Seattle's Impassio Press Launches With Three Titles

Posted on November 30, 2001

Seattle Writer and editor Olivia Dresher announced the formation of Impassio Press, an independent publisher dedicated to establishing fragmentary writing as a distinct literary genre, especially diaries, journals, notebooks and letters, as well as fiction and poetic prose written in fragment form. Dresher, who founded and currently serves as the curator of the Diaries, Journals and Notebooks Collection for the library at the Richard Hugo House literary center in Seattle, has been reading, writing, collecting and publishing fragmentary writing for more than 30 years.

"While many writers utilize journals and notebooks as sources for other work, for some authors the journal or diary itself is the main work and exists as a valid literary art form of its own," said Dresher. "Impassio Press is not interested in journals or diaries which simply serve as tools for personal enrichment or self-help. Instead, we will discover and publish writers whose inner lives are already so rich that they spill out into their notebooks. Impassio seeks writing which is provocative and revealing, offering insights into the self and the world."

Impassio Press plans to publish two to three titles each year. The first book slated for publication in March 2002 is One Journal's Life: A Meditation on Journal-Keeping by Audrey Borenstein of New Paltz, New York, a shorter-length book that is the author's love letter to her journal, exploring her many selves and the possibility that her essence as a writer is most fully expressed in her journal. The two full-length titles scheduled for 2002 are This is How I Speak: The Diary of a Young Woman by Sandi Sonnenfeld of Seattle, an intimate portrait of a young woman's first year in the MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Washington and Water & Earth: A Journal by Guy Gau thier of New York City, which captures the author's experiences as a fledgling playwright in the sexually-charged Manhattan of the 1970s.

Prior to founding Impassio Press, Dresher worked as a freelance editor as well as an editor at the University of Washington. She is the co-editor of Darkness and Light: Private Writing as Art (iUniverse: 2000), an anthology of contemporary journals, diaries and notebooks. It was Dresher's experience of working on the anthology that prompted her to found Impassio Press.

"When I was looking for a publisher for Darkness and Light, I was very disheartened by how closed the established presses were to non-traditional literary forms. While independent publishers now account for 30 percent of all trade books sold, I've seen too many quality small presses fold over the years as the mainstream houses squeeze out their smaller colleagues. My goal is to bring something new to small press publishing, while also helping to keep alive the spirit of freedom and diversity that small press publishing offers."

In addition to Dresher, a financial and legal consultant as well as a part-time PR and marketing manager to help promote book sales will staff the press. The press is working with an assortment of freelance book designers, layout artists and printers. Impassio Press is a member of the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), a national organization of independent publishers and presses.