Archways 1

Archway Editions is the brand new imprint of powerHouse Books, and a literary complement to their trailblazing photography and illustrated publications, all distributed by Simon & Schuster. Our mission statement is to publish the finest authors, at all stages of their careers, who write material which is at odds with the prevailing status quo, both legendary and emerging. We are genre-blind with a goal to publish unconventional books for the widest possible audience.

This includes writers with long careers like Alice Notley, Ishmael Reed and Paul Schrader, but also young writers who need a place to show off their stuff and meet likeminded literati. Archways is the in-house reading series that takes place every few months at POWERHOUSE Arena, our bookstore in downtown Brooklyn across from the Manhattan Bridge archway. It’s our home base and a place for authors to present incredible work out of the mainstream. Some we end up publishing (like Gabriel Kruis’ instant classic Acid Virga, excerpted here), and each one is a vital new voice working at odds with a complacent and hidebound publishing industry.

This anthology collects work from the first three readings, held in 2019 and 2020. Every event has a visual component, and we’ve shared some stills and photos from our incredible visual artists too. There’s nothing quite like the high wire tension of a live reading - but this’ll have to do for now.

CONTRIBUTORS include: Rachel Allen, Phil Anderson, Brendan Burdzinski, Naomi Falk, Katie Foster, Andrew Gibeley, Ariel Francisco, Kelly Gallagher, Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Gabriel Kruis, Shayla Lawz, Etan Nechin, Kwame Opoku-Duku, Chunbum Park, Joseph Rathgeber, Nicholas Rys, Andrea Stella, and Shy Watson.