Hagfish
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Rosalyn Drexler
14 min read
The author of Hagfish's debut publication 'To Smithereens' is a fascinating polymath - a Pop Art painter, novelist, playwright, and former professional wrestler. Her unconventional career spanning multiple artistic disciplines provides rich context for understanding why her work was chosen for this indie press.
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At Swim-Two-Birds
14 min read
The Dylan Thomas quote referenced in the article compares 'Man Hating Psycho' to this 1939 metafictional novel by Flann O'Brien. Understanding this experimental Irish classic - with its nested narratives and literary playfulness - illuminates the type of unconventional fiction Hagfish publishes.
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Small press
13 min read
The article centers on Hagfish's indie publishing model, including their deliberate choice to publish only two titles per year and their distribution challenges. The history and economics of small press publishing provides essential context for understanding the alternative literary ecosystem these presses operate within.
Dropping on the same day that Hagfish’s first publication—To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler—was named as one of the New York Times’s “100 Notable Books of 2025,” this podcast explores the Hagfish business model with its cofounders, Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman. They discuss how the press came to be, what draws them to particular titles, the difficulty of distribution, why they’re only doing two titles a year, and much more.
The conversation also focuses on their second title, Man Hating Psycho by Iphgenia Baal, a brilliant collection of stories that’s raucous, well-crafted, and, like what Dylan Thomas said about At Swim-Two-Birds, “just the sort of book to give your sister if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl!” (It really would make a great holiday present . . . just saying.)
This is part of a new thread of Three Percent Podcasts in which an indie press discusses the inner workings of publishing, through the lens of one of their recent publications. This episode on World Editions and The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante & Michelle Mirabella was a sort of soft launch for this, and we do have several episodes lined up for the next few months . . .
This week’s music is “The Bitter End” from Molly Nilsson.
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