Western Independent Presses

An Interview with Matthew Davis of Ghost Road Press

By Jenny Shank, 8-14-06

In 2004, Colorado natives Matthew Davis and Sonya Unrein founded Ghost Road Press, an independent press based in Denver. Now the press is flourishing, annually publishing a variety of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction titles, many of which are written by Western authors. Matthew Davis recently discussed the history and future of Ghost Road Press in an email interview.

New West: How did Ghost Road Press get started? What were the most challenging aspects of starting an independent press?

Matthew Davis: Ghost Road Press really grew out of a desire that Sonya and I had to break away from the confines of doing work that we felt was suffocating our creativity; it grew out of a true love for literature and poetry and the need to be involved with creative people 24/7. Sonya and I have been good friends and have worked together for over a decade now. Our backgrounds are in journalism, publishing, English, and digital media. Our company originally began as a graphic design and copywriting firm—we were slaving away writing corporate books, brochures, and designing company web sites. We were busy, money was starting to come in, and we were absolutely miserable. One day while writing a brochure for a company that sold storage units I looked at Sonya and said, “This sucks. Lets do something we enjoy.” The next step was easy—we came up with publishing. True story.

The most challenging aspect with starting an independent press was building a catalog that we were proud to be a part of. It was the great unknown—would we get any good manuscripts? How would we get them? Would authors take a chance with us? Luckily, we hit on all counts—the prospects we have and the books we’ve published exceeded our expectations. We’re very fortunate to be working with such talented authors and poets.

NW: Did you have specific types of writing in mind that you wanted to publish when you started Ghost Road Press? Has that vision changed at all?

MD: We knew what we didn’t want to publish. Fantasy, sci-fi, crime and court, erotica, trash literature—anything that remotely seemed poorly written or ill conceived wouldn’t have a home at Ghost Road Press. And I’m not saying that we hate fantasy, sci-fi, or any other of the genres that I’ve just mentioned. I actually read quite a lot of them. We just wanted to be the alternative to the mainstream, a press where people could go for good, serious, literature and poetry—stuff that is unattractive to the accountants at major publishing houses. That doesn’t mean that we won’t ever publish any of those types of books. It just means that they need to be different, outstanding, and contribute something new to that specific genre. So far we’ve stayed true to that lofty vision. Our first year in business we mostly published literary short story collections and essay collections. This year we’ve published our first novels: The Silverville Swindle and Crybaby Ranch. We took our time with finding a novel because we wanted to make sure it was the right fit. And we’re very happy with that result.

NW: How many books do you publish a year? How do you find your authors?

MD: Our first year we published 12 books; at the end of 2006 we are publishing 20. It was an ambitious schedule and we won’t be repeating it in 2007. We are staying at 12. Our authors all find us now. We receive queries daily. And we had our first dealing with a literary agent this year.

NW: Ghost Road Press specializes in publishing Western writers and topics. Was this a goal for you?

MD: I wouldn’t say it was a goal as much as it’s a result of where we are located. There are many fine, talented writers and poets living in this region and they all have something worthwhile to say and contribute to our culture here.

NW: Do you think the types of Western writing published by a small press like Ghost Road are different from those published by major publishers? If so, how are they different?

MD: Every writer has her own voice as a result of where she lives. It shapes a writer’s worldview. Writers like Dave Barry, Tim Dorsey, and Carl Hiaasen all have that distinct “Florida” flavor to their prose. Rick Bass, Thom Jones, Sherman Alexie, Jake Adam York, all have theirs as a result of where they are from. As far as our authors are concerned, although their voices are distinctly “Western,” I feel that they transcend the boundaries of geography. Just read Chris Ransick or Aaron Abeyta or Eleanor Swanson or Laurie Wagner Buyer or Gail Waldstein, or Tina Welling, or Nate Leiderbach, or A. Rooney—their topics, while rooted with a “Western” sensibility, touch on emotional, personal, or political issues that affect all of us, wherever we reside.

NW: Ghost Road Press publishes a lot of poetry—do these collections make enough money to sustain the press, or do you have other revenue sources that enable you to publish poetry?

MD: Poetry is a labor of love for us. It is our goal to publish poetry that touches people and gets them excited about the form. We have been criticized in some areas for publishing poetry that is accessible—not intimidating—not strictly “academic.” And that’s fine because what we are publishing is selling. Is it selling enough to sustain the press? Of course not. But it is selling. And we don’t have any plans to reduce the number of poetry titles that we published early.

NW: Do you have any new or interesting projects planned for the next year?
MD: Next year is our best year yet. We have a new poetry collection from Aaron Anstett, and novels from Aaron Abeyta, Michelle Dally, and memoirs from Wayne Sheldrake and Liz Holzemer. We’re going to be busy.

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