The State of the Press: Celebrating Recent Projects and What’s Ahead at Unencumbered Press

Celebrating Our Recent Projects

There’s been meaningful momentum around Against the Current. The book was recently featured in Willamette Week with a thoughtful review by Claire Willett, appearing both in print and online! Coverage like this matters—not just for visibility, but for placing the work in conversation with the cultural and political moment it addresses. 

The Altered Tarot deck has been met with a similarly generous response. Readers continue to share how they’re using it slowly and intuitively, returning to the poems and images over time, letting meaning emerge rather than rushing interpretation. That kind of engagement is exactly what we hoped for. Sales have slowed, which is typical at this stage, but the deck remains available through the shop on this website and on Etsy. We are happy to offer bulk pricing for bookstores, organizations, or anyone interested in gifting decks to employees, teams, or community members. If someone in your orbit might be a good fit, please pass their info along or have them contact the press.

Taken together, these projects reflect the press’s core commitments. One work looks backward to preserve a story that might otherwise be lost. The other offers language and imagery for interpretation in the present tense. Both resist certainty. Both honor ambiguity. Both trust readers to engage thoughtfully, speaking to readers willing to hold complexity without demanding easy answers.

Projects in the Pipeline

We’ve been quietly building toward two forthcoming titles: Even Then, Even Now: Poems of Persistence, an illustrated chapbook by Jen Kindbom, and Rise of the Lightborn: Book One in the Erydon Series, a fantasy novel by K. V. Munoz. These projects are in active development, with editorial work underway and design conversations taking shape.

Alongside these, we’re reviewing a number of compelling submissions across genres. The work ahead is thoughtful and ambitious, and we remain committed to bringing it forward with care.

We’re also continuing to strengthen the infrastructure that supports this work—distribution relationships, metadata refinement, and expanded access points for libraries, classrooms, and independent booksellers. 

Submissions Remain Open

Our Contact and Submissions pages have been updated to reflect how Unencumbered Press is operating today. For traditional publishing, we are currently acquiring projects slated for release in 2028 and beyond. 

The UP Blog continues to be a home for essays, interviews, creative nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work rooted in curiosity and lived experience. It is intentionally accessible and low-barrier—a space for reflection, experimentation, and dialogue rather than performance.

If you’ve been considering submitting—whether a book-length project or a blog contribution—we invite you to read the updated guidelines and reach out.