Graywolf Press
Once in a while I post about the publishing industry. (Most recently Aug. 3, July 7, July 17, June 29…) To sum it up rather simplistically: There are 5 (maybe one day 4?) dominating publishing houses that put out so much of what we read. Publishing has a “diversity” problem. And there are definitely people trying to make things more accessible.
Here’s a NYT article printed August 8 about Graywolf Press’ new executive director, Carmen Giménez, & how she’s looking for talent in “new places.” This hire is exciting because Giménez brings a bunch of skills to the table — she herself is a published poet (her collection Be Recorder was a finalist for a National Book Award in Poetry), has been an English professor, co-founded another small press called Noemi Press, and is especially interested in “Literary Activism.” She knows to look for talent in “unexpected places” (as the print headline suggests) such as TikTok.
I just finished the novel Serena by Ron Rash. Post coming later, but I can’t stop thinking about the idea of power and how powerful people create power structures — and how those are almost impossible to penetrate or dissolve. We see it in our own micro communities (manipulative wannabe superstars) and we obviously see it on a bigger scale. Nonetheless, I’m an optimist at heart and hope that slow & steady — and forthright & honest —will still prevail. (Unless you’re killed, in the case of Serena. 😬) Minneapolis-based Graywolf is a NONPROFIT publisher which gets press in the New York Times and corporate support from places like Target. (They do have a distribution partnership with Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, FYI.)
Here are some Graywolf books I’ve read & posted about…it’s more than I thought, actually. Maybe something will interest you:
In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado
She Would be King, by Wayétu Moore
Everything Under, by Daisy Johnson
Labrador, by Kathryn Davis
Scribe, by Alyson Hagy
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal, by Dorthe Nors
This Mournable Body, by Tsitsi Dangarembga
A Little More Human, by Fiona Maazel
A Graywolf book I’ve read that I haven’t posted about is Just Us: An American Conversation, by Claudia Rankine. (Wow.)
originally published on instagram