Publishers Weekly - 09.03.2020

® INDIE PUBLISHING

70 BOOKLIFE, MARCH 9, 2020

W

hat began as a reading series based in

Manhattan has evolved into an indie press

that aims to publish enjoyable and risk-

taking literary fiction and nonfiction. BookLife

recently spoke with Brian Birnbaum, cofounder and

executive editor of Dead Rabbits Books and author

of the press’s forthcoming Emerald City.

Can you tell me about the reading series and how

you first decided to launch the press?

The reading series came almost purely out of a

desire to bring live readings out of Brooklyn and

into venues closer to Harlem. After receiving our

MFAs at Sarah Lawrence College, I lived with Devin

Kelly and Katie Rainey in an apartment in upper

Harlem. Our calendars were overflowing with

scheduled readings in Brooklyn—readings that would

last about as long as our round trips to Brooklyn

and back. Furthermore, a cultural epicenter such

as Harlem deserves its representative due.

The decision to launch the press actually came after

I struggled to find a home for my own first novel

Emerald City. Dead Rabbits Books pulls from the best

of all types of presses and literary imprints. Like

other independent presses, we’re able to focus on

quality work that takes risks that bigger presses

won’t normally take while imbuing our authors and

their books with resources that smaller independent

presses won’t normally possess. Our titles represent

the vanguard of literary fiction and nonfiction, while

the strategic and business side of our press offers

such works the tools to succeed, regardless of who

wrote the books or why they were written—tools that

are rarely found among other presses, small or large.

Could you talk about the intersection of reading,

writing, and community, and how you help bring

writers out of isolation?

Our sense of community and its importance dates

back to our founding. We were born from a desire to

bring literary people together in a community whose

literaries didn’t have many spaces in which to meet,

let alone thrive.

What do you want new authors who feel discouraged

about getting their work published to know about

Dead Rabbits?

I’ve been through the gauntlet of the publishing

process. Probably the most difficult period was

also one of the most hopeful. In the summer of

2016, I began working with an agent at Writers

House. After several months of working on revisions

for the novel, my agent left the industry altogether.

I was back at square one, querying other agents

Run

Rabbit

Run

Dead Rabbits Books

makes a leap from

reading series to

indie press

BY MATIA MADRONA QUERY Brian Birnbaum