In 2015, Publishers Weekly declared that Unnamed Books was “Creating Home For Contemporary Authors.”[1] At that point, the small, LA-based publisher was still only getting off the ground. In the early 2010s, Chris Heiser and Olivia Taylor Smith decided to go into independent publishing. In 2013, the two started with the name Ricochet Books, but USC had already claimed the name “Ricochet” in 2012. In 2014, they chose to rebrand as Unnamed Press, with the intention of providing a space for international literature. Their early titles included works like Deji Olukotun’s Nigerians in Space and Rocío Cerón’s Diorama.[2]
Since then, the press has expanded to become “general interest.”[2] In 2024, that included the creation of their Smith & Taylor Classics imprint with titles such as Vernon Lee’s Hauntings: And Other Stories. To continue pushing literature and providing spaces for experimental literature, in 2025 the press started a poetry line. That line often includes audio components on vinyl (https://www.unnamedpress.com/vinyl) with titles such as Emma Ruth Rundle’s The Bella Vista: Poems.[3]
Readers can find out more about their titles on the website (https://www.unnamedpress.com/) or on their Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/unnamedpress/).
Recent Titles
For additional titles at UC Berkeley
Readers can find more material through a publisher focus in our UC Library Search. Select titles are available for circulation in Doe’s Main Stacks while others are in our special collections in Bancroft (UC Library search limited to special collections). See individual catalog entries for location.
Notes
[1] Anisse Gross, “Unnamed Press Creating Home For Contemporary Authors,” PublishersWeekly.Com, February 27, 2015, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/65736-unnamed-press-creating-home-for-contemporary-authors.html.
[2] Edward Nawotka, “LA’s Unnamed Press: Relatable Foreign Fiction, Unlikely Protagonists,” Publishing Perspectives, July 18, 2014, https://publishingperspectives.com/2014/07/las-unnamed-press-relatable-foreign-fiction-unlikely-protagonists/.
[3] “About,” Unnamed Press, accessed January 12, 2026, https://www.unnamedpress.com/about-1.
[4] Nathalie op de Beeck, “Unnamed Press Develops Cross-Media Poetry Line,” PublishersWeekly.Com, accessed January 12, 2026, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/97014-unnamed-press-develops-cross-media-poetry-line.html.
