® INDIE COMMUNITY
58 BOOKLIFE, MARCH 8, 2021
and Camille Johnston,
took action to launch
the enterprise at the
start of the pandemic,
the inspiration for
Pravum had long been
stirring. Athent spoke
with BookLife about her
vision for Pravum,
breaking away from
conventional publish-
ing, and the newfound joy of heralding the books
she wants to see in the world.Tell me about your inspirations for found-
ing Pravum.
I’m a type-1 diabetic, which has always given me
some sense of awareness of my impermanence,
and often propels me into taking risks. When
Covid first hit, I felt a spotlight on this disease
[type-1 diabetes], as it’s one of the illnesses in
the high-risk category. This didn’t really bother
me, as I’m pretty used to discussing my illness by
now, and have reconciled to how it’s a risk when
it comes to everything. The thing that really
surprised me was the way my healthy friends
began examining their own mortality! As friends
first, Jennifer Obidike, Camille Johnston, and I
found ourselves often discussing the concept of
death and not wanting to let life pass us by. I
think the whole world had to adjust in ways none
of us expected, and so the collective consciousness
began reevaluating what’s truly important.
For me, it’s always been books. Books pulled me
out of the horror of my diagnoses. Books also
saved the three of us cofounders during the lock-
down. I think this respect of the craft, combined
with the rare circumstances of reevaluating our
lives, made us all feel confident that starting
Pravum was the right thing to do.How would you describe Pravum’s mission?
And how does it stand apart from other
indie publishers?
We call the books we publish “degenerate litera-
ture.” Degeneration is defined as losing the
physical, mental, or moral qualities considered
normal and desirable, showing evidence of
decline—which, incidentally, we don’t think is a
bad thing. We’re specifically looking for novelswith themes of mysti-
cism, culture, gender,
sex, art, death, and
the power of the
unconscious. With
these themes in mind,
we hope to change the
ideas of morality as
we know it and expand
the horizons of our
readers.
Jennifer put it well when she said, “Pravum is
the brainchild of ambitious daydreamers. We want
to publish books that express tenderness or sen-
sitivity as strength. We want to publish books
whose worlds are so ridiculous, they’re welcome
and needed in this time of utter chaos. In the end,
we hope that our readers feel a sense of renewal
or transformation through the sexy or the absurd.”
I think we hope, most of all, to make people laugh
and embrace theatrics.Why did you decide to publish Lesser
Journeys through Pravum rather than
with a traditional publishing house?
I originally wrote Lesser Journeys thinking I’d go
the traditional route of publishing. Here’s the
downside: I notoriously hate bureaucracy when it
comes to the arts. The
arts provide one of
the rare chances we
have to be ourselves,
both as creators and
consumers. When my
agent, Natalie Kimber,
was discussing pub-
lishing schedules,
pitching processes,
and editing with me,
I thought, yeah... no
thanks, and that was
that. It may not be
wise, but that’s just
how I am.
As this was happen-
ing, the idea came into place to form Pravum.
Lesser Journeys sort of acted as the “pilot” for
Pravum, allowing us to see how we work together
and what it would actually mean to form a pub-
lishing house.