in print

New Rivers Press

By Pippi Mayfield
Staff Writer

   Be true to your imagination, not to your autobiography, said Al Davis, published author and senior editor of New Rivers Press.
     Local company New Rivers Press, a literary not-for-profit small press, has been in existence since 1968, Davis said. The company publishes short stories, novels, memoirs, poems and anthologies.
    “We pride ourselves on remaining an open forum and encouraging writers to produce the best literature they can write,” said Davis, Minnesota State University Moorhead English professor.
     Until last year, the New Rivers Press was located in Minneapolis but relocated to Moorhead with the help of the Minnesota State University Moorhead Foundation and MSUM.

Al Davis

Liz Severn

     “[We moved] it here on campus so that students in all areas can benefit from hands-on experience with it— acquiring and editing books, designing and producing them, marketing them and keeping NRP’s financial accounts in order,” Davis said.
     Davis and Wayne Gudmundson, MSUM professors, are the two MSUM faculty members who serve as senior editor and director of NRP. Many other faculty members occupy various positions and a dozen or so students have also signed on, Davis said.
      NRP publishers plan to ask Midwest writers to submit book-length manuscripts. Our Most Valuable Person contest each year will publish the best new Midwestern writers. We always consider unsolicited manuscripts from anywhere, Davis said.
     The story is written, edited and ready for print. The book gets published and soon lines the shelves at the local bookstore. In reality, being published can take lots of time and energy. Davis said it took years to get his works published.
    “[The cost was] mostly lots of time and energy—not much money directly, though indirectly I wrote instead of working,” Davis said. “I wrote, rewrote, addressed critiques offered by teachers and by fellow students, and began submitting my work to literary magazines.”
     The publishers’ costs are a little different from the writers’ costs. Cost isn’t a question I can easily answer, Davis said. The cost varies from book to book, depending on the number of copies printed and other factors.
     The editing and feedback can be two of the most important steps in getting work published. It can take lots of time and may not end with the results the writer had wanted.
     “I had an agent who was interested but then didn’t like the structure of my work, so now I’m peddling it again,” said Liz Severn, MSUM English professor.
     “Editors carefully read awork and suggest improvements,” Davis said. “This back-and-forth process is sometimes minimal if the manuscript is already in pretty good shape, but it can be extensive, especially for book-length works.”

     Once the publishers decide to print the manuscript, the publishing process starts. Davis said it requires an exact attention to detail at each step. The process includes 50 steps from acquiring a book to publicizing it. New Rivers Press will begin publishing new books next spring. They will make announcements to the community to keep them abreast, Davis said.
     Davis also offered some advice for people who are looking to be published. Read extensively and get to know the magazines, he said. Write for the best audience you can imagine.
   “Writing is a vocation for the creative person,” Davis said. “Use it as a means of understanding who you are and why you’re here, and take it seriously as a discipline that can enlighten us as to how we live. And make sure to have fun doing it.”

Staff Photos by Nick Cushing