TimeOut New York bills itself as the “Ultimate Guide to New York,” with lists upon lists of restaurants, museums, theatres, and every other kind of destination imaginable. What collection would be complete without a list of indie publishers, who embody the same spirit of innovation and grit that New York is known for?
Two Consortium publishers made the list of New York City must-sees: Akashic Books and Tyrant Books. (Check out our blog post on Akashic Books, Carrie Fisher, and the brilliance of editor Ibrahim Ahmad here.)
“Like most tiny publishers,” the TimeOut article says, “the scrappy, decade-old Tyrant Books is a reflection of the tastes of one person.”
In this case, that person is Giancarlo DiTrapano, who takes pride in championing “bold and idiosyncratic voices.”
In 2009, DiTrapando began the publishing company in the footsteps of his literary magazine, the New York Tyrant. The Tyrant, Giancarlo says in an interview with DazedDigital.com, was “like putting together a mixtape.” Tyrant Books is the Grammy-award-winning album. From year to year, Tyrant produces contributions to the literary world that earn its spot on independent press round-ups all over the internet, from a Flavorwire list in 2013 to Culture Vulture’s list of “10 Small Presses to Check Out in 2016.” “Giancarlo DiTrapano,” the Culture Vulture round-up, in which Tyrant Books was featured as #1, said, “has proven that indie houses can still publish some of the best things aroun
d.”
The critics agree. 2014’s Preparation for the Next Life won the 2015 PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. The L.A. Review of Books gushed about Hill William. Us was the star of Oprah’s Summer 2011 reading list. DiTrapano’s commitment to publishing books with jaw-dropping prose, books that challenge, books that astound, pans out year after year.
So what’s next for Tyrant Books? DiTrapano says, “2016 for Tyrant is going to make Tyrant’s 2015 look like Tyrant’s 2004, when it didn’t even exist.”
We can’t wait to see what this looks like.