Ig Publishing

Ig Publishing is a New York-based press devoted to publishing original literary fiction, and political and cultural nonfiction. The editor is Robert Lasner, author of For Fucks Sake, and the publisher is Elizabeth Clementson. Ig Publishing has a young adult imprint, Lizzie Skurnick Books, which publishes classic young adult literature and is edited by Lizzie Skurnick. The press was founded in 2002.^[1] Among Ig's awards in 2014 and 2015 was a PEN/Hemingway Honorable Mention for Damn Love by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara,^[2] an Indie Next selection for Rachel Weaver's Point of Direction,^[3] and a Sydney Taylor Honor book selection for Isabel's War by Lila Perl (published by YA imprint Lizzie Skurnick Books.) ^[4]

History

Ig was founded in 2002 with the release of Robert Lasner's novel For Fucks Sake. The press also released a series of Dive Bar guides to select cities--New York, Chicago and San Francisco--from 2002 to 2004. Ig also released several literary novels, including Grant Bailie's Cloud 8 and Richard Madelin's Careful!

Inspired by the rise of the progressive political blogosphere, Ig began publishing political non-fiction, along with literary fiction.^[5] Among the blog books that Ig released were Confessions of a Former Dittohead (2006), Framing the Debate by Jeffrey Feldman, Moving A Nation to Care by Ilona Meagher, and Steeplejacking: How the Christian Right is Hijacking Mainstream Religion by John Dorhauer and Sheldon Culver (all in 2007).

During this time, Ig also re-published several non-fiction classics, including Edward Bernays's Propaganda, Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders, and Empire As A Way of Life by William Appleman Williams.

Increasing Reputation in Politics

Ig's political list continued to grow, as the press gained a reputation as an important voice in progressive political publishing. In December 2007, Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops was highlighted before Congress when its author was called to testify at a House Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing.^[6] And, in the lead-up to the 2008 election, Ig published Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008, highlighting the vast electoral fraud in the 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 elections. The collection was edited by Mark Crispin Miller.

Other political highlights for the press were Jill Richardson's Recipe for America (2009) on the American food system; union activist Joe Burns on the need for the labor movement to bring back the production-halting strike, Reviving the Strike (2011), and its companion title, Strike Back (2014) on the rising public employee labor upsurge; Crow After Roe, on the state-level war against abortion; and Part of the Family, about the rising movement to gain rights for domestic workers.

In 2013, Ig released The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism by award-winning investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson.^[7] An outgrowth of Aaronson's article for Mother Jones magazine, The Terror Factory exposed how the FBI, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the war on terror.

Literary Fiction

Ig is particularly known for its literary fiction. In 2012, the press released The Care and Feeding of Exotic Pets by Diana Wagman, which was named a Barnes and Noble Discover pick. In 2014, Ig released Point of Direction by Rachel Weaver, which was named an Indie Next selection. Ig has had multiple titles reviewed by prestigious publications including The New York Times, NPR, Publishers Weekly, Oprah Magazine, Kirkus and Booklist. Damn Love, a short story collection by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, received a PEN/Hemingway Honorable Mention in 2014. In 2015, Tracy O'Neill's The Hopeful was named a 5 Under 35 pick by the National Book Foundation. ^[8]

In 2013, Ig launched a YA imprint, Lizzie Skurnick Books, dedicated to reviving young adult classics.^[9] The imprint has published four of Sydney Taylor's "All-of-a-Kind Family" books, as well as Lila Perl's award-winning Isabel's War. Among the authors that Lizzie Skurnick Books has published are Lois Duncan, Ellen Conford, Ernest J. Gaines, M.E. Kerr, Norma Klein, Norma Fox Mazer and Brenda Wilkinson.

Bookmarked

In 2016, Ig launched its Bookmarked series, where an author writes on a book that had a profound impact on their writing and life. ^[10] The editor of the series is Kirby Gann, who also authored the first book in the series, on John Knowles' A Separate Peace. Other works in the series in 2016 include Curtis Smith on Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, Hobart Editor Aaron Burch on Stephen King's The Body, and Paula Bomer on Christina Stead's The Man Who Loved Children. In 2017, the series will publish Jaime Clarke on Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, David Ryan on Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, Steve Yarbrough on Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show and Micheal Seidlinger of Electric Literature on Mark Danielewski's House of Leaves. 2018 will see Brian Evenson on Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and Charles Holdefer on George Saunders' Pastoralia.^[11]

References

Further reading

• LINDA VILLAROSA. "Tiny Fort Greene Publisher Celebrates 10 Surprisingly Successful Years". The Local - Fort-Greene. Retrieved 1 February 2015. 
• "Lizzie Skurnick Books brings back YA classics". Washington Post. Retrieved 1 February 2015.