Despite industry turmoil and broader economic flux, new independent book publishers are blooming—and veteran presses are thriving—across New Mexico.
We desert folk know that even when the landscape looks barren, life thrives in small, sometimes hard-to-see ways. We know that given just a little rain, what looks like a field of dead, brown grass will burst forth with vibrancy and color—purple asters, for example, suddenly stand tall in natural bouquets, while cactus blooms in neon shades worthy of the old signs along Route 66. And with that bit of nourishment, whenever it can happen, those plants—resilient, adaptive—find ways to stick around.
So when the printed book supposedly died around 2007 after Amazon introduced the Kindle, or when it supposedly died in the recession that followed, or when it supposedly died during the Covid-19 pandemic, perhaps the book publishers of New Mexico took a walk among chamisa and prickly pear and thought, “Not so fast.”
It’s true that the state’s publishing scene has suffered setbacks in the last few decades. Sherman Asher Publishing, for example, which was known for its titles among memoir, fiction, and poetry, was acquired by Western Edge Press in 2002, and then both businesses folded. A number of other presses have died.
Yet some favorites remain: the University of New Mexico Press, for example, which was founded in 1929, continues to steadily publish notable, award-winning titles, launched the High Road Books imprint in 2021, and partners with local and non-local businesses and organizations to expand its offerings (Red Planet Books, for example, promotes graphic novels by Native writers and artists).
We understand why mainstream presses (might not publish a book)… we’ll just do it because it’s worthwhile doing.
Tijeras-based Artemesia Publishing celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year; its imprint Kinkajou Press, founded in 2009, highlights middle grade and YA fiction, while its other imprint Shadow Dragon Press, which opened in 2013, emphasizes science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
Amador Publishers, founded in 1986 by Harry Willson and Adela Amador, has stayed alive thanks to Zelda Leah Gatuskin. “Since I took over the press in 2010, all new titles have been published on a digital print-on-demand platform, and are available for purchase worldwide, printed as ordered at the nearest facility,” writes Gatuskin on the Amador website. She tells me that Amador is a labor of love, dedicated “to peace, equality, respect for all cultures, and preservation of the biosphere. … We understand why the mainstream presses (might not publish a particular kind) of book, and we’ll just do it because it’s worthwhile doing.”
Gatuskin points out two books in her catalog that represent this approach: Unbroken Spirit: My Life Before and After Quadriplegia by Gilbert John and Feeling the Unthinkable: Essays on Social Justice by Donald Gutierrez. She adds: “I don’t think there are too many books in the world, because we all go at it from our own way, and we all love to read certain books at certain times. If it doesn’t hit you this year, it might ten years down the road.”
Other mainstay New Mexican presses bloomed through the tough years. Radius Books, the non-profit, art-focused press based in Santa Fe, was founded in 2007 and continues to publish books that could be considered art in their own right—a kind of printed sculpture celebrating a variety of visual art from around the world. In addition, the press’s unique donation program has distributed nearly 100,000 of its titles to schools, art programs, and libraries around the country.
In February of 2020, University of New Mexico alumnus Zach Hively founded Casa Urraca Press, based in Abiquiu. Despite the pandemic, he published three books that year, including a collection of Christmas poems by V.B. Price called Innocence Regained. “I’m still doing my own writing, but I (wanted) to champion other writers as well,” Hively says. “It just became a very natural fit to focus primarily on championing New Mexican authors and artists. … We all do better when we all do better.”
Hively adds, “I think New Mexico has a very high reputation on the fine arts scene and increasingly on the filmmaking scene, but… as a whole—this is (an) overgeneralization—we don’t have a great sense of what our literary scene currently is, let alone what it was historically. … So it takes Casa Urraca Press and it takes other publishing companies campaigning New Mexicans to really present the literary scene the way we can understand it ourselves and also the way the world can access it.”
The art form of literature, like everything else, is being increasingly commodified.
Matthew Binder, who grew up in Albuquerque and whose novels The Absolved (2018) and Pure Cosmos Club (2023) were published by Santa Fe-based Stalking Horse Press (founded in 2015 by James Reich), says he appreciates having a more personal experience getting his books to press that he might not have had if he’d published with a larger press. “When you publish a book, to some extent, you’re at the mercy of the publisher. It’s really a collaboration when it comes to the editing process, also the book design and the marketing, and so it’s really important to have a good relationship with your press,” he says. “Indie presses can be more ambitious with the work that they publish, right? The art form of literature, like everything else, is being increasingly commodified. I think the indie presses are more important than ever.”
In their own ways, local organizations are fighting to keep the literary landscape thriving in New Mexico. For example, the New Mexico Book Co-op continues to organize the annual New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards (which started in 2006), while the New Mexico Book Association, founded in 1994, sponsors the Southwest Book Design Awards. The Santa Fe International Literary Festival, which launched in 2023, draws thousands of visitors for events with local authors as well as world-renowned writers such as Julia Alvarez and Anne Lamott.
Rose Kern, president of Southwest Writers, which is based in New Mexico, says that the group has grown to 400 members, with 300 members within the state. Kern also runs RMK Publications, which she describes as a concierge self-publishing service. “What I feel hopeful about is that there are so many people who are trying to express themselves and are really wanting to get themselves out there. Everybody has a different reason for writing,” Kern says. “New Mexico’s got an incredible amount of talent, and it’s got a lot of really good stories.”
An Incomplete List of Active New Mexico Book Publishers:
Amador Publishers, Albuquerque
Artemesia Publishing, Tijeras
Burning Books, Santa Fe
Casa Urraca, Abiquiu
Coyote Arts, Albuquerque
Hartman Publishing, Albuquerque
Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe
Nighthawk Press, Taos
NineStar Press, Albuquerque
Pelican Book Group, Aztec
Radius Books, Santa Fe
RMK Publications, Albuquerque
Stalking Horse Press, Santa Fe
Sunstone Press, Santa Fe
Synergetic Press, Santa Fe
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque
23 Sandy, Santa Fe
