Contemporary Small Press

Georgina Colby is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Westminster, UK.Kaja Marczewska is a researcher, writer and Research Manager at the Victoria and Albert Museum.Leigh Wilson is Professor of English Literature at the University of Westminster, UK.

“The Contemporary Small Press is a rich collection of essays that illustrates the historical and current significance of the small press. It will appeal not only to researchers and publishers, but to anyone willing to explore the topic.” (Marcinmark, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, Vol. 60, 2023)“Each essay represents an interesting contribution to publishing and/or small-press Studies … . the volume’s introduction makes a valiant and broadly successful effort to present the industry status quo, plus an overview of small-press scholarship. It provides a valuable analysis, as will individual essays tied to readers’ interests.” (Jodie Lea Martire, Publishing Research Quarterly, September 1, 2023)

• 1. Introduction: Making Publishing Visible, Georgina Colby, Kaja Marczewska and Leigh Wilson.- 2. ‘Hand & Soul’: The Fin de Siècle Sociopoetics of Way & Williams and the Auvergne Press, Craig Saper.- 3. From Poet to Publisher: Reading Gwendolyn Brooks by Design, Kinohi Nishikawa.- 4. The Matter of the ‘Small’ in Small-Press Publishing, Nick Thoburn.- 5. The Gentrification of the Small Press: CLMP and the DIY Tradition, Kaplan Harris.- 6. Rhetorics of Authenticity and Professionalization: Problems in Early 21st Century Small Press Publishing, Matvei Yankelevich.- 7. The Publishing Self: The Praxis of Self-publishing in a Mediatised Era, Nick Thurston.- 8. Small Presses and their Reader Communities, Rosamund Davies.- 9. Leading the way: women-led small presses of inclusive youth literature, Melanie Ramdarshan Bold.- 10. The Passion and Pragmatism of the Small Publisher, Claire Squires.- 11. Acts of Judgment and the Small Press: Learning from F.R. Leavis, Leigh Wilson.- 12. The Small Press, Avant-Garde Aesthetics and the Politics of Disidentification, Georgina Colby.