About PM Press
PM Press was founded at the end of 2007 by a small collection of folks with decades of publishing, media, and organizing experience. PM Press co-conspirators have published and distributed hundreds of books, pamphlets, CDs, and DVDs. Members of PM have founded enduring book fairs, spearheaded victorious tenant organizing campaigns, and worked closely with bookstores, academic conferences, and even rock bands to deliver political and challenging ideas to all walks of life. We’re old enough to know what we’re doing and young enough to know what’s at stake.
We seek to create radical and stimulating fiction and nonfiction books, pamphlets, T-shirts, visual and audio materials to entertain, educate, and inspire you. We aim to distribute these through every available channel with every available technology, whether that means you are seeing anarchist classics at our bookfair stalls; reading our latest vegan cookbook at the café; downloading geeky fiction e-books; or digging new music and timely videos from our website.
Our merry cast of malcontents spans continents but we have assembled them below for your voyeuristic pleasure.
Ramsey Kanaan has been at various times the founder of AK Press (named after his mother's initials), a teenage punk rocker, middle-aged folk singer, centerfold pin-up, anarchist book fair founder, vegan all-you-can-eat enthusiast, right (and left) midfield amateur soccer player, co-founder/publisher at PM Press, and devoted husband. Actually, he still is.
Craig O'Hara, co-founder of PM Press and the Tabling Tornados, has spent the last twenty years selling radical, independent books at book fairs, academic conferences, rock concerts, bicycle rallies, flea markets, craft fairs, and activist gatherings nationwide. He spends much of his time searching for the rumored "book trade," but would prefer to be homebrewing beer, roasting coffee, and riding anything with two wheels.
Dan Fedorenko is a shipping machine. In addition to allowing his home to
slowly mutate into a warehouse, he is largely responsible for filling and
shipping PM Press internet orders, review requests, and
regular hand deliveries to lucky customers. To fill the few spare remaining hours
of the day, Dan plays ice hockey, tries his best to imitate a beer
connoisseur (or maybe that's just a beer sewer?!), and is a dog-walker to
boot.
Craig Wiesner is a U.S. Air Force Intelligence veteran and dot-com-boom survivor. He has been deeply involved in social and economic justice issues and the peace movement for the last twenty years, leading MicahsCall.org and Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, Bay Area interfaith peace organizations. Craig is co-founder of Reach And Teach, the peace and social justice learning company (and co-publisher with PM), transforming the world through teachable moments.
Derrick Kikuchi still had baby teeth when he started his nearly two-decade career with Hewlett-Packard before launching an award-winning multimedia education company which thrived through the dot-com bubble. Before the bubble burst, he began to combine his passion for education with his desire to create a more peaceful and just world through his work as a Presbyterian elder; as a board member of the Council of Churches; as an editor for Open Hands, an ecumenical LGBT quarterly; and through peacemaking and solidarity work in El Salvador, Mexico, and Afghanistan. Derrick co-founded Reach And Teach.
These days, Lauren Cooper has pared down her full-time responsibilities at Teaching for Change, now focused on coordinating the Zinn Education Project. In her “spare” time, she is catching up on reading; designing PM Press marketing materials; and bringing the noise as a Tabling Tornado to book fairs, lit fests, radical event spaces, punk gigs, and motorcycle rallies. With a beam in her eye and a firm grip on the throttle, she's proud to ride a gold Triumph Bonneville.
Radio maven and writer Sasha Lilley is the series editor of PM Press’s political economy imprint, Spectre. She’s also the author of Capital and Its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult.
Gregory Nipper lives in Portland, OR, and is a freelance copy editor/proofreader in addition to working for PM. He first approached the fringes of the publishing trade in the early 1990s via punk zines and other DIY/alternative literature, later co-founding a fledgling book distribution project in Omaha and Lincoln, NE. His field of graduate study was history and included extended research on both U.S. and Latin American topics. In addition to copyediting for PM, he had the pleasure to translate Paco Ignacio Taibo II’s Calling All Heroes for the PM edition.
Stephanie Pasvankias is a graduate of Antioch College and general proponent of the underdog. She spends her time working on website upkeep for PM Press, communicating with the stellar authors and artists of PM, and slogging through databases. When not in front of the computer with a purpose, she helps organize events and herd cats for Bay Area nonprofits and arts organizations.
Jonathan Rowland is a member of the Tabling Tornados and has spent the past ten-plus years tearing across the country selling radical, indy books at book fairs and rock concerts. He lives by the ocean where he spends his days reading ecology and sci-fi books, trying to learn French and brewing, and doing a little of this and that behind the scenes in the publishing world.
Estonian-born educator and poet Romy Ruukel has worked as an editor for PM Press since its conception. Before moving to her current home in Boston, she taught and mentored students of all ages in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade. She really likes Boston, New England winters and all. But the avocados just aren't the same.
At only 26 years of age, Joey can boast a long list of failed careers: long distance runner, preschool teacher, model, organic farmer, bicycle mechanic, and many more. These days, when he's not traveling North America selling books for PM, Joey can be found at home in Oakland California playing basketball, drawing, or enjoying a simple game of chess.
Camille Barbagallo is a feminist, mother, radical activist and researcher (though not necessarily in that order) living in London. She spends her time working on publicity for PM Press titles, tabling at various events, and navigating the book trade in the UK. Before migrating to London, she lived in Australia where she was involved in struggles against the mandatory detention of asylum seekers and spent many years working as a trade union organiser.
Steven Stothard picked up political zines at his first punk shows and never looked back. Armed with a BA in Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality Studies and a recent masters in Social Work, he has worked as an effective grassroots community organizer, indie bookslinger, radical bookstore director, data analyst, and academic researcher. Now when not conspiring behind the scenes of PM Press and coordinating PM’s extensive events schedule as a Tabling Tornado, Steven can be found seeking out the best beaches and sandwiches in the Bay Area.
PM Press is always on the lookout for talented and skilled volunteers, artists, activists and writers to work with. If you have a great idea for a project or can contribute in some way, please get in touch.
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
PM in the Press:
- Spotlight on PM: Aqueduct Interviews Ramsey Kanaan
- PM Hits 100: Publishers Weekly
- Powells Books Blogs About PM Press
- SilenceLies.com asks 10 Questions to Ramsey Kanaan of PM Press
- Talking of Anarchy and Publishing with Ramsey Kanaan of PM Press: OpEdNews
- Read Local: The American Prospect
Other links:
(Photos courtesy of the individuals pictured.)
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