Did you know that Roxane Gay has started a press? No, not her involvement with PANK, which we all know is a great press & a stellar journal (both online & in print). This is Tiny Hardcore Press, something entirely new. So I asked her some questions that perhaps our BigOther audience might like to hear the answers to:

Tiny Hardcore Press purports to be “… a very tiny, hardcore press. We will publish books we love on an indeterminate schedule. The books themselves will be tiny and hardcore…” Can you give us a more detailed nutshell of what this is / is going to be?

That pretty much sums up my current ambitions with regard to the press. I have other things going on, so I’m going to publish one book at a time so I can do what I want as well as possible. The first title will be released on March 1, 2011. If the first book goes well, there will be more books. Each book will be 5.5″x 4.25″ in size so it can fit in your pocket quite nicely and feel nice in your hand.That’s where the tiny comes in, plus I simply love the word “tiny.” I’m going to do small runs of 100-150, and e-versions will also be available. These are not limited editions. If a book does well, I will happily reprint it. The hardcore part of the press’s name refers to the kind of writing I tend to fall in love with, writing with an edge, writing that grabs me in the gut and is relentless. Plus, the name feels cool and sharp.

xTx’s Normally Special will be the first release from THP – talk to us about what we can expect from this book, and why it was your choice for a debut title:

xTx’s book is unreal. When I decided to start a micropress, I knew I wanted to publish books by writers I truly believed in and writers I could develop relationships with. xTx and I often workshop our writing together before we send it out into the world and as I started to think about a series of stories she sent my way, I thought, “There’s a beautiful book in these stories,” so I asked her if she would be willing to work on a book together and she was and that’s how Normally Special was born. I love xTx’s writing, her passion for her stories, her willingness to work on her craft, the way she continues to grow as a writer. The stories in Normally Special are as great as we’ve come to expect from xTx, but there are also stories that will surprise you with their depth, imagination and emotional honesty.

Are there any other people involved with THP? Are there any other book projects already in the pipeline?

There are no other people involved with Tiny Hardcore. There are other book projects already in the pipeline or at least, there are ideas of books in the pipeline. I’m starting with the women in my awesome writing group and after that, if I can make a go of this thing, I’ll open up submissions and see what comes my way. If writers are interested, they can drop me a line.

I will get a review of their first release xTx’s story collection Normally Special as soon as I am done reading & digesting it, but until then, check out their site, pre-order the book, & see a press as a newborn – we don’t always get that chance.