Four years after joining Dzanc Books as senior editor and one year after assuming the position of publisher and editor-in-chief, Guy Intoci is stepping aside this month. By August 15, senior editor and internship coordinator Michelle Dotter will assume the duties of publisher and editor-in-chief of the small press, which is best known for its literary fiction offerings, although it also publishes nonfiction and, occasionally, poetry.
In an email sent on Friday afternoon to Dzanc’s authors and other industry colleagues, Intoci cited personal circumstances for his decision to move on, including a cross-country move from Brooklyn to California, “and new opportunities that I hope to be able to elaborate on soon."
"I hope to remain a valuable asset to Dzanc’s authors and will always be available to help support the books in whatever capacity I can,” Intoci stated, “I look forward to seeing the next generation of Dzanc titles and trust that they will continue to amaze and inspire me. As for Michelle, many (perhaps most) of you have worked with her previously in various other editorial capacities and know that you are in good hands.”
Dotter, who is based in Boulder, Colorado, has worked for Dzanc for more than three years. Previously, she worked as a copy/content editor for two years at MP Publishing. She began her career in publishing in 2009 at Macadam/Cage as copy editor and proofreader, after interning for Intoci, an editor there at the time. She left Macadam/Cage in 2011.
Dzanc Books was launched in 2006 and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the state of Michigan by Steve Gillis and Dan Wickett. Wickett stepped back from his responsibilities as executive director four years ago, while Gillis stepped down as publisher last summer to focus upon his own writing, telling PW at the time that he’s “in a really good place to hand it off to a great staff.”According to Gillis at the time he step down, Dzanc was “in the black,” sustained by “several hundred thousand” dollars in revenues, supplemented by the returns on an investment account that Gillis set up in 2006 to finance the press.
Dzanc, which has four employees, will continue to sponsor a writers residency program, which places writers in elementary and secondary schools in Michigan. Dzanc will also continue to run its Disquiet International Literary Program annual writers conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
