New Rivers Press has, as senior editor Al Davis admits, a “quirky” business model. In 2001, the small press, founded by C.W. “Bill” Truesdale in a Massachusetts barn little more than 40 years ago and renowned for its list of literary fiction, nonfiction and poetry titles, created with Minn. State University—Moorhead (MSUM) a unique partnership between a public university and a literary nonprofit. New Rivers' editorial offices are housed on the university's campus in western Minnesota, across the Red River from Fargo, N.Dak. While the university provides the press with its infrastructure and covers overhead expenses, all editorial decisions are completely independent of the university. Book marketing and production expenses are borne by the press, which has a $100,000 annual budget and grossed $64,000 in sales revenues this past fiscal year.

“Usually small presses are independent of universities and university presses are expected to publish academic monographs and faculty publications,” Davis said. “This is a new model, to go into partnership with a university, without making editorial compromises. It's a model that's feasible and viable.”

Davis calls New Rivers a “teaching press,” with MSUM students learning the art and business of publishing while earning college credits. MSUM offers a certificate in publishing to undergraduates and a concentration in publishing to M.F.A. students. Davis claims the publishing program is one of the most popular curricula on campus, although only 22 students have earned the certificate since the program was implemented.

“We've worked with a couple hundred students,” Davis said of the press, which, as of this fall, will have released 33 titles in the six years it's published books under this arrangement. “A lot of students take the classes, even when they're not working toward the certificate.”

Each spring, the three permanent New Rivers staff members—director Wayne Gudmundson, also an MSUM photography professor; managing editor Donna Carlson; and design and production editor Allen Sheets, an MSUM art and graphic design professor—and Davis, a faculty member in the university's M.F.A. and English programs, direct 20—25 students, who work in teams, editing and designing five titles that are released only in the fall and distributed by Consortium. Consortium has distributed New Rivers' publications since 1996.

“To make it work, we had to match our curriculum to the academic calendar,” Davis explained.

The books, which are all POD through Bookmobile, are published with initial print runs ranging between 800 and 1,000 copies, though one of this fall's five releases, Whiskey Heart (Oct.), a debut novel by Rachel Coyne, has a first print run of 2,000 copies.

“We have to print at least 751 copies of each book,” Davis explained. “After that first print run, we can print anything from 10 to 10,000 copies and get the minimum price [for each copy].”

Recalling the events that led to New Rivers relocating to Moorhead from Minneapolis in 2001, Davis insisted, “If we had not done what we did, the press would not have survived.”

Describing New Rivers' founding publisher as “fiercely independent” and “always fiercely literary,” Davis disclosed that Truesdale originally “intended to have the press die with him,” when, due to failing health, he stepped down as publisher in 1999, after having published more than 300 titles since the first release, Margaret Randall's poetry collection, So Many Rooms Has a House but One Roof, was published in November 1968. He was only persuaded “by degrees” to let New Rivers continue after his retirement. Truesdale died on February 26, 2001.

Like many small companies after losing their founders, New Rivers went through a period of retrenchment, its troubles exacerbated by cash flow difficulties resulting from heavy returns that reached as high as 50%. When the press suspended operations a month before Truesdale's death, a group of MSUM professors, led by Davis, who already had published two collections of short stories and edited three fiction anthologies with New Rivers, proposed housing the press at MSUM. After receiving a $40,000 grant from the McKnight Foundation that spring, the press was debt-free and able to relocate. It resumed publishing books in 2003 with three new releases that year, down from the 15—20 titles released in previous years.

“Logistically, financially, we just can't do that,” Davis explained. The press is currently funded through approximately $30,000 a year in grants and $20,000 annually in donations, while the university provides $200,000 a year in in-kind support, he added.

While Davis, 59, and Gudmundson, 61, are beginning to consider the issue of succession themselves and have recently begun discussions with the university about the press's future, they are confident that New Rivers will continue to fulfill its mission of publishing quality literature while preparing young people for careers in book publishing.

“We're committed to continuing Bill's the mission,” Davis said. “With the business model we have, we'll keep on doing what we're doing.”