Author: Bee Lehman

Publisher Highlight: Rejection Letters

Posted on by Bee Lehman
Website screenshot for Rejection Letters
Logo for Rejection Letters Press, Thumb Down
Rejection Letters Press Logo, 2025

D.T. Robbins founded Rejection Letters Press in 2020. The idea for the press initially grew out of a joke about publishing fictional rejection letters after receiving a bevy of all-too-real letters.[1] Now, in 2025, the press has a selection of a phenomenal photographs and poetry online (see featured image above, captured in December 2025) as well as seven beautiful volumes of poetry and novels.[2]

While this Southern California press is not bound to a specific city, they host literary events in Los Angeles. Alongside book and poetry readings, the House hosts an annual “Rejection Week.” For this second event, their advertisements warned that there was “so much rejection, there [was] blood in the water.”[3] Readers can find out more about their events on their Instagram page.

Books at UC Berkeley Library

More at UC Berkeley Library

You can find access to what we have at UC Berkeley Library through a publisher focus using the US Library Search.

Notes

[1] “About,” Rejection Letters, March 3, 2020, https://rejection-letters.com/about/.

[2] “Rejection Letters,” Asterism Books, accessed December 8, 2025, https://asterismbooks.com/publisher/rejection-letters.

[3] Rejection Week 2025, August 25, 2025, Poster, https://www.instagram.com/rejectionlit/.

Publisher Highlight: City Lights

Posted on by Bee Lehman
City Lights banner with logo and covers

In 1953, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin founded City Lights Books in San Francisco, near some incredible Italian bakeries (this author is unclear if that mattered to them). Established as “a literary meetingplace,” the bookstore was initially an all-paperback store focused on providing a space for alternative culture. Now a three-story edifice that does provide some new hardcovers, the store continues to offer a place for readers to soak up excellent literature.[1] They also hold readings and other literary events, about which readers can find information on Instagram.

Committed to offering experimental and alternative literature, City Lights and its staff have a firm stance against censorship and a “legacy of anti-authoritarian politics” [1]. Partly with that commitment in mind, the bookstore also became a publisher. Among the first of their output, they released Alan Ginsburg’s Howl (at Bancroft). Since then, they have released poetry, novels, and short-stories alongside non-fiction.

Recent titles at UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley and City Lights have had a special relationship for decades. Not only does UC Berkeley Library host most of City Lights outpouring, but Ferlinghetti also chose the Bancroft Library to host his personal papers (UC Library Search) as well as a considerable amount of City Lights Books photographs and other manuscript materials (OAC.)

You can, of course, also find out what we have in our circulating collections at UC Berkeley’s Doe Library through our UC Library publisher search.

Notes

[1] A Short History of City Lights, City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, accessed December 1, 2025, https://citylights.com/our-story/a-short-history-of-city-lights/.

Publisher Highlight: Tachyon Publications

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Celebrating their 3oth anniversary!

Long, long ago (in 1995) and across the Bay in San Francisco, Jacob Weisman founded Tachyon Publications (https://tachyonpublications.com/). Since then, the House has provided us (those who read speculative fiction) with phenomenal works of fiction, “champion[ing] … creative storytelling through intelligent prose and imaginative worlds.”[1, 2]

Over those thirty years, Tachyon has become a staple in the world of speculative fiction. Their authors have brought in awards, including Nebulas, Mythopoeic, and Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, among others. More importantly, the House has provided space for new authors to publish their internal universes.

The resulting publications include a range of subgenres including romance, comedy, hard science fiction, and more. Their formats range from tight, short stories to soaring space operas.

Recent Titles at UC Berkeley

For more at UC Berkeley

Spread between Morrison Library and the Main Stacks, you can find dozens of Tachyon’s books in Doe Library.

To find those titles, try a publisher focus in the UC Berkeley catalog in our UC Library search.

Notes

[1] “About Tachyon,” Tachyon Publications, accessed November 24, 2025, https://tachyonpublications.com/about/.

[2] “Display: 30 Years of Tachyon Publications,” San Francisco Public Library, accessed August 24, 2025, https://sfpl.org/exhibits/2025/09/19/display-30-years-tachyon-publications.

Publisher Highlight: Ayin Press

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Ayin Press logo, 2025

Founded in 2020 in New York, the independent publisher Ayin Press (website) offers a fascinating range of literary publications including poetry, novels, and more. Through the material, the press presents “polyphony of voices from within and beyond the Jewish world.”[1]

You can find more about the press’ activities on Instagram.

Recent Titles

For More at UC Berkeley

Check out these titles and others from Ayin Press at UC Berkeley through our UC Library Search. Some of the titles above are listed as Somewhere Press on account of collaborative work.

End Notes

[1] “About,” accessed July 16, 2025, https://ayinpress.org/about/.

Publisher Highlight: Riot of Roses

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Banner for riot of roses with six book covers

Located in Sejatnga, Unceded Tongva Territory, South Whittier, CA, the publishing house Riot of Roses (webpage) tells their readers that they “publish books to heal and liberate others” and affirm that the press is “for the people.”[1]

Black, full open rose on red background
Logo for Riot of Roses‘ opening screen

Brenda Vaca founded Riot of Roses in 2021 to publish her first poetry collection. Vaca had completed her first manuscript with the Community Literature Initiative program out of South Los Angeles, CA and found her options for publishing limiting. In an interview with Canvas Rebel, Vaca explained that she wasn’t happy with the non-negotiable contract she received from an already-established publisher and wasn’t content publishing with a platform like Amazon, which wouldn’t end up in a library system.[2]

To address that problem for both herself and others, Vaca created Riot of Roses as a space for writers to amplify historical silenced voices.

In the handful of years since the press’ inception, Vaca has done wonderful work promoting it and the press’ authors. They attend poetry slams, book events, and more around their location in Sothern CA. Readers can find more information about their events on their Instagram page.

Books at UC Berkeley’s Doe Library

Here are a handful of Riot of Roses’ recent publications in Doe Library:

For more material

You can search in the UC Library Search advanced search for “Riot of Roses” as a publisher (click here to see the search).

Endnotes

[1] “About,” Riot Of Roses Publishing House, accessed May 5, 2025, https://www.riotofrosespublishinghouse.com/about.

[2] “Meet Brenda Vaca,” Canvas Rebel, August 21, 2023, https://canvasrebel.com/meet-brenda-vaca/.

Publisher Highlight: Dopamine Books

Posted on by Bee Lehman

Michelle Tea founded Dopamine Books (website) with the goal of publishing queer authors and highlighting queer writing.[1] Tea has been part of the California publishing world for more than a decade, working with City Lights Press and Feminist press to get imprints Sister Spit and Amethyst Editions (respectively) off the ground.[ 2 In 2023 in Los Angeles, Tea took those experiences and extensive exploration and founded the “vulgarian queer publisher.”[ 3]

Now, two years later, Dopamine can boast the release of short story anthologies, essays, and novels. Those titles include:

Finding titles at UC Berkeley

In contrast to other small presses, Dopamine is difficult to find in the UC Library Search. Because of their close collaboration with Semiotext(e) (https://www.semiotexte.com/), their books are sometimes listed with the later publisher.
Nonetheless, you can get a general impression of what UC Berkeley has from Dopamine through the UC Library Search.

EndNotes

1 “About,” DOPAMINE, accessed July 10, 2025, https://dopaminebooks.org.
2 Sophia Stewart, “Michelle Tea Launches Dopamine Books,” PublishersWeekly.Com, August 18, 2023, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/93015-author-michelle-tea-launches-dopamine-books.html.
3 “SLUTS: Anthology,” Bookstore, Bookshop.org, May 7, 2024, https://bookshop.org/p/books/sluts-an-anthology-michelle-tea/20356857?ean=9781635902129&next=t.

Publisher Highlight: Silver Sprocket

Posted on by Bee Lehman

Banner of four Silver Sprocket covers

Pink image with a simple drawing of an angry looking goat head.
Simple logo for Silver Sprocket as of 2025.

Founded in 2007, Silver Sprocket (https://www.silversprocket.net/) is a comics publisher in the Bay Area scene. In a 2024 interview Avi Ehrlich represented the community as a “‘radical indie comic publisher’ representing historically excluded artists’ work.” [1]

On their About page in their website, they write that they are “a San Francisco-based publisher, retail shop, and gallery space championing socially conscious and independently produced comic books, graphic novels, and related arts.”

Here at UC Berkeley, we don’t usually buy the pins and posters, but we have been able to acquire a range of their wonderful comic and other bound graphic materials including a few of their Zines including the Abortion Pill Zine: A Community Guide to Misoprostol and Mifepristone by Isabella Rotman, Sage Coffey & Marnie Galloway (UC Library catalog record, cover image in the gallery below).

They also note that “All works will remain 100% artist owned. Our aim is always to support the artist in making the best possible version of their own vision.”

Title Highlights at UC Berkeley

Some of our recent acquisitions include:

For more from the publisher at UC Berkeley, take a look at our UC Library Search.

Also note that most comics and graphic novels end up with the subject “COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS” and in the PN section of our Library stacks. If you want to Browse our comic material, consider heading down to the D level of the Main and looking for that PN section!

Request a purchase to let us know if you’re interested in other comic titles.

Endnotes

[1] Cheyenne Bearfoot, “Silver Sprocket Comics: Inside a Punk Comic Store in San Francisco,” KQED, June 20, 2024, https://www.kqed.org/education/538146/silver-sprocket-comics.

[2] avi, “About Silver Sprocket,” Silver Sprocket, accessed May 1, 2025, https://www.silversprocket.net/about/.

Publisher Highlight: speCt!

Posted on by Bee Lehman
speCt! logo 2025

Physically located in Oakland, CA, speCt! (titles on Asterism) has been treating a reading public to beautiful poetry and visual art since 2012.[1] Founded by Gillian Hamel, Peter Burghardt, and Robert Andrew Perez, the group started printing on a C&P is a small letterpress.[2] The community publisher started with and continues to focus heavily on chapbooks, which they publish with beautiful covers and excellent printing. They also print the occasional full-length text with titles like Wildfires. Their authors, including Ching-In Chen, have won awards for their beautiful work, including the 2022 Markowitz Award.[3]

One can find information about their publications on Asterism and about their community activities, including readings, on their Instagram page.

Gorgeous example titles

 

To find out more about UC Berkeley’s collection of speCt!’s book, take a look at our UC Library Search.

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EndNotes

[1] “speCt!,” Asterism Books, accessed July 10, 2025, https://asterismbooks.com/publisher/spect.

[2] “speCt: A Retrospect!ve,” Small Press Traffic, 2022, https://www.smallpresstraffic.org/traffic-report/spect.

[3] Mai Tran, “Ching-In Chen and Morgan H Thomas Win 2022 Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers,” Lambda Literary, June 7, 2022, https://lambdaliterary.org/2022/06/ching-in-chen-and-morgan-h-thomas-win-2022-markowitz-award-for-exceptional-new-lgbtq-writers/.

Celebrating 21st-century African Literatures online exhibit live!

Posted on by Bee Lehman
arcgis screenshot of cover for exhibit
Screenshot of opening image in online exhibit

To my delight, we’ve made our online exhibit Celebrating 21-century African Literatures exhibit live online through an ArcGIS StoryMap!

map of Africa with aggregated publisher points
Thumbnail associated with publisher map, displaying some of the publishers we collect from. Link goes to interactive map on ArcGIS.

Alongside the celebration of the many, phenomenal books we display, we’ve also made material available about what kinds of publishers UC Berkeley Library has been collecting from across the continent.

Let me (Bee, the Lit Librarian) know if you have questions or note that there is information missing. Our thanks for to the many artists, authors, and magazine editors who’ve made this possible.

Publisher Highlight: Abalone Mountain Press

Posted on by Bee Lehman
Abalone Mountain Press logo in 2025

Since its inception in January 2021, Abalone Mountain Press  (https://www.abalonemountainpress.com) has published several phenomenal compilations of poetry and zines. Amber McCrary, the founder, operates the press on operates on the traditional lands of the Akimel O’odham.[1]

To delight, this semester (Spring 2025), UC Berkeley’s Doe Library put in an order for five of Abalone Mountain Press’s recent publications. The chapbooks, anthology, and zines will be located in Doe Library’s main stacks.

Take a look at these or other Abalone Mountain Press books in our UC Berkeley Library.

Additional Material

Several of these authors contributed to The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature. You can find an interview with Amber McCrary about the Press in the September 2022 issue of Poetry.

Continue reading “Publisher Highlight: Abalone Mountain Press”