The Bodily Press published 15 titles in 2026. Notable among them was Andrew Mossin’s Drafts for Shelley, a work first completed nearly 14 years ago, whose delayed publication offers a rare glimpse into its author’s fertile early period. In it, Mossin drafts lyrics out of the pages of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s handwritten journals, “translating,” or in Hank Lazer’s words, “re-ciphering” Shelley’s unfinished texts into “drafts” of his own. The fact that the work was completed so long ago, and did not appear in print in its final form until this year, is a testament to the necessarily glacial flow of poetry and its publication.

Some might say, as the editor of The Bodily Press, I have been working at breakneck speed. Why try to spin it as such a deservedly patient process? I must be humblebragging, no? Or downright lying. Well, to be honest, while some things move more quickly (in all the excitement of beginnings, etc.), the business and development aspects of running a press, it turns out, can often feel like a crawl, or rather, more like a tumble down the stairs.

As some of you may have heard, my application for distribution with Asterism Books was recently rejected. This was an untimely blow in that it leaves me at square one, again seeking a reliable distributor for my authors’ wonderful books. As a result, I have decided to slow down the pace of production in order to allow myself time to assess and revise my operational framework in the pursuit of a sustainable solution — specifically — to the problem of distribution. I need not elaborate on how this problem is endemic to the widespread crisis of small publishing in the US "at this hour of cursed algebra" (to quote the French Resistance poet René Char). But all is not lost.

IPG (Independent Publishers Group) has a distribution program known as Small Press United, "created expressly to accommodate the unique issues that confront small and start-up publishers." Sound like a familiar godsend? Well, it certainly seems that way to me. But I want to make sure that I take the time necessary to inquire, research, pursue, and apply for this promising program. In the meantime I need your support.

Though the timeline for forthcoming Bodily Press releases will be pushed back, I am asking for donations in order to publish the next round of books, while I continue to do everything in my limited power to ensure that my authors' books can be found on the shelves of bookstores and libraries across the U.S.

As always, rewards can be found on this page, for various tiers of donation, in the form of stand-alone titles, subscriptions, and bundles, including books published throughout 2026 and before, as well as forthcoming titles to be released in the new year.

REMEMBER: The Bodily Press is a 501(c)(3) operating under the fiscal sponsorship of Fractured Atlas, so any amount you give beyond the market value of rewards received is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

If you choose an option, say, the Spring 2027 Subscription, whose market value is X ($115.00), but your donation amount is higher than that value amount, say, for example, Y ($250.00), that means that Z ($135.00 of your donation) will be tax deductible, where Z = Y - X. Likewise, if you choose not to receive a reward, the full amount of your donation will be tax deductible. For those of you able and hoping to make a larger donation to a charitable organization and/or non-profit entity before the end of the fiscal year, this is the time to do it!

Titles forthcoming in Spring 2027 will include:

Please note in advance that I will be out of the country during the month of January. As a result, production of many of these titles will not begin until mid-February, resulting in longer wait times for the books to arrive at your doorstep. Apologies in advance, and thank you for your understanding.

All in all, I am strangely optimistic about the future of The Bodily Press. I must be mad. Thank you for being right there with me.

Yours, as ever,

Eliot Cardinaux

Poet/Pianist

Founding Editor

The Bodily Press