"The history of small, private presses in this country is also (largely) the history of our literature." (Michael Gifkins' 1990 'Bookmarks', New Zealand Listener).

This quote graphically states the case for the important place small press publishing has in the literary culture of Aotearoa New Zealand. Expanding this further, it is true to say that without the existence of such presses many of our writers, both well-known and obscure, may never have had the opportunity of being published authors, especially at the fledgling time of their career. This book, will endeavour to prove that our literature would be the poorer if such publishers didn't exist, that we may have little literary industry or culture without them.