ABOUT FOREST AVENUE PRESS
Forest Avenue Press publishes literary fiction on a joyride (and the occasional memoir). Our titles are distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West.
Since its 2012 founding, Forest Avenue has become known for publishing books that surprise and delight readers. We’ve chosen to incorporate hope and whimsy and possibility into our catalog, seeing joy as a necessary balance to the hardships of living. Reedsy named Forest Avenue a best independent press for 2022. Literary Arts honored us with two publishing fellowships. Our authors have earned prestigious awards and praise from top newspapers and trade journals, including The Washington Post, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Foreword Reviews, and The Oregonian.
On the editorial side, we prioritize BIPOC, queer, and neurodivergent voices. We prize novels that are beautifully crafted and are spun into being via the author’s lived experience. Many of our titles blend genres in playful, unexpected ways. If you’ve written a manuscript that nobody else could have imagined, because it’s so centered on your individual way of looking at the world, then it might be a Forest Ave book. Unagented submissions are welcomed once a year through Submittable. Authors who are familiar with our catalog will be given priority in the submissions process.
MEET THE TEAM
LAURA STANFILL (she/her), PUBLISHER
Laura Stanfill is the neurodivergent publisher of Forest Avenue Press and the author of Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary (Lanternfish). She speaks regularly at colleges, universities, workshops, and festivals to increase industry transparency and decentralize the publishing power structure. Sometimes she feeds her authors snacks out of her purse. She believes in the power of storytelling and wishes on indie bookstores like stars.
LIZ PRATO (she/her), EDITOR AT LARGE
Liz Prato’s most recent book is Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning (SFWP). Her essay collection Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawai‘i (Overcup Press) was named a Top Summer Read by the New York Times, and a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She is also the author of Baby’s on Fire: Stories (Press 53), and editor of The Night, and the Rain, and the River: 22 Stories (Forest Avenue Press). Her work was named a Notable selection in Best American Essays and Best American Sports Writing 2018. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including The Rumpus, Carolina Quarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Salon, and Subtropics. Liz believes in independent bookstores, small presses, community, grace, and palm trees.
GIGI LITTLE (she/her), GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Gigi Little is honored to be graphic designer for Forest Avenue Press. She also edited the very popular Forest Avenue anthology City of Weird and co-designed and co-edited the art book The Untold Gaze. As a writer, her work has appeared in Portland Noir, Spent, The Pacific Northwest Reader, and elsewhere.
SAMM SAXBY (they/them), ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Samm Saxby transferred to Portland State University where she earned her BFA in Creative Writing Fiction and graduated with honors. Samm is the editorial operations associate at Book Riot, the Events and Marketing Assistant for Catapult / Counterpoint / Soft Skull Press, Associate Editor for Forest Avenue Press, Assistant Editor for The Gravity of the Thing, Copy and Development Editor for the graphic novel series, WaterShed, and she has published work in Nailed magazine. Samm is working hard to dismantle racism in book publishing. She participates in local writing workshops, reading series, speaks on literary panels, volunteers for literary events, is working on her first zine with Microcosm Publishing, and writing her debut novel.
CHRISTINA VEGA (they/them), ADVISOR
Christina Vega (they/them) is a Queer Chicana storyteller from the borderlands of Texas & Mexico. Their mother is Anita Vega and their grandmother is Aurora Vega. Christina lives on Puyallup and Nisqually Land in a multigenerational home. Christina believes we have the power to reshape our communities with principles of Emergent Strategy, transformative justice, and collective laboring of love. They believe revolution starts at home.
They founded Blue Cactus Press, where they work with change-makers to create books that serve as tools and community resources. They primarily work with and skill-share with folks from historically marginalized groups who face gatekeeping in publishing and creative entrepreneurial spaces/positions. They seek deep collaborations and work that emerges through relationship.
They are working on their third poetry collection, Vega (forthcoming Summer 2023, Blue Cactus Press) which centers on grief, loss, and ancestry.
TESTIMONIALS
“Laura has shown fantastic support as a person who goes above and beyond to lift voices, especially of those often marginalized. As a writer of color, I can speak from personal experience when I say that I have felt heard and seen by her; her dedication to spreading voices that contribute in a positive way to literature of today is reflected in her sincere, constructive feedback for writers and selfless promotion of excellent work.” — Zaji Cox, author and dancer
“A bedrock of Portland’s literary community.” — Magnify
“We can’t say enough positive things about Forest Avenue Press. Their authors love them. Their readers adore them. And we see them work themselves silly to do the best for both.” — Oregon Writers Colony
“The founder and publisher, Laura Stanfill, defies natural law with her energy and ever-presence at literary events, and seems able to balance (and savor) the beauties of business, motherhood and art—she writes magical realism that is the real deal. I’ve watched her take the women-powered Portland press to national distribution, each act of business done with sterling quality and panache.” — Leigh Anne Kranz, KBOO radio
“Forest Avenue Press is Laura Stanfill is a force of nature. She is such steady rain she seeps into your story, the characters of your story, and grows them, nurtures the conditions for your characters' growing. She is such gale force winds, she spreads your book into every crevice of the country, into people's hands and eyes and hair. She is such sun that she helps you take root and become something perennial, something called a novelist. And she creates a stand of writers, a community, because she connects everyone she meets.” — Kate Gray, author of Carry the Sky (Forest Avenue Press)
“Anytime I see Laura Stanfill, she is a smiling, brilliant, supportive light embodying everything I miss and love about community. She is a lighthouse, a porch light, always showing the way. Always ready for you to come home. She makes me want to be here, even if it’s just in spirit. Without her, there’s just a bunch of shitty condos around a bookstore.” — Tabitha Blankenbiller, author of Eats of Eden: A Year of Food and Fiction (Alternating Current)
"A woman of tireless love for literature and writers, and a leader in her community." — Ramiza Shamoun Koya, author of The Royal Abduls (Forest Avenue Press)
“Since planting its roots in 2012, Stanfill has grown Forest Avenue Press into the woodland of critically praised fiction it’s known as today.” — Morgan Nicholson, Eleven PDX
“I started working my way through the Forest Avenue Press catalog, amused by the idea that I had become a fan of Laura Stanfill’s Portland-based publishing house. I’ve never given a thought to where my books came from before, but Laura hand-picks her offerings with a specific type of reader in mind, and how she knew me so well is a creepy mystery… Laura’s books attract Serious Readers, ones who really dig into the story and have some appreciation for the writing process. Is it any wonder that many of the Forest Avenue fans I’ve met are writers themselves?” — Kristin Noreen, author of On Silver Wings
Reedsy named Forest Ave as
one of the Best Small Presses in
2022. Featured by Powell’s for
Small Press Month. Named one
of the 100 reasons to love
Portland by Portland Monthly.
Winner of two Oregon Literary
Fellowships for Publishing.
Recent coverage in Publishers
Weekly, Catapult, Literary Hub,
and The Nonconformist.