Publishers decide, in a very real sense, what makes it into publication and, therefore, much of the print information available to the consumer. If a small-press publisher can survive in a notoriously fickle business, then they have the chance to make little-known work available or to respond quickly to new information.

Early this year, Dennis Johnson and the staff at Melville House worked around the clock to prepare the just-released Mueller Report for publication and wide distribution. They’ve become specialists at this type of quick turnaround publishing, having previously published The Climate Change Report and The Torture Report, among others. The most recent publications from Melville House are How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell and Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview. Dennis will talk about small press publishing, publishing politically risky books, and the current state of the publishing industry.

Dennis Johnson is a Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer and journalist who founded the first American book blog, MobyLives. With his wife, Valerie Merians, he is the co-founder and publisher of Melville House. He lives in Brooklyn.

At the Weatherspoon, Dennis will talk about small-press publishing and how it fits into the larger publishing world. Q&A to follow.

Dennis Johnson will also be appearing at Scuppernong Books on Wednesday, October 23 @ 7pm to talk about responding to current events as a publisher, the political implications of publishing, and the challenges of running a small press. Q&A to follow.

Writers as Witness: A Six Part Series Fall 2019
For more information call (336) 763-1919.

Scuppernong Books, in collaboration with PEN America and Greensboro Bound, will present a multi-part series, Writers as Witness, in the Fall of 2019. This series will explore the impact of local journalism in our community, freedom of expression during a time of rising hate speech, and the role played by writers of all genres in documenting this moment in America. The series launches on September 18 at Scuppernong Books with a discussion between local newspaper and radio reporters.

The Writers as Witness series seeks to explore the ways in which writers—be they journalists, poets, memoirists, or fiction writers—engage and elaborate our current cultural moment in America.