We’ve released well over 20 books into the world so far and currently put out between 3 and 6 titles a year. We like it all: fiction, nonfiction, works in translation, hybrid, poetry, speculative work and tons of things we haven’t even dreamed up yet. Our writers are both first-timers and well-seasoned, but we lean toward underrepresented voices. We look for exciting work that pushes the bounds of literary norms—managing to be equal parts weird and accessible. We like writing that challenges the status quo, both literary and culturally, while having significant merit in both realms. We even don’t mind a cold pitch if it follows the guideline on our website.
Mason Jar Press was founded by Michael B. Tager (Managing Editor) and Ian Anderson (Editor-in-Chief) and today we are a volunteer staff of about eleven. I came on board in 2019 to help manage PR. The press had grown fast and needed some extra support in this area. But in the true Mason Jar spirit I chip in with whatever needs done—reading subs or helping with edits. It’s a big job and there is no shortage of things to be done so we all do our best to dedicate as much energy to it as we can. My favorite thing, though, is helping authors to gain traction with a new book. It’s such as huge achievement to write a book and the work doesn’t end at publication. Publicity is its own beast, and it can be nerve wracking and daunting for a lot of authors. I love to work with authors to put them at as ease with the process of publicizing and collaborate with them to find their audience.
We have so much on the horizon!
We just released The Monotonous Chaos of Existence, a collection of stories by Hisham Bustani—translated from Arabic by Maia Tabet. These stories explore the turbulent transformation in contemporary Arab societies. With a deft and poetic touch, Bustani examines the interpersonal with a global lens, connects the seemingly contradictory, and delves into the ways that international conflict can tear open the individuals that populate his world—all while pushing the narrative form into new and unexpected terrain. Brandon Soderberg, co-author of I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad, says “These stories recall the rhythms of poetry, offer up the intimacy of memoir, and often feel more like films than fiction.”
Next up is JERKS by Sara Lippmann—due out later this month. With JERKS, Sara Lippmann rides the proverbial clutch between wanting and having. Ambivalent mothers, aging suburbanites, restless teens, survivalist parents, and disaffected wives—desire is a live wire, however frayed, a reminder that life, for all its sputtering stall outs, is still worth living. The messy characters in these eighteen stories may hack up their bed sheets with group sex, anonymous sex, sexual history, infidelity, and a literal handsaw, but there’s tenderness, too, among the lust and rage. Even when fantasy offers a shortcut to oneself, without connection, it’s a lonely escape. With crisp precision, ample honesty and desperate humor, Lippmann delivers an irresistibly fraught cast of characters at various stages of undress.
We'll be opening for our inaugural 1729 Prize in Fiction on April 15th. If you are reading this in advance of that—maybe you’ll submit something. It’s a $1,000 prize and publication, free to submit, and judged by the great Diane Zinna.
