Thirty West Newsletter - March 2025
New book launch, moving sale, and a writers party.
Signs of Spring.
Hello, this is Josh.
Mud Month has arrived. This part of Pennsylvania has gotten a teaser of the warmth and a lot of wind. Last week, the grounds began to thaw, and you can smell the earth. Carbon? Sulfer? Decomposing things? I’m not a scientist.
Thirty West is excited to see our first book of the year in a few weeks. Additionally, more books are in the pipeline, as well as The Blooming chapbook series. There is a book fair (maybe 2) scheduled and the team is ready.
TW HQ is moving. While The Workhorse printer is coming, we have supplies to audit and old paper to toss. Our backlist stock is plentiful enough, too. We’d be happy to send them your way for a steep discount. Scroll down for some sale info.
I’ll see you around, hopefully in Philadelphia for a time. Keep the 26th-30th in your calendars for all things literary…
Upcoming Release
JP Infante's debut prose poetry chapbook won the 4th Annual Wavelengths Chapbook Contest in 2020.
Now, it’s being republished with gusto.
On the Tip of Your Mother’s Tongue is a dual language (English-Spanish) collection of prose and poetry. Expanded & revised, it is a story of a son grappling with his mother's mental health and his stepfather’s overdose in Washington Heights, New York City. Capturing the disastrous toll of the criminalization of drug use on communities, families, and individuals, Infante pairs literature with buying cocaine, screen time with addiction, and cinema with harm reduction. It’s modern literature for New Yorkers & U.S. Americans. Critical, gritty, & emboldening, JP Infante is a masterful scholar of contemporary inner-city life.
“They used to call you Minene, and before that, Chungo, even though your birth certificate says another name. Your stepfather, who’s been away at school for three months, calls you son. Son, get me the TV controller. Son, listen to your mother. Son, stop talking about your heart.”
—from ‘Without A Big One’
ISBN: 979-8-9895422-7-7
192pgs
5.0” x 8.0” x 0.45”
Includes a ‘flipped’ edition in Spanish
PUBLICATION: March 14th, 2025 (3-14-25)
Preorder by Friday 3/7 to reserve your copy at the reduced price!
Praise for JP Infante and ON THE TIP OF YOUR MOTHER’S TONGUE
“These paragraphs remind me that growing up often seems like an initiation into secrets—just learning them but understanding which ones to share and which ones to keep.”
—Yuka Igarashi, executive editor of Graywolf Press
“JP Infante captures the complexities of addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and racial identity through the lens of a son whose mother is dedicated to one thing; survival. On the Tip of Your Mother’s Tongue is a lesson in snapshot vulnerability and introspection. Infante moves us rapidly through short scenes condensed with an emotional precision that forces us to slow down and contend with our own disasters. Whether on the tip of a tongue, or an iceberg, the magic in this book is in what lives underneath, every word that has yet to be said.”
—Elisabet Velasquez, author of When We Make It: A Nuyorican Novel
“In ‘Without a Big One,’ JP Infante provides the reader with a glimpse at the impact of incarceration on black and brown families. This powerful short story also touches upon issues of love, poverty, education, and mental health, all through the lens of one young child in Washington Heights.
Prison reform and prison abolition are receiving increased mainstream attention, and as readers, we see the harm done to the family at the center of ‘Without a Big One.’ Community intervention has its place. Cages do not. Infante's art helps to move us away from these cages and closer to a more just and equitable society.”
—Laura Pegram, founding editor & publisher of Kweli Journal.
“It is a rare feat to personify a city as grand as New York. Seeing it through the gritty realism lens of lived experience; JP Infante has done this twice. This book can illuminate on a digital billboard or be stapled onto a light pole.”
—Josh Dale, editor-in-chief of Thirty West Publishing House
Moving Sale!
Look, it’s busy as it is moving ~8 boxes of books in our personal library, let alone TW books…
All books are marked down 40% with code MOVE40 at checkout until Sunday, 3/23, at midnight. Poetry from luminaries Adam Gianforcaro & Steph Castor and fiction from the inimitable Nicole Rivas and Jennifer Companik are currently the highest stock. Additionally, buy any 2 books and get a swag pack (stickers & bookmarks) and a random chapbook for free (while supplies last). Help us lighten the load and pave the way for the next phase of TW HQ.
Afterimages News
Here is the Afterimages schedule for March. We’re getting back to business with fiction, nonfiction, and another book review.
Currently, we are reading for April onward. Maybe another guest editor is coming on board? Find out soon.
A Writers Party
Calling all non-AWP goers…the alternative writers party is this month. TW is cohosting all of the virtual events, so we’re happy to have a huge bill of resplendent readings and workshops. If you’re local or willing to travel, there are a few in-person events at the hottest gathering spots for writers and artists of all kinds.
Extra Bits
Nothing really at this time. See you next month!