Paris Press

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Paris Press (1995–2018) was founded to publish groundbreaking, yet often overlooked, literature by women. Its titles encompass many genres including essays, poetry, fiction, memoir, letters, and creative nonfiction. The common attribute is their daring experimentation in style and courage in speaking truthfully about society, culture, history, and the human heart. Paris Press authors include Muriel Rukeyser, Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Bryher, Ruth Stone, Zdena Berger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others.

In 2018 ownership of Paris Press titles was transferred to Wesleyan University Press upon the retirement of Jan Freeman, the founder and publisher of Paris Press. Freeman negotiated the deal with Wesleyan with the intention of keeping these fine books in print and available for many years to come. We are no longer acquiring books under the Paris Press imprint. If you are viewing this page in hopes of submitting to Paris Press, please view Wesleyan’s submission guidelines.

“I am thrilled and deeply honored that Paris Press authors and books will be part of Wesleyan University Press, a press with a great literary history, a press that I have admired for decades. This is a dream come true. Director Suzanna Tamminen will provide a welcoming home for the Paris Press list, which will forever reflect what is essential in literature. It has been a privilege to usher each Paris Press book into the world. I hope that Wesleyan will bring new audiences to these groundbreaking books and that the Paris Press family of readers, educators, and writers will continue to enthusiastically support the Paris Press at its new home.”

Jan Freeman, Founding Director of Paris Press

Paris Press Books

Endorsements

Praise for Tell Me Another Morning
“As the three friend’s journey into darkness progresses, Tania’s language grows pure and strong in the best style of Hemingway. Tell Me Another Morning is luminous yet modest, rooted in the last century’s worst reality, yet without rancor. Who could make up such miracles?”
The Los Angeles Times

Praise for The Player’s Boy
“A striking and beautifully written narrative. Bryher is a fine artist with words, extraordinarily skillful in her magical ability to capture the essence of an individual emotion and the quality of a national mood.”
The New York Times

Praise for Visa for Avalon
Visa for Avalon is a testament to the power of fiction. It illuminates the truth at the heart of what is commonly called reality. This account of lives, transformed and ruined by the triumph of a totalitarian rule is a timely reminder of how moral and intellectual laziness and apathy can pave the road to the reign of terror brought on by such a system.”
— Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

Praise for Simon Says
“If happiness, tenderness, grandiosity, etc. killed the cat, and the cat likes it better that way, what can we expect to die from and will we like it better also? And if the brassiere is in the tree, where are the rest of our things? Will wood save us along with the memory of scent? Is there a simple cure for comfort? And when will the angel arrive with convection in her pocket? It’s all in the cadences.”
—C.D. Wright