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BOOKS AND BIBLIOPHILES
Morgana Press, an independent publisher, is an award-winning small press with a belief that the pen is mighty as a supreme chronicler of time, opinion and heritage.
The written word and photographs, captured, like music and oral folklore, carry through the decades to influence, inspire, educate, entertain, connect, confound, and not least, deeply touch the minds of many.
We applaud the Association of American Publishers’ Get caught reading! campaign.
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OUR MISSION IS TO PUBLISH BOOKS THAT CAPTURE PEOPLE'S ATTENTION, THEIR MINDS AND IMAGINATIONS
Morgana Press specializes in New Orleans-based voices, themes and subject matter with the power to inspire, affect, move and transform people.
At the start of BookExpo America 2007, Morgana Press and our debut title Orléans Embrace with The Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carré won two of the Benjamin Franklin Awards' highest honors, in a celebration of excellence in independent publishing, winning the prestigious and highly coveted "Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book-Nonfiction" and "Best New Voice-Nonfiction." The nationally acclaimed book, a top-three Ben Franklin Finalist in five separate categories, also won IPPY Awards Gold and Bronze medals, that plus additional recognition for "Changing the World One Book at a Time" as Nautilus Book Awards Finalist. A significant work that continues to receive international recognition, Orléans Embrace also received gold and silver at the National Best Book Awards and has been named an Eric Hoffer Awards 2008 Notable title.
Founded in August 2005, we utilize our unique positioning as a boutique-style company that arose from the Katrina floodwaters and devastation to come together as a distinctive New Orleans small publishing house that seeks, in the spirit of New Orleans, to rise above the more conventional rules of the "bottom line."
At Morgana Press we see and do things in the spirit of New Orleans — a little differently.
We believe that if you have a great story to tell, you will find your audience.
We understand and appreciate that real life is puzzling, poignant, ironic, surreal, satirical, tragic and comic.
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To us, a successful book is one that makes people dream, remember, think, laugh, cuss or cry. A successful book also sells a lot of copies. In this instance, all profits from debut title Orléans Embrace with The Secret Gardens of the Vieux Carré are being donated to help the preservation and continued development of the French Quarter.
Our nonfiction and fiction authors are unafraid of stirring emotions. We seek what is unique and unexpected, sometimes controversial and paradoxical — uncommon stories that provoke.
After all, the adventure of real life is invariably filled with interesting twists, peculiar mysteries, unique hooks, high concepts and strong characters.
We challenge conventional publishing wisdom by seeking passionate, bold, innovative philosophies.
We believe in the magic and spirit of creativity, storytelling, and the lingering significance of books.
Independent publishers, outspoken authors and visionary artists are the consciousness of our culture and society. Talking, reading, writing, thinking, studying and publishing will always be at the apex of a civilized world. It takes a daring commitment and bold initiative to bring the promise and shadow of passionate visions, controversial notions, unspeakable secrets and silent stories to light.
Within the next few years, our award-winning independent press anticipates a significant backlist of meaningful titles under our belt and, let's hope, at least one New York Times runaway bestseller!
Morgana Press is a traditional press. That means we do things the old-fashioned way by making a financial investment in an author and a manuscript. We produce and promote each selected work at our own expense.
We do not receive any government subsidy, nor do we do vanity or print-on-demand publishing. An independent editorial review committee evaluates proposals, manuscripts and photographs on the quality of their content.
Taking a clue from our headquarters in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans, our favorite authors are "outsiders," the ones who do not conform to accepted standards of what literature and pictorials should be. We seek out the great and astounding statements of writers and photographers whose kinship is with the distinctive memories and imaginings of truth-tellers and mavericks, that which is beyond the cultural mainstream.
We are proud to maintain industry affiliation and professional publisher membership in the Professional and Scholarly Division (PSP) of the American Association of Publishers, Inc. (AAP), Independent Book Publishers Association (PMA), Publishers Association of the South (PAS), Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN), American Booksellers Association (ABA) and the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association (NOGSBA).
Morgana Press of New Orleans is affiliated with Vieux Carré Productions.
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PUBLISHER’S BOOKSHELF
FROM THE DESK OF IRENE SINGLETARY,
MORGANA PRESS FOUNDING PUBLISHER
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Morgana Press presumes that if you are visiting this site you love books, books that bring forth voices, stories, history, words, wisdom, visions, mysteries, romance, passions, secrets, fears, warnings, passages, dreams, images and more — books that depict in nonfiction or fiction the good and bad, beautiful and melancholic, sacred and profane, haunted and glad — even the mad.
Morgana Press specializes in books with a strong connection to New Orleans, to its special people and places. For those who know what it means to miss New Orleans, we highly recommend researching and reading the litany of great works about this city three centuries in the making. We salute the many publishing houses and authors who have made and continue to make countless indelible marks on the rich history, perceptions and remembrances — past, present and future — of New Orleans.
Each year new and current frontlist titles on New Orleans come into print while older midlist and backlist works remain in print or still available; even hard-to-find collectible, long out-of-print materials can often be located through used bookstores and the power of the Internet. Over the ages many a writer, a piece of New Orleans in his or her soul, has been seduced by the city’s strange beauty, by the sense of melancholy, loss, decay, triumph, sorrow, celebration, heartache and optimism. Clearly we encourage all to read about, to know and understand — and to fall in love with — New Orleans.
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