I've said nice things about the locally based Hawthorne Books here in the past—it's pretty easy to do, considering they've published great books like Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronicle of Water, Monica Drake's Clown Girl, and Autobiography of a Recovering Skinhead: The Frank Meeink Story, to name just a few. The Nervous Breakdown has an interview with Hawthorne Books' publisher Rhonda Hughes that touches on, among other things, how Hawthorne Books has managed to thrive amidst competition from e-books and the reasoning behind their distinctive book designs.

TNB: Touching on location, how important is the Pacific Northwest to your vibe and mission?

RH: Good question. Portland has been instrumental in publishing Kassten Alonso, Monica Drake, Scott Nadelson, and Lidia Yuknavitch. On the other hand, we have tried to avoid a regional label and have equally published writers who are located across the nation in the Midwest, Poe Ballantine and Jody Roy; New England, Toby Olson; the South, Peter Donahue and Gin Phillips; Southwest, Gregory Martin; California, David Rocklin and Monica Wesolowska, and Lynne Sharon Schwartz in New York. So I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want to tap into the rich literary talent that is regional without being pigeonholed as a northwest publisher.

Read the whole thing.