“Orison” is a thirteenth century word meaning “prayer.” At Orison Books, a new Asheville-based press focusing on the life of the spirit, the staff believes “the best spiritual art and literature call us to meditate and contemplate, rather than asking us to adopt any ideology or set of propositions.”
Determined that their list will ask questions and seek the truth—as opposed to presenting the truth as something already understood—Orison Books plans to publish “spiritually-engaged poetry, fiction, and nonfiction books of exceptional literary merit.” They also aim to contribute to the cultural conversations around spirituality and literature by hosting classes, readings, symposia, and other public events.
“A significant gap exists between literary publishers and strictly religious publishers,” says Luke Hankins, Senior Editor of Asheville Poetry Review and the founder of Orison Books. “Literary publishers occasionally publish books of spiritual depth, but few, if any, set out to do so as a mission and raison d’être. Religious publishers, on the other hand, tend to publish work that offers little appeal to readers outside a particular ideological group.”
Orison Books hopes to bridge this gap. In order to do so, they are hoping to raise $40,000 through Indiegogo, an online crowdfunding platform.
Orison Books will release its first title on March 15, 2015: I Scrape the Window of Nothingness: New & Selected Poems by Stella Vinitchi Radulescu.
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