While Florida continues to ban books, Quoir Publishing – the company I co own with fellow Patheos blogger Keith Giles – is launching a new imprint: Quoir Classics.
Our launch includes 3 titles:
The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy, with a new Foreword by Keith Giles
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, with a Foreword by David Bentley Hart
A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith, with a Preface by J.R.R. Tolkien and new Foreword by yours truly.
I’m super stoked not only be the publisher behind these Classics, but to offer my voice to a friend of Tolkien’s who died in WWI, 2 years before the good professor first published this collection of poems. Here’s how I felt as I first started working on this:
To that end, it’s a humbling thing to be able to step into history and be a part of your hero’s life, albeit in a miniscule way. Though J.R.R. Tolkien died nearly a decade before I was born, his work has impacted me more than any other author (so much so that I wrote a book about his beloved Hobbits). To then be able to lift up a voice most of the world is not aware of, but one that also affected Tolkien in such positive and profound ways, is an absolute treasure.
In fact, as I write this, I have chills and the welling of tears in my eyes. This man, Geoffrey Bache Smith—the poet who died far too young, but influenced arguably the greatest literary mind of the modern era—is someone I get to publish? Surreal. Absolutely surreal.
I truly hope that you will take a look at these Classics. There will be more in the future, so you’ll want to start your collection now. They look gorgeous, and will adorn your office, library, or den very nicely.
Enjoy!
Also, if you’ve been digging my work on here, and want to see me be able to continue writing as close to full-time as humanly possible, please take a look at my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/mjdistefano. Even $1 a month helps bigly!
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