T I N F I S H __ P R E S S

Tinfish Press was founded in 1995 in order to facilitate conversations between experimental writing (written mostly outside of Hawai`i) and the important writing being done in Hawai`i. Writers like Lisa Kanae, whose Sista Tongue (2001, 2008) is one of our most important titles, have a lot to say to writers in other places who think about language and power issues, and whose work uses non-standard languages and forms. We began with a thin journal that was xeroxed and stapled, and moved into chapbooks with the publication of Joe Balaz’s Ola in 1996. Since then we have published 19 issues of the journal, many chapbooks and a couple fistfuls of perfect bound volumes. Our designs, all by artists with ties to Hawai`i, are strikingly non-standard. We publish work from the Pacific region, concentrating on language issues, colonialism, Buddhism, place, and poetic form. Above all, we seek to create alliances between writers whose work crosses national and aesthetic borders. Some of these (at times tense) alliances are seen in the books themselves: Barbara Jane Reyes writes out of Modernist and Filipino traditions; Craig Santos Perez owes a lot to both Charles Olson and to his Chamorro grandmother; the Hawai`i writers of Tinfish 18.5 reach to traditions as various as Hawaiian chant and flarf. All of our publications are designed by graphic artists with links to Hawai`i under the direction of our Art Director, Gaye Chan.

"These are books conceived and composed with care and what seems to me a kind of urgency that tops most any small press wares I know of... buy this stuff and tell other people to do the same."

Patrick Durgin, editor of Kenning

A B O U T _ T I N F I S H
Honolulu Advertiser
Honolulu Star Bulletin
Hana Hou
Honolulu Weekly
What Edit Grrl Reads

Contact T I N F I S H sschultz@tinfishpress.com

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