Counterpoint LLC was a
publishing
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
company that
Perseus Books Group
Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in year 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997.
In 2005, Perseus acquired ...
launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Soft Skull Press. The company published books under both the Counterpoint Press and Soft Skull Press imprints. Counterpoint also entered into an agreement for the production, marketing, and distribution of approximately eight
Sierra Club book titles each year.
Both
Wendell Berry and poet
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...
were investors in Counterpoint, with both having works published by the imprint.
Jack Shoemaker, Vice-president and editorial director of Counterpoint, had worked with both authors in other companies for more than thirty years. Counterpoint notably published works by Albanian author
Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare (; 28 January 1936 – 1 July 2024) was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. He was a leading international literary figure and intellectual, focusing on poetry until the publication of his first novel ...
, including ''
A Girl in Exile'', ''The Traitor’s Niche'', and ''
The Doll: A Portrait of My Mother''.
Counterpoint merged into fellow publisher Catapult in 2016.
Soft Skull Press
Soft Skull Press is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
book publisher founded by Sander Hicks in 1992, and run by
Yuka Igarashi from 2017 until 2022, when she was hired by
Graywolf Press.
In 2007, Richard Nash, who had taken Soft Skull over from Hicks in 2001, sold the publisher to Counterpoint, who closed Soft Skull's New York operation in 2010.
Counterpoint merged with fellow publisher
Catapult
A catapult is a ballistics, ballistic device used to launch a projectile at a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden rel ...
in 2016. Subsequently, Soft Skull reopened its New York office with Yuka Igarashi as editor-in-chief, and began to reissue backlist books. These included ''The Amputee's Guide to Sex'' by Jillian Weise, ''Something Bright, Then Holes'' by
Maggie Nelson, and
Wayne Koestenbaum's 2004 novel, ''Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes'' under the new title, ''Circus.''
The publisher has since acquired and published new works.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Official websiteSoft Skull Press
Book publishing companies based in Berkeley, California
Publishing companies established in 2007
American companies established in 2007
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