Est. 2002 (online mag) & 2006 (books & paper mag)
Christian Peet, Publisher/Editor
Tarpaulin Sky Press is a small press publisher of hybrid texts as well as poetry and prose, producing full-length books, chapbooks, trade paperbacks, hand-bound books, and a literary journal that appears in online and paper editions. In a Poets & Writers feature on new small presses, Tarpaulin Sky Press is described as “intrigued by work that doesn’t announce its genre,” and “happy to read texts that are distinctly un-poetic . . . indices, email, job descriptions, instruction manuals, etc.”; but, as a caveat, but also seek to publish “work in which experimentation with language and form is a means to an end, rather than an end unto itself; innovation alone doesn’t do much for us.” The press’s books have been described as “fresh, daring, creepy, and significant…. The opposite of boring….an ominous conflagration devouring the bland terrain of conventional realism” (Bookslut) and are-for a small press–rather widely reviewed, from After Ellen to HTML Giant, as well as Publishers Weekly, The Nation, Time Out New York, Library Journal, American Book Review, TriQuarterly, Bloomsbury Review, Rain Taxi, and Jacket. In November 2007, after thirteen online issues, Tarpaulin Sky Press published the first paper edition of its literary journal, Tarpaulin Sky. Since its creation, the journal has published over three hundred writers including Chris Abani, Brian Evenson, Matthea Harvey, Douglas A. Martin, Ethan Paquin, Eleni Sikelianos, Juliana Spahr, and John Yau, among others. Since 2006, the content of the online journal has been curated by guest editors including Rebecca Brown, Bhanu Kapil, and Selah Saterstrom. Tarpaulin Sky Press authors include Jenny Boully, Ana Božičević, Danielle Dutton, Johannes Göransson, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Joyelle McSweeney, Joanna Ruocco, and Kim Gek Lin Short, among others.