Welcome!

 Hello friends!

Lilac Press has gone through a long, sometimes tough journey, but here we are alive and well in 2024!

I started this press back in 2014 when I was living in a sleepy town south of Santa Cruz looking for a new community. Angel always says "poetry finds you" and that became truth during those lonely times as I sought out poetry that I could connect to, in order to hear people's stories and begin writing mine. Having spent a decade running a very unsuccessful record label, it seemed the best way to dive into this new community was to start a press and release poetry. 

And I did. But I quickly realized there were higher stakes putting out chapbooks than putting out records. For one, I didn't have a community around me. There was no easy thread I could pull to distribute the chapbooks; get them into people's distros or independent book stores. Those lessons unfortunately proved pretty discouraging, and well life also got in the way and some years passed before I did anything else with the press. 

Once I had more of a sense of an understanding of the lit world, I was lucky enough to work with my friend Mike Huguenor on a chapbook of fiction. He and I had met in San Jose over a mutual love of punk and Raymond Carver. Putting out "SJHC" felt more like the parts of running a record label that I enjoyed. The chapbook did well too! But, again life got in the way and Lilac Press went back to sleep momentarily. 

I don't recall exactly how or when Angel made me aware of the unfuckwithable voice of Soledad Con Carne. No doubt it was over beers, either in the forest or near the ocean. They said "Have you heard of this fool Soledad? They're working on some poems that will fuck you up." And the rest as they say is history.

My hope is that I've learned enough over the course of running a record label and then releasing some chapbooks to keep Lilac Press alive this time. Welcoming Angel to the team will no doubt at least hold me a little more accountable for the press, but more importantly, injects a new energy into this thing I started 10 years ago. 

xo

Erick