Capitol Hill is home to some unconventional and DIY literary endeavors ranging from the Silent Reading Party at Hotel Sorrento to the horror and dark fantasy pop-up Haunted Burrow Books on 15th Ave E.
Add to the mix Publication Studio, a small-press publisher co-founded in 2009 by Matthew Stadler, a Capitol Hill resident and former senior writer at The Stranger.
On November 11, the publisher will release books by two long-time Capitol Hill writers —Rebecca Brown’s Obscure Destinies and Ryan Boudinot’s Broken Utopia — under its imprint The Fellow Travelers Series.
Publication Studio has released more than 300 new titles by hundreds of writers and artists. The company prints and distributes books through its international network of book-making studios, located in seven cities across three continents. This approach avoids the additional costs associated with third-party printers or distributors, resulting in slightly more revenue for writers, bookstores, and the Publication Studio location that produces the book.
Most books are ordered online through Publication Studio’s website or from local retailers such as Elliott Bay Book Company, Third Place Books, and Nook & Cranny Books.
“Publication Studio was shaped by people like me—30 or 40 of them, at this point, and many of them writers—so we could publish and pay writers for their work,” said Stadler. “Our scope is limited, but by staying within it, we can maintain the fairness and rewards crucial for good, long-term relationships.”
For Brown, whose novel The Gifts of the Body (HarperCollins, 1994) earned the Lambda Literary Award, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and Washington State Governor’s Writers Award, the opportunity to publish her book with Publication Studio is thrilling.
“I’ve been a fan of The Fellow Travelers Series for a number of years,” said Brown, whose book Obscure Destinies blends four formats—a story, a memoir, a play, and an essay—to explore life, death, sexuality, family relationships, and even the lives portrayed in Willa Cather’s story collection of the same title. “The range of [The Fellow Travelers Series] titles made me feel like my book, despite its irregular shape, might find a home. Plus, the content of the first piece in the collection, a story about gay kids in Texas in the 1970s trying to figure out who they are, would have resonance with some of the other titles, which are by LGBTQ folks and/or about LGBTQ experiences.”
Boudinot led the effort in 2013 to designate Seattle as a UNESCO City of Literature and edited the anthology Seattle City of Literature (Sasquatch Books, 2015). His books, The Littlest Hitler: Stories (Counterpoint, 2006), Misconception (Grove/Atlantic, 2009), and Blueprints of the Afterlife (Grove/Atlantic, 2012), were nominated for the Washington State Book Awards. Broken Utopia represents Boudinot’s first published novel in 12 years. It tells the story of a company that turns people’s experiences into drugs, the three worlds in which the company operates, and the various figures tangled up in it. Closer to home, Interlaken and Volunteer Park show up in the novel.
“When Rebecca told me she was working with Matthew to bring out a new book, that’s all the reason I needed to approach him about Broken Utopia,” he explained. “I attended a reading that Matthew hosted at Third Place Books in Ravenna with Rebecca and The Fellow Travelers Series authors Joshua Escobar and Brekan Blakeslee. It was all so smart and sincere. Conscientious, committed artists making something together. How cool. Getting involved with these good people to bring out my novel felt right.”
What’s more, Boudinot, Brown, and Stadler live within a few blocks of each other. “It’s nice—and very convenient—that we are neighbors and can run into each other at Safeway or [Volunteer] Park or just out for a walk,” added Brown, who lives on the Hill with her wife Chris Galloway. “Plus, Ryan’s daughter is our cat sitter. That is a neighborhood!”
Obscure Destinies and Broken Utopia can be ordered online here and here. A launch party will be held on November 11 at Third Place Books in Ravenna. The Fellow Travelers Series holiday party, featuring Brown, Boudinot, and Blakeslee, will be held on December 2 at Capitol Hill’s Elliott Bay Book Company.
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