Publisher Picks is a series in which we ask one of our publishers to highlight their personal favourites from our catalogue. Many of our publications exist in a network of cross-publisher dialogue; Publisher Picks aims to highlight these relationships. This month, we spoke to Richard Porter of Pilot Press, a London-based independent publisher that is an extension of Porter’s art practice.
Richard Porter is a British artist and the editor of Pilot Press, an imprint he started in 2017 to share the work of those in the queer community. The press maintains the simple, frugal, DIY ethos of its first title, ‘Not here: a queer anthology of loneliness’, and publishes works by poets, writers and artists in a variety of forms, from pamphlets and zines, to traditional paperback books.
From Primary Information:
A SOMETHING ELSE READER is an example of the kind of artist publications that inspired my first anthology in 2017. It’s from an awakened, pre-AIDS, pre-neoliberal age, and is a selection of works taken from numerous titles printed by Something Else Press, the imprint of artist Dick Higgins, who published works of radical art and writing in a subversive manner by replicating the style of more traditional literary publishers. I’m grateful to Primary Information for bringing these lost works to light.
From Hanuman Editions:
Strange, esoteric and appealing to the magpie-brained collector in my mind, it’s brilliant that this series has been revived. They feel like those tiny copies of the Bible we were given at school, but these little bound books are actually sacred, have more wisdom to impart and won’t end up immediately in the playground bins. THE LIE OF THE TRUTH is a great text for today’s lost, conspiratorial world.
From First to Knock!:
Possibly one of my favourite titles distributed by Public Knowledge Books, A BEAM OF SUNLIGHT IN THE DEEP FOREST is a gorgeously decadent, fucked-up seance with a 19th century mystic. For fellow time travellers and those seeking the real knowledge.
Finally, PKB’s pick from Pilot Press:
One of our favourite things about Pilot Press is Porter’s commitment to publishing the works of queer writers and practitioners whose writings do not fit into a conventional genre or publishing space. Disquiet Drive, by Hesse K. is one such work, weaving together essay, poetry, prose, and even a short play to form an urgent body of writing that embodies the creative potential of experimental publishing today.