As even published writers will tell you, the chance that the story
you’ve spent so much time composing will ever see its way into print is
a minor one. But while most aspiring authors burn the novel long before
the thousandth rejection slip hits the mailbox, others seek alternative
methods for getting their work into print. Tucked away like a secret
fort in the vast jungle that is contemporary fiction, independent small
presses provide an outlet for writers whose work hasn’t found a place
at any of the mainstream
publishing houses.
According to Kevin Sampsell, a longtime Powell’s events coordinator
and occasional Mercury freelancer who also runs his own small
press (Future Tense Books), there are many routes toward small-press
publication. “A small-press publisher may seek out a writer whose blog
or self-published writing appealed to them,” Sampsell says. “Other
times, writers approach publishers with work they feel best suits that
particular press.”
For the past seven years, Sampsell has managed the small press
section at Powell’s Books, making him single-handedly responsible for
introducing countless readers to authors they might’ve never known
existed.
Know-how was put to good use in organizing the second annual
smallpressapalooza, a nearly five-hour marathon reading co-presented by
Powell’s Books and the Independent Publishing Resource Center. The 15
authors represent a wide range of material, from the more well-known
presses (University of Iowa Press, Future Tense Books) to the
self-published. Emiko Badillo’s zine Broken Hipster bravely
recounts her undergoing a life-saving operation to receive a kidney she
nicknamed Jude Law. Local author Jeff Stewart’s novel, March of Time
and Skin, tells the gritty tale of a young man wandering through
the blue-collar West. And poet Zachary Schomburg, author of the
wonderfully surreal collection The Man Suit (published by Black
Ocean) plans to read from his new chapbook, The Pond.
Amid all the news of mainstream publishing houses downsizing staff
to survive recession, Smallpressapalooza is a refreshing reminder that
small presses, and the people who read and write for them, are as
strong as ever.