Est. October 2005
Celebrating Twenty Years of Finding and sharing remarkable voices in Poetry & Short Fiction
Attention Readers Outside of the United States: All Press 53 books are available worldwide. To avoid high shipping charges from the U.S., check with your favorite online bookseller!
Press 53 published its first book on October 10, 2005, and we have now published more than 300 titles by writers in 40 states who have earned more than 100 awards.
Thank you for your support of Press 53 and our authors!
Better to resist the flux and believe that something stays. At last, he thinks, that is his answer. How still it all is, so utterly clear. Then one bright leaf lets go and changes everything.
from Knowing by Mark Cox, winner of the 2025 Brockman-Campbell Book Award
Issue 281 Is Now Live! Press 53’s two-time Pushcart Prize-winning online literary journal
2026 Titles
by Amanda Chiado
Winner of the 2026 Press 53 Award for Poetry
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
Publication date: March 5
Purchase an early copy and meet Amanda at AWP in Baltimore, MD (Press 53, booth 610), March 5-7
Pre-orders will ship before the publication date
ISBN 978-1-968783-05-1
9 × 6 softcover, 98 pages
by Daniel S.C. Sutter
Winner of the 2026 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
Publication date: May 3
Purchase an early copy and meet Dan at AWP in Baltimore, MD (Press 53, booth 610), March 5-7
Pre-orders will ship before the publication date
ISBN 978-1-968783-04-4
8.5 × 5.5-inch softcover, 160 pages
by Clint McCown
Publication date: March 5
Purchase a copy and meet Clint at AWP in Baltimore, MD (Press 53, booth 610), March 5-7
Pre-orders will ship before the publication date
ISBN 978-1-968783-03-7
9 ×6-inch softcover, 234 pages
by Michael Kardos
Publication date: March 5
Purchase a copy and meet Michael at AWP in Baltimore, MD (Press 53, booth 610), March 5-7
Pre-orders ship before the publication date
ISBN 978-1-968783-02-0
8.5 × 5.5-inch softcover, 180 pages
by William Pitt Root
Pre-orders ship early March
ISBN 978-1-968783-06-8
9 × 6 softcover, 66 pages
Our Spring 2026 titles are now ready to ship. To learn more about each title, click on the cover image.
2025 Titles
by Gary Fincke
ISBN 978-1-950413-97-3
9 × 6 softcover, 356 pages
by George Choundas
Winner of the 2025 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
Publication date: May 3, 2025
Pre-orders ship May 3
ISBN 978-1-950413-98-0
8.5 × 5.5 softcover, 116 pages
by Dave Nielsen
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
Winner 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry
ISBN: 978-1-950413-95-9
9 × 6 softcover, 68 pages
by Robert Morgan
Carolina Classics Editions
ISBN 978-1-968783-00-6
8.5 × 5.5 softcover, 92 pages
First published in 2000 in a story collection of the same title, The Mountains Won’t Remember Us is now available as a stand-alone novella.
by Richard Jackson
Silver Concho Poetry Series edited by Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root
ISBN: 978-1-950413-90-4
9 × 6 softcover, 126 pages
by Vaughn M. Watson
Runner-Up 2025 Press 53 Award for Poetry
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN 978-1-950413-94-2
9 × 6 softcover, 74 pages
by Jim Peterson
Silver Concho Poetry Series edited by Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root
ISBN: 978-1-950413-89-8
9 × 6 softcover, 108 pages
by Cheryl Wilder
ISBN 978-1-950413-99-7
9 × 6 softcover, 92 pages
A companion collection to Anything That Happens
Publication date: September 4, 2025
by Laura-Gray Street
Silver Concho Poetry Series edited by Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root
ISBN: 978-1-950413-96-6
9 × 6 softcover, 94 pages
by Shivani Mehta
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN: 978-1-950413-92-8
9 × 6 softcover, 76 pages
Edited by Danielle Hanson & Julia Beach
Book launch and alumni reading, Saturday, March 22, 5-7 p.m. at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Meacham Writers’ Workshop at University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Roth Reading Room, UTC Library (conference runs March 20-22)
Also at AWP, Los Angeles Convention Center, Booth 1118, March 27-29
ISBN: 978-1-950413-91-1
9 × 6 softcover, 194 pages
2024 Titles
Carolina Classics Editions
Finalist, 2025 Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry
ISBN: 978-1-950413-88-1
9 × 6-softcover, 272 pages
Collected Early Poems of Robert Morgan presents in one volume the contents of his first four full-length poetry collections: Zirconia Poems (Lillabulero Press, 1969); Red Owl (W. W. Norton, 1972); Land Diving (LSU Press, 1976); and Trunk & Thicket (L’Epervier Press, 1978).
by Lou Ella Hickman
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN 978-1-950413-87-4
8 x 5.25 softcover, 78 pages
by Steve Mitchell
Publication date: September 12
Pre-Orders Ship Mid-August
ISBN 978-1-950413-83-6
8.5 x 5.5 inch softcover, 156 pages
by Shannon Robinson
Winner of the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
ISBN 978-1-950413-75-1
8.5 x 5.5 softcover, 242 pages
by Kathleen McGookey
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN 978-1-950413-86-7
9 x 6 softcover, 78 pages
by Britt Kaufmann
Winner 2026 Phillip H. McMath Book Award for Poetry
Winner 2025 National Association of Independent Writers & Editors (NAIWE) Book Award for Poetry
Silver Award 2025 Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE) Book Award for Poetry
ISBN 978-1-950413-82-9
9 x 6 softcover, 80 pages
by Garrett Ashley
Runner-Up, Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
ISBN 978-1-950413-76-8
8.5 x 5.5 softcover, 172 pages
by Rick Campbell
ISBN 978-1-950413-74-4
9 x 6 softcover, 74 pages
by David Jauss
ISBN 978-1-950413-85-0
9 x 6 softcover, 229 pages
Fifty-Three 53-Word Story Contest Winners, Plus Tips on Writing Remarkably Brief Fiction
edited by Kevin Morgan Watson, Claire V. Foxx, Christopher Forrest, and Ella Watson
ISBN 978-1-950413-81-2
8 x 5.25 inch softcover, 82 pages
by Mark Cox
Winner of the 2025 Brockman-Campbell Book Award
ISBN 978-1-950413-79-9
9 x 6 softcover, 98 pages
by Sara Ries Dziekonski
Runner-up 2024 Press 53 Award for Poetry
Finalist, 2025 Woodrow Hall Top Shelf Award
ISBN: 978-1-950413-80-5
9 x 6 softcover, 110 pages
by Jackie Craven
Winner 2024 Press 53 Award for Poetry
Finalist 2025 USA Best Books Award
A Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection
ISBN: 978-1-950413-78-2
9 x 6 softcover, 84 pages
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