublishingPS Publishing is a Hornsea based publisher founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther. They specialise in novella length fiction from the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. It has quickly become established as one of Britain's premier small presses...
- Pushcart PressPushcart PressPushcart Press is a publishing house established in 1972 by Bill Henderson and is perhaps most famous for its Pushcart Prize and for the anthology of prize winners it publishes annually. The press has been honored by Publishers Weekly as one of the USA's "most influential publishers" with the 1979...
- Pushkin Press
S
- Salt PublishingSalt PublishingSalt Publishing is an independent publisher whose origins date back to 1990 when poet John Kinsella launched Salt Magazine in Western Australia. The journal rapidly developed an international reputation as a leading publisher of new poetry and poetics...
- Sceptre Press
- Seizin PressSeizin PressThe Seizin Press was a small press, founded in 1927 by Laura Riding and Robert Graves in London. From 1930 to 1937 it operated out of Majorca....
- Seven Stories PressSeven Stories PressSeven Stories Press is an independent publishing company. Located in New York City, the company was founded by editor Dan Simon in 1995 after he parted company with Four Walls Eight Windows. The company was named for its seven founding authors: Annie Ernaux, Gary Null, the estate of Nelson Algren,...
- Slough PressSlough PressSlough Press is an American small press publisher that specializes in unique literature in all genres, publishing since 1976 from Texas in Austin, Dallas, and College Station. Publisher and founder, Dr...
- Small Beer PressSmall Beer PressSmall Beer Press is a publisher of fantasy and literary fiction, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was founded by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link in 2000 and publishes novels, collections, and anthologies. It also publishes the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, chapbooks, the Peapod Classics...
- Soft Skull PressSoft Skull PressSoft Skull Press is an independent publisher founded by Sander Hicks in 1992, and run by Richard Eoin Nash from 2001 to 2009. In 2007, Nash sold Soft Skull to Counterpoint LLC, where it continues to function as a division of the press...
- Spork PressSpork PressSpork Press is a small press in Tucson, Arizona edited and constructed by Richard Siken and Drew Burk. Beginning in 2001, it began publishing a quarterly literary magazine called Spork, which is often bound hardback, and which should not be confused with the spork, a novel eating utensil.Spork...
- St. Dominic's Press
- Starblaze GraphicsStarblaze GraphicsStarblaze Graphics was an imprint of The Donning Company, a publishing company established in 1978 to publish illustrated books. Notable Starblaze publications include Robert Asprin's MythAdventures series, as well as a graphic novel based on the first book...
- Steamshovel PressSteamshovel PressSteamshovel Press is currently a zine devoted to conspiracy theories and parapolitics. The magazine is published in St. Louis, Missouri by Kenn Thomas.-Featured authors:* Jim "Sims" Cregan* David Black* Len Bracken* Alexandra Bruce* Alan Cantwell...
T
- Tarpaulin Sky PressTarpaulin Sky PressTarpaulin Sky Press is a small press publisher of hybrid texts as well as poetry and prose. Founded by Christian Peet in 2006 and based in Grafton, Vermont, the company produces full-length books, chapbooks, trade paperbacks, hand-bound books, and a literary journal that appears in online and paper...
- terra incognita arts organisation + publishersTerra incognita arts organisation + publishersterra incognita arts organisation is a British, not for profit, visual arts and curatorial organisation, founded in London in 1997 by Juliette Brown and Alana Jelinek. Throughout its history, terra incognita have attempted to challenge both the London art world and wider society with their...
- This PressThis (magazine)This is a poetry journal associated with what would later be called Language poetry because during the time span in which This was published, "many poets of the emerging Language school were represented in its pages"....
- Three Mountains Press
- Ticonderoga PublicationsTiconderoga PublicationsTiconderoga Publications is an Australian independent publishing house founded by Russell B. Farr in 1996 and now run by Farr and Liz Grzyb. The publisher specialises in collections of science fiction short stories.-History and current:...
- Two Dollar RadioTwo Dollar RadioTwo Dollar Radio is an independent publishing house based in Columbus, Ohio, also known as The Two Dollar Radio Movement. The company was founded in 2005 by husband and wife team Eric Obenauf and Eliza Jane Wood, with Brian Obenauf. Emily Pullen joined the publishing house as an editor and outreach...
- Twyn Barlwm Press
See also
- Association of Little PressesAssociation of Little PressesThe Association of Little Presses was an organisation dedicated to promoting small press publishing activity in Britain and Ireland.ALP was founded at a meeting held at Arlington Mill, Bibury, Gloucestershire on July 23, 1966...
- Private pressPrivate pressPrivate press is a term used in the field of book collecting to describe a printing press operated as an artistic or craft-based endeavor, rather than as a purely commercial venture...
- Small Press DistributionSmall Press DistributionSmall Press Distribution, or SPD, is a non-profit literary arts organization located in Berkeley, California. As their name indicates, the core of their mission is to act as an umbrella distributor and marketer for hundreds of smaller literary publishers...
, wholesale distributor of small press materials - List of English language book publishers
- List of English language literary presses