Seattle’s newest independent publisher, Hinton Publishing, leads with its mission to broadcast historically marginalized and underrepresented communities. Established by Marcus Harrison Green, the founder and publisher of nonprofit media site the South Seattle Emerald, Hinton Publishing will be an imprint of publisher Vladimir Verano’s Vertvolta Press.
Green plans to publish at least two titles by Pacific Northwest authors annually, beginning in 2024 with reporter and poet Reagan Jackson’s Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist and fiction writer Juan Carlos Reyes’s Three Alarm Fire and Other Stories. Books by justice reform expert Sean Goode and essayist and podcaster Danielle Marie Holland are slated for 2025.
Green and Verano began discussing Hinton Publishing in 2019, having worked together on multiple projects. “Vlad and I connected at the time he was overseeing Third Place Press,” the precursor to Vertvolta, Green explained. “He published the first two volumes of the South Seattle Emerald anthology Emerald Reflections” and Fly to the Assemblies!: Seattle and the Rise of the Resistance, another anthology of Emerald writers expressing “their feelings at that time.” Vertvolta also published Green’s own Readying to Rise: Essays.
The result of the discussions between Verano and Green was the creation of an “imprint partnership,” with the latter determining the projects and the former publishing them. “Last year, I created a science fiction/fantasy/horror genre imprint called Extra:Solar,” Verano said, and Hinton will be a way for Vertvolta to publish nonfiction and other categories as well. “Marcus and I talked about how much ownership the creators should have, and Marcus figured out we would share the responsibilities about what comes through Hinton.”
Green noted that the business will be set up “as a social purpose corporation, which in Washington State is an LLC that allows you to prioritize things besides financial gain.” (Libro.fm is another example of a Washington social purpose corporation.) “I wanted Hinton to serve our readers and our authors as best as we could,” by advancing people of color, LGBTQ authors, disabled individuals, and those “from low-income backgrounds,” Green said.
For Green, the time was right to form a publishing house. He stepped away from the Emerald’s day-to-day workings in May 2020, although he remains on the board of directors. (The site celebrates its ninth anniversary on August 12, under the leadership of executive director Michael McPhearson.)
Green named Hinton Publishing after his grandfather, Leonard “Lenny” Hinton, a Chicago-based Black writer. According to Green, his grandfather submitted a manuscript to a publisher in the 1950s and later discovered it had been published “under a white writer’s name.” This story of aspiration and injustice stuck with Green all his life.
“The seed to do something in his honor had been with me from an early age,” Green said. “As I got older, I learned stories of authors of color or from historically marginalized communities who never got a break, because gatekeepers within the publishing industry did not want to elevate their voices, whether for commercial or more nefarious reasons.” He sees Hinton as “a way to memorialize and amplify the unnamed authors who spent years writing.”
Green brought frequent Emerald contributor Maggie Block on board as deputy publisher. “I was a librarian at the Skyway Library, which is an unincorporated community in the south end of Seattle, where Marcus is from,” said Block. Block’s experiences as a librarian and in Seattle public schools gave them “the privilege to work in racially diverse communities. I had so many conversations with young people who want to find a book that is about them,” and Hinton Publishing can create those resources.
Block believes Hinton’s titles could appeal to students and teachers in and beyond Seattle–King County schools and libraries, and they envision community building with their authors and books. They also are gathering responses to a survey, asking local readers and writers for “feedback so we can build meaningful connections, writing support, and resources.”
In June, Block and Green set up a table at Trans Pride Seattle, created an interactive board inviting people to post “trans stories that need to be told,” and distributed a chapbook Verano printed for the occasion, which included the story of Green’s grandfather, Hinton’s mission, and excerpts from their debut roster of authors. “Everybody sends out press releases, but I was like, ‘What can we do to maximize that one moment we have with someone?’ “ Verano said. “This little booklet—it’s an enhanced business card, I guess.”
In his press announcement, Green refers to Hinton as a space for “under-invited” communities. “There’s a difference between saying ‘all are welcome here’ and ‘this was created with you in mind,’ ” Green said, paraphrasing wellness mentor Crystal Jones. “I want to make sure Hinton is a place that is created and crafted for folks, with words that are truly published.”
This story has been updated.
