ABOUT
As regular participants in the Portland poetry scene, friends & founders Igor Brezhnev and Sam Preminger recognized far too many talented poets unable to produce books or earn any reasonable income as artists. While we’re grateful to share our city with many wonderful publishers, it seemed that none were designed with supporting working authors in mind—and so the idea for Lightship Press was born: a press dedicated to publishing, promoting, and advocating for living artists.
Igor took the initial steps, founding Lightship Press in 2019 with Sam as a contributing editor. In this first year the press successfully published six poetry collections, in addition to hosting countless community events to support these contributors. All the books produced were sold directly by the poets, ensuring these artists retained the greatest possible share of the profits, and plans began to expand the press’s reach in the years ahead. But then the pandemic happened. In the interests of safety and self-care, Lightship went into a state of deep hibernation for two years.
In 2022, Igor and Sam returned with renewed vigor and re-launched Lightship with only greater hope and ambitions. Together we decided to resume book production, to imagine a new model of publishing designed to favor authors, and to aspire towards creating a critical community resource for working writers. We’re grateful to have you here with us.
THE MISSION
SUPPORT LIVING ARTISTS `CAUSE THE DEAD ONES DON’T NEED IT
Our mission, in brief, is to support living artists with an emphasis on poetry (as this is our field of expertise). This mission will be realized through publishing and promoting high-quality full-length books and chapbooks, recording spoken word performances, and producing community events where contributors can step into the public eye and market their work. Priority, both in who we publish and who we hire onto our team, will be given to authors intending to earn a portion of their income through their literary craft.
THE VISION
In 2022 Lightship Press has officially re-launched and is publishing four books by working poets.
Looking further ahead, our objective is to continue publishing quality books in greater quantities, as well as to expand the services we offer to our artists. These expanded services may include: recording and distributing audio and/or video performances, hosting additional literary events to benefit contributors, and working towards the acquisition of a physical space that could house book-making, performance events, and provide educational and artist-in-residence programs.
The Founders
Sam Rose Preminger is a trans-nonbinary, Jewish writer and publisher. They serve as Editor-in-Chief of NAILED Magazine, a contributing editor to Write Bloody Publishing, and work regularly with private clients. Their writing has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, Narrative Magazine, Split Lip, and Yes Poetry, among other publications. Sam’s debut collection Cosmological Horizons is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in Summer 2022.
Sam holds an MFA from Pacific University and has been professionally editing for literary clients since 2016. They live in Portland, OR, where they’ve acquired too many houseplants.
You can find more information about Sam at sampreminger.com.
Igor Brezhnev is a poet and a book designer, among his other sins. His most recent body of published work is titled nights since. It is a series of 363 poems written every night from January 18th, 2019 to January 14th, 2020 documenting the emotional landscape of being without a home.
Igor’s other work includes two full-length poetry books (dearest void(2016) and america is dry cookie and other love stories (2018)) and a number of spoken-word albums available on Bandcamp at igorbrezhnev.bandcamp.com.
You can support his work at patreon.com/igorbrezhnev and get daily poems & weekly audio recordings. More information about Igor and his books can be found at igorbrezhnev.com.