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.
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.
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]
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:
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:
Michelle Tea, ed., WITCH: Anthology, 2025. (on order)
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.
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.”
Loud & Smart & In Color: an all-new collection of Loud & Smart comics by Alex Krokus
Hourglass by Barbara Mazzi
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.
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.
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.
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.
Taté Walker and Ohíya Walker, The Trickster Riots (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022).
Kinsale and Alice Mao, Hummingbird Heart, Pink (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022).
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.
Insert Press was found in 2005 by Mathew Timmons to focus on interdisciplinary and/or hybrid works.[1] Initially, Insert Press focused on poetry in chapbook form, but over the following decade turned to increasingly toward “translation, poetics, artist books.”[2]
Founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974, Heyday (https://www.heydaybooks.com/) is an established California independent publisher based out of Berkeley. They offer material focused on topics such as social justice and supporting Californian Indian cultural renewal.
While not focused exclusively on literature, they often Heyday has released beautiful books looking at California’s environment and people. Their output includes exciting memoirs as well as contemplations of writing.
Kaya Press (https://kaya.com/) has been making space for voices in the Asian and Pacific Islander diasporic writers in the United States since 1994, when it was founded in New York City. Establishing itself as a “premier publisher of cutting-edge” literature, the Press moved to in USC Dornsife’s Department of American Studies and Ethnicity in Los Angeles in 2012 where it has continued releasing phenomenal material.[1]
The Press not only releases excellent novels and poetry, but also participates in book fairs, contributes to community activity, hosts author readings, and more.[2] Readers can find information about their events on their Instagram page.
You can find the majority of the Press’ catalog through the (UC Library Search) and access them in either in the UC Berkeley Main Stacks or the Ethnic Studies Library’s shelves.
Red points show Doe Library and the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library building locations. Check out the UC Berkeley Library locations and Affiliate Libraries as a Google Map.
