@modernartistpress
An indie press looking to expand and explode the definition of a modern artist by publishing literary fiction www.modernartistpress.com Order and pre-order books here: https://7caae0-56.myshopify.com/
Modern Artist Press is excited to announce the forthcoming publication of Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay's debut novel, CHITRA DEMANDS TO GO HOME! Coming to your bookshelf in spring 2026!
Erin Cecilia Thomas entered a Daniel Doc to chat about her new short story collection that's forthcoming from @modernartistpress.bsky.social
www.danieldocs.com/p/the-daniel...
Join me in celebrating the launch of I Watched You from the Ocean Floor at The Bookshop!
RSVP and pre-order signed/personalized copies: thebookshopnashville.com/events/28861...
Join us on Saturday at the Washington Writers Conference! @dcwriterscon.bsky.social
www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/page/the-202...
Join us at Red Emma's next week for a discussion about art-making, fiction writing, and social justice! You can RSVP here: redemmas.org/events/z-han...
"Modern Artist Press seeks provocative, unforgettable works." www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/a-l... @cabockwrites.bsky.social @modernartistpress.bsky.social #booksky
Event graphic for the AWP panel From Satire to Dad Jokes: How Humor Can Be Literary, Political & Funny. Includes author photos of Kristen Arnett, Isle McElroy, Z. Hanna, and Alana Saab. The event details are provided: Thursday, March 27, 2025 from 1:45 pm to 3:00 pm PT in Room 515B, Level Two, Los Angeles Convention Center. The word "LAUGH" is spelled out in neon lights at the bottom.
In two weeks, I will be speaking with Kristen Arnett, Isle McElroy, Z. Hanna, and Alana Saab about literary humor and their latest work at AWP25 in Los Angeles! Come join us!
On January 20, the White House issued an executive order stating that the United States government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, as defined “at conception.” The ripple effect of this order will undoubtedly affect public schools, public libraries, and the literature that is shelved in both. Among the many harms it causes, the order targeting transgender, intersex, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Americans threatens unconstitutional censorship that could have a grave impact on literature for years to come. In dismissing trans, intersex, and nonbinary identities, the order blacklists LGBTQIA+ literature and invites the government to dictate the perspectives, beliefs, and identities that can exist in public forums receiving federal funding, amounting to financial coercion through the arbitrary withholding of funds. This censorship may begin with LGBTQIA+ perspectives, but it will not end there: allowing the government to censor one group erodes the First Amendment rights of all Americans, creating a precedent for silencing dissenting voices.
If allowed to stand, the order will create new funding requirements imposed not only on federal entities, but private citizens and institutions who contract with them. Those requirements can and will be manipulated to dictate speech. The broader chilling effect on literature could be even harder to undo. Writers rely on funding from sources like the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the state-level institutions they fund. Trans, nonbinary, and intersex experience is vastly underrepresented in literature but disproportionately targeted by bans. During the 2022-2023 school year, 30% of books banned included LGBTQIA+ characters or themes. Such censorship robs us of perspectives that enrich the American story. Though the executive order in question tries to paint LGBTQIA+ people and allies as bullies enforcing their perspective on others through “legal and other socially coercive means,” that’s exactly what the order itself does, just as book-banning pressure groups have done since 2020 in school boards and libraries around the country. The fate of trans, intersex, and nonbinary people is not a political ideology, it’s a matter of human rights, civil rights, and freedom of expression. Government erosion of those rights should concern all Americans, regardless of their investment in LGBTQIA+ literature specifically.
This executive order is censorship, pure and simple, and it has no place in a free society. It must be rescinded or stayed as soon as possible, and at the latest, before the earliest implementation deadline, February 19, 2025. Financially blacklisting trans, intersex, and non-binary perspectives will rob us of a vital literature yet to be written while insulting the dignity of LGBTQIA+ people everywhere. This return to McCarthyism by other means is a leap backwards to a grim chapter of American history. Sincerely, the undersigned, American Booksellers Association American Booksellers for Free Expression Andrews McMeel Annie's Foundation Audio Publishers Association Authors Against Book Bans Berry Powell Press Cardinal Rule Press Charlesbridge Publishing Chestnut Publishing House Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Deborah Sloan and Company and Kidsbuzz Developmental Texts Empowering Latino Futures EveryLibrary Firewater Media Group Florida Freedom to Read Project Foreword Reviews Freedom to Read Project Gryphon Publishing Consulting, LLC Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) IngramSpark Judging by the Cover: A Bookstore Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship Lambda Literary Latino 247 Media Group Lee Wind, author Levine Querido Library Futures Livingston Parish Library Alliance Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship Macmillan Children's Publishing Group The National Book Critics Circle National Coalition Against Censorship NorthSouth Books Nosy Crow Patagonia Publishers and Writers of San Diego and Orange County PEN America PFLAG Fresno PubWest Rattling Good Yarns Press Read Freely Alabama Red Comet Press LLC Rutherford County Library Alliance Sara Paretsky, Writer SCBWI SEAT SparkPoint Studio St Tammany Library Alliance Stone Bridge Press Texas Freedom to Read Project Walker Books Group for Candlewick Press, Holiday House Books, and Peachtree Publishing We Need Diverse Books
Logos of the organizations that have signed the statement.
Statement on the Trump Administration’s January 20, 2025
Executive Order Targeting Transgender, Intersex, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Americans:
Join me in celebrating the publication of We’re Gonna Get Through This Together at Lost City Books in Washington, D.C.!
RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/were-gonna...
Books that create space for readers to look at race in new, funny, and heartfelt ways
List of concrete actions you can take to defend access to books!
#BookSky #FightBookBans
The hard road of publishing is better walked together.
https://buff.ly/40lsfhU
Erin Cecilia Thomas's forthcoming story collection, I WATCHED YOU FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR. Out on July 1, 2025. Available for pre-order.
Erin Cecilia Thomas writes elegiac narratives that are also portraits of strength, resilience, and grit -- exploring what it means to grieve and to keep on living.
Z. Hanna's forthcoming story collection, WE'RE GONNA GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER. Available for pre-order. Blending satire, realism, and speculative fiction, Z. Hanna writes about race, class, gender, sexuality, art, and activism--exploring the forces that bring people together and drive them apart.
Modern Artist Press is thrilled to be publishing Z. Hanna's debut story collection, WE'RE GONNA GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER, in spring 2025!
Why should you publish with a new indie press? Indie presses are known for having smaller budgets and taking bigger risks. Modern Artist Press is building our first frontlist. This means I can offer each author who publishes with us more consideration, time, and resources for their creative ideas.
Text box reads: Modern Artist Press - call for submissions - accepted year round. Background is an image of a female Greek statue painted on a brick wall holding an apple with an arrow shot through it. Two people sit on the ground in front of the painting; the woman is reading a red book.
Text box reads: Modern Artist Press invites writers to submit the following: 1) the first 25 pages of the manuscript; 2) a 1-page description of the overall story; 3) a half-page author biography; 4) initial ideas for marketing the published book. Send complete submission packages to submissions@modernartistpress.com. Background image is a Black woman writing in a notebook.
Submit your work! Modern Artist Press is looking for novels, short story collections, and hybrid works of literary fiction