By Marissa Massare, Living & Arts Editor
Leaning away from traditional marketing and seeking a unique audience for books was discussed at the annual publishing and editing lecture held on Sept. 12 featuring Lisa Pearson, founder of Siglio Press.
Pearson’s lecture “On the Small and the Contrary,” described how she seeks the right kind of audience for Siglio’s brave books rather than marketing them traditionally.
According to their website, Siglio offers “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.”
Pearson said that the books Siglio publishes are meant to be read over and over again by their audiences.
“For me, for Siglio, I am always trying not to be right,” Pearson said.
“Siglio lives, thrives even in the margins, and if I do my job well, I may contribute to expanding the center in some way that propels me to move ever outward to drive towards the edge,” she continued.
Pearson believes that in Siglio’s manifesto the invisible is rendered visible, unexpected connections are revealed, categories
resolved and a space is opened for contradiction, according to Siglio’s website.
The books that Siglio’s manifesto are based on lie in the margins that Pearson discussed.
Those books do not abide by boundaries, pay no mind to trends and invite readers to see the world through new perspectives by reading words and images in provocative, unfamiliar ways.
Pearson run completely on her own and discussed the pros and cons of running a small press.
“She really is a one-woman press,” said senior Carling Ramsdell, who introduced Pearson at the lecture.
“The validity of small and micro-presses is also hugely important. Pearson told us a lot about how Siglio and presses like it are opening spaces for new and transformative content which larger presses are not opening themselves to yet,” Ramsdell added.
“To Siglio, publishing in the margins means publishing outside of established genres and working with the books that are too big for larger, mainstream presses to handle effectively,” Ramsdell said. “I think it’s important for people to see this genre, acknowledge it as literature and see the space in which it exists.”
In the 11 years since Siglio’s founding, its titles have earned high praise from The New York Times, London Review of Books, The New Yorker and New York Review of Books.
“Pearson gave me the impression that if you set your mind to something, you can make it happen. She gave insight on what the self-publishing world was like,” senior Patrick Durney said.
Pearson founded Siglio Press in 2008 in Los Angeles, California. Pearson has a master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of Oregon and a bachelor of arts in interdisciplinary studies from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash.
