Bye-bye 2017, Hello 2018

Dear Readers,

We at the Sawaga River Press would like to thank you for supporting us this year. We hope your 2017 was bountiful and that 2018 would be full of opportunities to create and collaborate!

We closed the year with a very successful and inspiring Social Justice Children's Book Holiday Fair in Oakland. (For a recap: Social Justice Children's Book Fair) For us, this was a very apt way to close 2017.  Over the year, we have bonded with several local (i.e. Bay Area, East Bay, Sacramento) independent presses, self-publishing authors and illustrators, and bookmakers of all sorts of capacities and interests. We all share a common vision of making books that are inclusive of the experiences and perspectives of POC, Native, LGBTQIA+, and other communities that have been excluded from and underrepresented in the children’s book publishing industry.

Publisher Janine Macbeth articulated our emerging group's cohesion best when she said, "No mythologies here; we’re still marginalized and on the fringes. But we’re together, and on the rise."

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Kicking it with Robert Liu-Trujillo, author of Furqan's First Flat Top. Sharing the table with author and publisher Janine Macbeth of Blood Orange Press, and author and publisher Tiffany Golden of Golden Pen Entertainment. With Innosanto Nagara, author of A is for Activist. Tiffany Golden. Jill Burger, author of Long Hair, Don't Care. With author and publisher Maya Christina Gonzales of Reflection Press.

We are starting on our next book. More details to come in the next few months as we look for the illustrator and designer that will best make the team. We are also collaborating with more groups and individuals. I can't wait to share as soon as we get the details down!

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the beginning of this new year!