Our friend Sally Ball is quoted talking about the environment for the small presses on behalf of Fourway Books in this blog post from Oronte Churm on Small Press Month. The phenomenon of the success of the small presses even as the major corporate publishers continue to tank is a gratifying one. The mission of these presses is the closest to the idea that was the genesis of the great American publishers of the 20th century: Publish what you like. Publishing what you think will feed your bottom line led to the crises that have plagued the corporate publishers in recent years, proving that even if you bought Random House, you didn’t buy the way it was run, which is would seem to me to be the reason you would want it in the first place. That the small presses are doing so well proves the point that readers read, but not just anything. We value the curative voice of a publisher who is not after our buck (though we will willingly part with it) but our minds.
On our minds right now are on Fourway's new slate of books. And also that in addition to the excellent poetry that we have come to expect, they have recently published their first work of short fiction.
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