Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by

Perseus Books Group Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Ye ...

launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses:

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek language, Greek: Περσεύς, Romanization of Greek, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus ...

' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent

Soft Skull Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus Book Group, Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard an ...

. The company published books under 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 Wendell Erdman Berry (born August 5, 1934) is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of ...

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 o ...

were investors in Counterpoint, with both of their works currently being published by the Counterpoint imprint.

Jack Shoemaker Jack Shoemaker (born 1946) is an American editor and publisher, and current editorial director and vice-president at Counterpoint Press in Berkeley, California. Shoemaker has edited and published books under several imprints, including North Point, ...

, Vice-president and editorial director of Counterpoint, had worked with both authors in other companies for more than thirty years. Counterpoint published some works by Albanian author

Ismail Kadare Ismail Kadare (; spelled Ismaïl Kadaré in French; born on 28 January 1936) is an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. He is a leading international literary figure and intellectual. He focused on poetry until the pu ...

, including ''

A Girl in Exile ''A Girl in Exile: Requiem for Linda B.'' (Albanian: ''E penguara: Rekuiem për Linda B.'') is a novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare. It has been described as "one of Kadare's best novels". Alberto Manguel, "The evil of the gods" (review of 'A ...

'', ''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 the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

book publisher founded by Sander Hicks in 1992, and run by Yuka Igarashi since 2017. In 2007, Richard Nash, who had taken Soft Skull over from Hicks in 2001, sold Soft Skull to Counterpoint, who closed Soft Skull's New York operation in 2010. Counterpoint merged into fellow publisher

Catapult A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile 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 release of store ...

in 2016; subsequently, Soft Skull reopened its New York office with Yuka Igarashi as editor-in-chief, and began to reissue backlist books, including ''The Amputee's Guide to Sex'' by

Jillian Weise Jillian is both a feminine given name and a surname. A spelling variant of Gillian, it originates as a feminine form of the given name Julian, Julio, Julius, and Julien. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Jillian Armenante ( ...

and ''Something Bright, Then Holes'' by

Maggie Nelson Maggie Nelson (born 1973) is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, ae ...

and Wayne Koestenbaum's 2004 novel, ''Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes'' with a new title, ''Circus'', and to acquire and publish new works.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

Official website

Soft Skull Press
Book publishing companies based in Berkeley, California Publishing companies established in 2007 American companies established in 2007 {{publish-company-stub