Los Angeles–based independent publisher Unnamed Press has announced a poetry line devoted to “collaborative cross-media projects,” and anticipates publishing two to three such projects per year.
“What we love about poetry is the poets themselves,” Unnamed publisher Chris Heiser told PW, adding that the press aims to “market directly to our audiences and connect with our audiences” across multiple media. Unnamed shares office space with the indie book and record publisher Rare Bird, founded by Tyson Cornell, and that proximity has led to collaboration: “They introduced us to vinyl records as a possibility for pairing with books, and we’ve done several records together in the past,” Heiser said.
Unnamed is launching the poetry line with two collections that include audio components. Musician Emma Ruth Rundle wrote her debut, The Bella Vista (Feb.), while traveling between tour stops. For its Bella Vista preorder campaign, Unnamed bundled a copy of the book with an LP by the artist, with its run of 350 book-plus-record sets selling out in 48 hours.
Rundle is “an accomplished independent musician with her own fan base, and she tours the world,” Heiser said. “The collection felt wholly complete,” and Unnamed’s editorial team was excited “to connect with her [musical] audience around poetry, given the limitations for review coverage in literature in general.”
Heiser added, “We’ll see what we decide to do with the record,” in addition to the print book. He clarified that that Rundle’s LP is “not an audiobook” but rather "about 35 minutes of her instrumental compositions, piano primarily, and on each side she reads one long poem,” making it a unique collectable for fans.
Unnamed’s second poetry project, poet and translator Alana Marie Levinson-Labrosse’s Dream State: A Commonplace Book (Apr.), was among five finalists for the 2024 Changes poetry prize, judged by Eileen Myles. In Dream State, Levinson-Labrosse composes work in conversation with the Kurdish refugees she has worked with in Iraq.
Levinson-Labrosse “spent 10 years working in Iraq as a translator and a writer, but primarily as a [partner] in Kurdish cultural preservation,” Heiser said. “She met all these musicians who were forced to go underground by the Islamic State when it occupied Mosul, and her poems connect us to the world the poet is experiencing.” This summer, a companion audio recording will be released on vinyl in cooperation with Rare Bird, and a digital version will be made available on Spotify and other platforms.
Unnamed’s announcement the new poetry line noted that “subsequent books will continue efforts to broaden the audience for our books through art, film, and music, seeking out partnerships with other independent companies.”
