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Small Press Distribution (SPD), which distributed for indie publishers since 1969, announced on Thursday that it has shuttered, citing “the challenges of a rapidly changing book industry and funding environment.” The staff has been reduced to a “minimal team,” which is winding down operations. They write, “Several years of declining sales and the loss of grant support from almost every institution that annually supported SPD have combined to squeeze our budget beyond the breaking point. SPD lost hundreds of thousands in grants in the past few years as funders moved away from supporting the arts. The tireless efforts of a […]

Several members of the editorial staff at Guernica Magazine including co-publisher Madhuri Sastry, senior editor April Zhu, fiction editor Ishita Marwah, poetry editor Cindy Juyoung Ok, and more, resigned from their positions over the weekend following the online publication of an essay called “From the Edges of a Broken World: In Israel, a translator tries to tread the line of empathy” by Joanna Chen. The essay has been taken down by the magazine without explanation but is still available on the Internet Archive. Sastry writes in a post on Twitter, “I stand by my courageous staff members who have been […]

Lakeside Book Company indicated in a WARN notice to the state of Wisconsin that it will “permanently close its print production facility” in Menasha, WI, “due to changing market conditions.” As a result they will terminate all 339 employees at the plant, starting June 7 and ending June 21, when it will close. “Each employee impacted will receive a written 60-day notice of position elimination and will be paid all earned wages and agreed upon benefits at the time of their termination.” That work force was already reduced in 2023 through both voluntary and mandatory layoffs. General counsel and chief […]

Independent Publishers Group has partnered with Books International to launch a new hardcover short run digital printing program at a lower price point. They write in a release, “The cost of the average black and white, 200-page, 6 x 9 casebound title with foil stamping and dust jacket is now deep into the single digits per copy and may approach half the price of what many are used to seeing in the marketplace. If all that is needed is case laminate, the price drop is even more pronounced.” The program debuts at the end of March. David Hetherington, Books International’s […]

The Hawthornden Foundation is sponsoring two capacity-building grant programs for literary nonprofits in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. On Monday, both organizations announced individual one-year programs that will distribute $5,000 and $10,000 grants. The NBF writes in a release that the grants will “support projects that aim to create a sustainable and effective organization in the areas of fundraising, finance, or marketing; skill-building opportunities for staff and/or Board members; strategic planning consultants; diversity and equity initiatives; leadership development and management training; sabbaticals for long-term staff members and leaders; and succession planning.” […]

Protesters with the group Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) disrupted a PEN America event in Los Angeles on the evening of January 31, resulting in the writer Randa Jarrar being physically removed. Videos on Twitter show footage of the protest, which involved playing audio recordings of names of Palestinian writers killed in Gaza since October 7, and of Jarrar’s removal. The protest was about the participation of actor and Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik, who was speaking to comedian Moshe Kasher about his new memoir Subculture Vulture as part of the PEN Out Loud series. Bialik has been vocal […]