Happy New Year!

I’m writing this missive while moving into OIP’s *almost completed* office. !!!!!

The funny thing is that I'm not the only one who moved this year, so did the rest of OIP’s staff. Both Alex and Drake moved as well.

During all the packing and unpacking, the time in trucks, the hours of painting and scrubbing, the OIP staff has been listening to a heck of a lot of podcasts. We thought we’d share some of our favorites with you today.

Drake, OIP’s Production Designer, recommends Hello from the Magic Tavern:

“For fans of fantasy and/or improv comedy, Hello From the Magic Tavern is an unforgettable intersection of dragons and drollery. The host, Arnie Niekamp, fell through a dimensional rift behind his local Burger King in Chicago and into a strange, magical land called Foon. By some miracle, he's still able to receive a wi-fi signal and hosts a weekly podcast where he interviews the creatures, wizards, and adventurers that call Foon home. At the end of every episode, I find myself thoroughly astonished when I catch my breath, fade back into reality, and start to remember... wait, that was all improvised?!”

Alex, OIP’s Consulting Editor, recommends Another Roadside Attraction by Heavyweight:

“A chance encounter at a bookstore sets the stage for one of the most moving episodes of Heavyweight. This podcast excels at unfolding complicated, surprising narratives in under an hour, but this story--about a bookshop owner who dies by suicide and the people who loved her--is an absolute masterpiece of the form.”

And, introducing Alyssa, who among a myriad of titles and roles is also the host for OIP’s new monthly IG game show, Trivia Tuesday. Alyssa recommends The Skinny Confidential HIM & HER show:

“TSC is hosted by a duo of avid readers, who just so happen to be married. Lauryn and Michael run the gamut when it comes to books they’ve read—from skin care tips and tricks to ancient Roman history, all the way to books about how to heal your mind, body, and soul. This thirst for knowledge in a wide variety of topics comes through clearly in their podcast. Each episode is an hour-long deep dive with guests who are authorities on the conversation of the hour. Michael and Lauryn are great hosts because they keep things light and funny, but also know when it’s time to get serious and into the nitty-gritty. Guaranteed laughs and learning in each episode of the podcast. Cheers!”

I recently had the pleasure and privilege to be a guest on one of my favorite podcasts, Bonnets at Dawn. Lauren Burke and Hannah Chapman, the creators of B@D and the authors of Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers, host this insightful and charming show about women writers. It was an honor to speak with them about OIP and to be included on an episode with authors Lorraine Tosiello and Jane Cavolina, and Roseann Backlin from the bookstore, Love’s Sweet Arrow. (*Don’t forget to check out OIP’s Q&A with Lorraine!)

Other podcasts I enjoyed this year:

• Little Atoms 783: Yiyun Li talks to host Neil Denny about her latest novel The Book of Goose.
• Longform Podcast #506: Sam Anderson. Fellow writers: listen to this episode. More Sam Anderson.
• Every episode of The Lives of Writers. Produced and hosted by Autofocus publisher Michael Wheaton, The Lives of Writers features candid conversations with writers about their lives in and out of books.
• Season 2, Episode 2: Louisa in Threads: Let Genius Burn. Artist Leslie Schomp talks with hosts, Jamie Burgess and Jill Fuller about creating textile pieces that embody the life and work of Louisa May Alcott.
• Rita Bullwinkel’s Oral Florist project.
• All of Susan Neville’s incredible Naptown, where she interviews Dan Wakefield. Check out every episode, but you have this one to look forward to: Episode Ten: Profiles. Wakefield’s lunches with Adam Clayton Powell, dates with Mia Farrow, time spent with William Buckley and Gay Talese…you’re in for a treat!
• Also: Thanks For Giving A Damn With Otis Gibbs, The Decorating Dissidence Podcast, The Cosmic Library, The Modern House, Future Fables, Material Matters with Grant Gibson, Emergence Magazine, Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Indigo Girls, Jack White and Ben Jenkins…

In addition to listening to podcasts while unpacking, all of us at OIP have been taking some time to look back on 2022, and thinking about the year ahead.

• We launched Old Iron Press May 1, 2022. After years of slowly building and planning, we officially launched! We opened submissions for our first anthology, Playing Authors, and introduced ourselves.
• Every month, we sent out good mail. Our OIP sticker packs of care and cheer have arrived to over a hundred incredible humans who’ve submitted work, followed us on Instagram, or signed up for our *upcoming* newsletter…and we’re excited to send out even more in 2023!
• We closed submissions for Playing Authors and opened General Submissions on December 1, 2022. Take a look at our submission guidelines.
• We began sending out rolling acceptance letters and are currently finalizing our line-up of incredible pieces for our first project, Playing Authors. !!! We’re super excited to announce our kickass roster for our inaugural anthology in early 2023!
• We began hosting a Q&A series on our site and are excited to continue this in the coming year. Check out our interviews with Drake, Alex, and Lorraine Tosiello, and look forward to many more in 2023.
• At OIP, we are big fans of taking our time and being intentional with content. We’ve been working hard on our upcoming quarterly newsletter and are excited to share it with you in 2023. If you haven’t signed up, you can do so here. Make sure to add us to your address book or promotions tab.
• Check out our Digital Disruption series and don’t forget to share your own!
• We post regularly about books we love on our Instagram and have a bookshop.org site where you can discover even more. We champion retooled classics, underdogs, and disobedient forms.
• We started Trivia Tuesday, our monthly OIP Game Show, hosted by Alyssa Williams Preston. On the first Tuesday of every month, we host a series of questions in our IG Stories. The first person to answer the most questions correctly has the chance to win a variety of curiously curated collectibles.
• In 2023, we will be launching our merch and object offerings! We’re incredibly excited to share these with you. Every purchase supports our press and the writers/artists/makers we publish.

We have so much more fun on the horizon, and look forward to sharing it with you in the coming year! We are dedicated to publishing the small, strange, and uncategorizable. And, having fun doing it.

To paraphrase the words of the great Fred Rogers, “We like to take our time.” At OIP, we believe in the power of making on a very human scale. Thank you for supporting this mode of being.

It’s hard to believe that we are eight months old! We want to thank you for your support during this first year. It’s such an incredible privilege to be able to create this space and collaborate with you. We are so honored to have this opportunity, and are excited to continue to share the road to our first publishing project with you.

As Playing Authors, our inaugural anthology, continues to take shape, we are excited to share the process with you and introduce the incredible contributors we will be publishing in 2023.

From all of us at OIP, from our families, from all the places we call home, thank you!

Cheers to YOU and a very happy 2023!

– Eliza

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