And now, as we look ahead to our next 15 years in publishing, the challenge is two-fold: how do we make the press sustainable in the long term? And how do we continue to evolve with the poetry scene while maintaining some consistent and recognizable idea of what a Black Ocean book is?
One of the strengths of Black Ocean is that it’s always been a labor of love. The press has been volunteer-led by co-founder Janaka Stucky and myself, and while that has meant that each project has been a passion project, and each book and author and translator has had our true commitment and confidence, it has also meant that we’re constantly trying to shoehorn the business of publishing into the rest of our workaday and family lives. In the last few years, we’ve been looking to try to find a way to ensure that Black Ocean could thrive into the future and wouldn’t be entirely reliant on the two of us (who may be missing a little of the energy of our entrepreneurial youth).
In the last year, Janaka has been taking the lead on putting together a long-term plan for Black Ocean that would allow us to maintain our creative vision while providing for the future of the press. Consequently, we’re now entering a partnership with west coast publisher Not a Cult, to form a new publishing group, called Chapter House. Chapter House will contain several projects moving forward, including a forthcoming speculative fiction label. And, as part of this shift, we’ve already moved our catalog into wider distribution through Consortium, something our current authors are already benefiting from. And, by being able to share some back-office services and resources as a part of a collective, we’re confident in the viability of Black Ocean’s future as a creative enterprise that continues to grow beyond what we ever could have imagined decades ago.
At the same time, we’re trying to do all that we can to strengthen Black Ocean’s list and to ensure that it’s engaging with the contemporary poetry conversation and is representative of the spectrum of lyrical voices writing today. Black Ocean has always had a distinct and recognizable aesthetic, from the design of our books to the poetry within their pages. But, we’ve also never wanted to be too easy to pin down. One of the greatest joys as an editor is discovery—and our commitment to new voices has never wavered.
To continue to keep that commitment we’ve been expanding our avenues for finding new writers and for new writers to discover Black Ocean as a potential home for their work. We’ve been incredibly excited that Lillian-Yvonne Bertram has joined us this year as an editor-at-large and has been not only helping to scout new work but to serve as a close consultant on our editorial decisions. And, at the same, we’ve decided to spread out our open submissions across the year and have particular submission periods that are attentive to the variety and diversity of work that we seek, including translations, first books, and historically underrepresented writers.
I feel like these are the perennial questions faced by any publisher who has been lucky enough to be around for this long—how do we stay true to the reasons why readers seek our books while also recognizing that poetry and art continue to shift (which is why we love it so)? I am proud of the ways that Black Ocean continues to evolve, and I think there’s going to be a lot to look forward to from us in the future.
