PRESSES

• Akashic Books
  Akashic Books, founded in 1997, publishes urban fiction and political non-fiction. The Brooklyn-based press, whose catalog includes a groundbreaking noir series as well as books of African American interest and gay and lesbian interest, has published the work of Amiri Baraka, Chris Abani, and Adam Mansbach.
  
  
• BlazeVOX
  BlazeVOX, a self proclaimed “refuge for innovative fiction,” has published over 250 books by notable authors such as Raymond Federman, Gloria Frym, and Evan Lavender-Smith since its inception in 2000. The press, which is based in Buffalo, New York, publishes an online journal of fiction, poetry, and e-books and has additional archived editions dating back to 2005 available for viewing. BlazeVOX also has a blog that is updated regularly with links to articles, interviews with writers, and book reviews.
  
  
• Dalkey Archive Press
  Dalkey began publishing experimental, innovative, and what John O’Brien, the director of the press, refers to as “subversive” fiction in 1984. The non-profit press, which is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also publishes poetry, nonfiction, plays, and memoirs, and places an emphasis on publishing translations of international literature. Dalkey has published work by several award winning writers, including Danilo Kis, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In addition to books, Dalkey also publishes The Review of Contemporary Fiction, a tri-quarterly print journal that features critical essays and reviews of innovative fiction, and Context, an online journal that serves as a guide for how to read modern and contemporary literature. Since the start of the press, Dalkey has kept all of its fiction titles in print in order to assure that the educational value of the books would be protected for years to come.
  
  
• Featherproof Books
  Featherproof Books is an independent Chicago-based publisher of quirky, innovative novels and short story collections. Founded in 2005 and known for their strikingly designed books, Featherproof has published work by Blake Butler, Amelia Gray, and Patrick Somerville.
  
  
• Fiction Collective 2
  Fiction Collective 2 has been publishing innovative and experimental fiction since 1974 when a group of writers, who felt as though nontraditional fiction was being largely ignored by commercial presses, decided to start an author run publishing cooperative. With support from the University of Utah, the University of Houston-Victoria, and the University of Alabama Press, FC2 has remained a non-profit press, dedicated to keeping all of its titles in print. FC2 has published numerous award winning authors including Toby Olson and Brian Evenson and several FC2 authors have been featured in The Norton Anthology of American Literature. The press also sponsors two innovative fiction contests annually.
  
  
• Fugue State Press
  Fugue State Press, founded in New York in 1992 by novelist James Chapman, publishes full length experimental novels. The press has published work that Chapman describes as “advanced fiction” by innovative authors such as Noah Cicero, Joshua Cohen, and Shane Jones.
  
  
• Livingston Press
  The University of West Alabama’s Livingston Press, founded in 1983, publishes offbeat fiction that is unique in style and form. The press also publishes Southern literature, estimating that about a quarter of their authors live in the South. Livingston Press has published the work of Scott Ely and Melissa Fraterrigo. The press holds an annual fiction contest, the Tartts Fiction Award, for short story collections.
  
  
• Raw Dog Screaming Press
  Raw Dog Screaming Press, founded in 2003, publishes experimental literature that, according to the publisher, is “dark, deviant, off-kilter and thought provoking.” Several RDSP authors, including Jeff Vandermeer and Jeremy C. Shipp, have been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in horror writing. In 2010, RDSP was featured as part of Huffington Post’s list of “15 Fiesty Small Presses.”
  
  
• Rose Metal Press
  Rose Metal Press was founded in 2006 and publishes hybrid genres that “move beyond the traditional genres of poetry, fiction, and essay to find new forms of expression.” The press, which specializes in flash and micro fiction, has published short stories by Claudia Smith, whose work has been anthologized in Norton’s New Sudden Fiction: Short Short Stories from America and Beyond. Rose Metal Press also holds an annual chapbook contest for short stories under 1000 words.
  
  
• Six Gallery Press
  Six Gallery Press publishes experimental and avant-garde fiction and poetry “in the tradition of Dostoyevsky, T.S. Eliot, and Faulkner.” Founded in 2000, the press has published books by Joshua Cohen and Noah Cicero.
  
  
• Soft Skull Press
  Soft Skull Press has been publishing what they refer to as “revelatory,” “groundbreaking,” and “cage-rattling” books since 1992. Located in Berkeley, California, the press publishes works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as graphic novels and plays. Two of Soft Skull’s authors, Lydia Millet and Rajiv Joseph, were 2010 Pulitzer Prize Finalists.
  
  
• Starcherone Books
  Starcherone Books, located in Buffalo, New York, specializes in innovative fiction and has published the work of notables authors like Raymond Federman and Harold Jaffe. In 2011, the press, which was founded in 2000, published 30 Under 30: An Anthology of Innovative Fiction by Younger Writers which features the work of today’s top young fiction authors, including Joshua Cohen, Shane Jones, and Matt Bell.
  
  
• Talisman House
  Talisman House publishes books of fiction, poetry, theory, and criticism. The press, which was founded by Edward Foster, has published poetry by Timothy Liu and Simon Pettet. In 1987, the press began publishing a biannual print journal, Talisman: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. The journal of poetry, essays, and reviews, which published the work of Ted Berrigan and John Olson, among countless others, ceased publication in 2010 and will be moving to an online version in 2012.
  
  
• Tarpaulin Sky Press
  Tarpaulin Sky Press publishes cross-genre works of innovative poetry and prose. The press, which was founded in 2006, has published the work of award winning author Jenny Boully and Lambda Award finalist Ana Božičević. In addition to the press, Tarpaulin Sky also publishes a magazine, Tarpaulin Sky Magazine, which appears online and in print and has published the work of Brian Evenson, Matthea Harvey, and Chris Abani.
  
  
• Word Riot Press
  Word Riot Press began in 2003 as an extension of Word Riot Magazine. The press publishes novels, short story collections, and poetry that they describe as “edgy” and “challenging.” The magazine is published online and has achieved material, including flash fiction, poetry, interviews, and book reviews, that dates back to 2002. Word Riot has published the work of Nick Antosca, who won the 2009 Shirley Jackson award for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
  

ONLINE MAGAZINES

• Agni
  Agni is a biannual print journal that publishes national and international works of fiction and poetry, as well as essays, interviews, and reviews. Founded in 1972 and published at Boston University, Agni looks for work that is exciting and thought provoking. Agni has published the work of several well known authors including Susanna Kayson, David Foster Wallace, and Margaret Atwood. In 2003, Agni started Agni Online, a biweekly online publication that has featured the work of Paul West, Jacob M. Appel, and Rick Moody.
  
  
• Big Bridge
  Big Bridge is an online literary magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, interviews, recorded readings, and art. The magazine, which is edited by Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrior, was founded in 1997 as an extension of Big Bridge Press. The press and the magazine have published the work of several notable authors including Allen Ginsberg, Jim Harrison, Andre Codrescu, Michael McClure, and David Meltzer. Big Bridge has an extensive biography section of all of the magazine’s past contributors with links to the archived editions in which their work appeared as well as a section featuring several “Little Mags” that publish poetry, prose, art, and international works.
  
  
• Blackbird
  Blackbird is a biannual online journal that publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Founded in 2002, Blackbird publishes work that “challenges traditions in profound ways, and is radical insofar as it is aware of its own origins in tradition and seeks to expand the boundaries of the realm of discourse of which it is a part.” Blackbird has published work by numerous award winning authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners Claudia Emerson and Natasha Trethewey, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Gerald Stern, and O. Henry Award winner Lee Smith. Edited by Gregory Donovan and Mary Flinn, Blackbird is a joint publishing venture of the department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University and the New Virginia Review.
  
  
• The Café Irreal
  The Café Irreal is a quarterly online journal that publishes fantastic fiction in the tradition of Franz Kafka, where the absurd, the unpredictable, and the unexplained is favored over depictions of reality. Founded in 1998, the journal, which publishes a great deal of works in translation, has published the work of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Charles Simic. The Café Irreal is edited by Alice Wittenburg and G.S. Evans.
  
  
• Conjunctions
  Conjunctions, the literary journal of Bard College in New York, publishes innovative fiction, poetry, criticism, and interviews. Founded in 1981, the biannual print journal has published the work of several notable writers including William S. Burroughs, Joyce Carol Oates, and Elizabeth Bishop. In addition to the print journal, Conjunctions also publishes Web Conjunctions, an online publication that features the work of a different writer each week. Since its inception in 1997, Web Conjunctions has published the work of several award winning writers including David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Safran Foer, Toby Olson, Brian Evenson, Rosmarie Waldrop, and Martha Ronk. Conjunctions and Web Conjunctions are both edited by Bradford Morrow.
  
  
• Contrary
  Contrary is a quarterly online journal that publishes works of fiction, poetry, and commentary that go beyond traditional form to “confront the edges of their own categories.” Founded in 2003, Contrary is located in Chicago and edited by Jeff McMahon. Contrary has published the work of Sherman Alexie, Andrew Coburn, and Kristine Ong Muslim.
  
  
• Eclectica
  Eclectica is a quarterly online journal that publishes fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and artwork. Founded in 1996 by Tom Dooley and Chris Lott, Eclectica is one of the longest running literary ezines on the web and has published the work of Pushcart Prize winner G.K. Wuori, National Poetry Series Award winner Wendy Battin, and Pulitzer Prize nominee Teresa White. Edited by Tom Dooley and Julie King, Eclectica seeks to publish high quality literary works and encourages the submission of works that cross genres or create new ones.
  
  
• Fence
  Fence is a biannual journal of fiction, poetry, criticism, and art, that has been publishing provocative and challenging writing that is outside of the mainstream since 1998. Appearing online and in print, Fence is edited by Rebecca Wolff and has published the work of several award winning innovative writers including Pulitzer Prize winning poet John Ashbery, Rick Moody, and Nick Flynn.
  
  
• Frigg
  Frigg is a quarterly online magazine that publishes what editor Ellen Parker has referred to as “honest” and “daring” works of fiction and poetry, as well as artwork. Founded in 2003, Frigg has published the work of Terri Brown-Davidson, who was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2002.
  
  
• Fringe
  Fringe is an quarterly online journal that publishes experimental and broadly political material in several genres including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as interviews, reviews, and art. Founded in 2006 and edited by Lizzie Stark, Fringe looks to publish work that “breaks with the canon, takes formal risks, or explores a strange or impossible point of view.” Fringe has published the work of award-winning authors Margarita Engle and Jeannine Hall Gailey.
  
  
• Gargoyle
  Gargoyle publishes edgy works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, as well as interviews and graphics. Founded in 1976 by Russell Cox, Richard Peabody, and Paul Pasquarella, Gargoyle ceased publication in 1990 but returned in 1997 with Peabody and Lucinda Ebersole as editors. Gargoyle has published the work of several award winning and notable authors, including Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, Allen Ginsberg, Rick Moody, and Kathy Acker.
  
  
• Light and Dust Anthology of Poetry
  This site includes a federation of genre, subject, and author home page, as well as smaller surveys and individual poems. It should give a rough sketch of some of the possibilities of late 20th - early 21st Century poetry from a number of different points of view and means of presentation. This is an anthology rather than a zine, and an anthology dedicated to alternative means of presentation as well as pluralistic forms and subjects. It includes over 60 complete books, new and reprinted, indicated in the alphabetic section by a set of brackets, [].
  
  
• Mad Hatters’ Review
  Mad Hatters’ Review is an annual online multimedia magazine that publishes innovative and edgy works of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and drama, as well as reviews, interviews, artwork, and music. Founded in 2005, Mad Hatters’ Review welcomes works of surrealism, dark humor, and magic realism, and encourages collaboration between writers and artists. Raymond Federman, David Meltzer, and Harold Jaffe are among the many writers whose work has been featured in the online magazine, which is edited by Carol Novack.
  
  
• Pank
  Pank is a literary magazine that appears in an annual print edition and a monthly online edition. Edited by M. Bartley Seigel and Roxane Gay, Pank publishes edgy and experimental poetry and prose from emerging writers. Founded in 2006, Pank has published the work of Corey Mesler, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, and Caleb Barber. Pank’s website also features a blog that is regularly updated with book reviews and interviews of writers.
  
  
• Press 1
  Press 1 is an online journal that publishes innovative poetry, prose, reviews, and art three times a year. Founded in 2007 by Arlene Ang, Valerie Fox, and Phyllis Wat, Press 1 recently published a print anthology The Red Room: Writings from Press 1 (Strawgate Books, 2010), which features the works of Bill Kushner, Jayne Pupek, Lewis Warsh, Ruth Altmann, Sean Lovelace, Leonard Gontarek, Andrew Mossin, Miriam Kotzin, and John Grey, among many others.
  
  
• Prick of the Spindle
  Prick of the Spindle, founded in 2007, is a quarterly online journal that publishes traditional and experimental works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, as well as literary reviews, interviews, and artwork. Founded and edited by Cynthia Reeser, Prick of the Spindle’s contributors include Neil Grimmett and Tom Sheehan, who have had their work published in several journals and featured in anthologies.
  
  
• Unlikely 2.0
  Unlikely 2.0 seeks to publish work that features, in editor Jonathan Penton’s own words, “intense and beautiful imagery,” as well as “harsh but sincere patriotism” that allows readers to “think of America in new, progressive, and productive ways.” Unlikely 2.0 publishes poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, and art, and welcomes experimental work and pieces that investigate current events and politics. In addition to writing, Unlikely 2.0 also showcases new music and movies that push genre boundaries. Notable authors whose work has been published by Unlikely 2.0 include Lyn Lifshin and Steve Dalachinsky.