Dear Reader,
As the holiday season begins and 2024 winds down, Fork Apple Press is just amping up. We’ve spent this past month dedicating ourselves to meticulously developing and curating our very first issue of The Core Review. We’ve been honored to read each one of the pieces that you’ve submitted, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the collection of work we’ve selected for our debut. It’s ripe with surrealism, passion, and authenticity. We can’t wait for you to read it come November 15th.
We feel that works that offer narratives of struggle, acceptance, and transformation are critical, inviting readers to reflect in meaningful ways on their own circumstances. Our selections for this issue represent Fork Apple Press’ commitment to being in conversation and community with writers who speak boldly and take risks, just as our Fall 2024 authors have done.
How does an independent press even take shape? For us, it started with a name and a passion for literary work. Katie and Vivian first conceived “Fork Apple Press” in name back in January of this year. Thinking about the implication of objects and pairings, the image of fork and apple and how they interact in society, and how we question it, kept popping up. In February, we came together as three graduate students in Kansas City, Missouri for AWP. Surrounded by panels, books, and presses, inspiration flowed and more conversation about the press took more shape. At night, in our cozy shared hotel room, our Copy Chief, Cameron, was subjected to Nico’s ongoing attempts at offering alternative press titles. Cramming four of us into a hotel room for two, Nico aired out their grievances toward Vivian for hogging the covers the night prior, while Cameron and Katie discussed networking and post-graduate ambitions.
Throughout our stay, we continued to circle back to “Fork Apple Press.”
Of course, we knew that this project would be so much more than just a name, or even a brand, but this ongoing deliberation modeled the level of intention that accompanied every decision that followed. We continue to approach Fork Apple Press with care, a sense of humor and play, trust, and communication.
After attending a panel on creating a literary magazine from scratch, Vivian, Nico, and Katie brainstormed what they did and didn’t like about publications they’d experienced as writers. How would we create space for Fork Apple Press among all the other tabling publications and presses surrounding us in the conference center’s bookfair? With this in mind, we decided that the press would work to make a discourse community on themes of gender, environment, consumption, and more, expanding beyond conventional associations and working to bring fresh perspectives to the literary world.
Fast forward, and we launched our baby Google Site back in late July. Now, with a fresh Squarespace website (that we encourage everyone to check out), our first issue’s publication well on its way, and an open poetry chapbook contest, we can’t believe how far Fork Apple Press has come in such little time.
We hope you find the fruits of this first harvest as sharp and poignant as we do, and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Vivian, Nico, and Katie ♡
