Sunshine poured into Naomi Huffman’s apartment in the Prospect Lefferts Garden neighborhood of Brooklyn on a late-summer afternoon, casting a warm glow on an impressively long alphabetized bookshelf.
These were ideal cat nap conditions, and one fluffy feline wisely snoozed atop a box containing hats embroidered with the phrase “Man Hating Psycho.”
It was the name of a story collection by Iphgenia Baal, the second title from Hagfish, a small press focused on out-of-print and obscure books. Ms. Huffman and Julia Ringo started the project in 2022 as a studio offering developmental support and freelance editing services and began acquiring books the next year. Their debut title arrived in May: “To Smithereens,” the 1972 novel by Rosalyn Drexler set between the worlds of art criticism and women’s wrestling. Ms. Drexler died last month at 98, not long after her book received a new wave of recognition.
The pair work independently (Ms. Ringo lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant), but regularly convene at Ms. Huffman’s to mail galleys and exchange paperbacks.
Dressed in a well-worn “Grey Gardens” T-shirt, Ms. Huffman, 36, poured a cup of tea for Ms. Ringo, 34, who sat on an Oriental rug. They were discussing the language sometimes used to describe “forgotten” writers.
“I really resent when something is labeled a ‘discovery,’” Ms. Huffman said. “‘We found this in the rubble of time’ — it was there all along!”
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The post They’re Trying to Publish the Best Books You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on New York Times.
