Learn more about the landscape of independent publishing in the South, including presses and magazines based in the area, local book fairs and festivals, and regional awards, as well as books set in or about the area.
In keeping with the New England Independent Booksellers Association, CLMP defines New England as including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Books Set in New England
Poetry
Good Monster by Diannely Antigua (Copper Canyon Press | May 14, 2024)
This poetry collection by the 2022-2024 poet laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, explores “a resilient desire to find a love that will remain, to feel pleasure in an inhospitable body and, above all, to keep on living.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781556596902)
The Shared World by Vievee Francis (Northwestern University Press | April 17, 2023)
This poetry collection, which received the 2023 Vermont Book Award in Poetry, “imagines the ideas and ideals and spaces of the Black woman.”
(Distributed by the University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780810145214)
The Flight from Meaning by Stephen Haven (Slant Books | February 4, 2025)
Drawing on Haven’s experiences living on the south shore of Boston, the poems in this collection “serve as responses to—an American predilection for violence, spectacle, and distraction–the ways they flatten and diminish our experience of the world.”
(Distributed by Ingram Lightning Source. ISBN: 9781639821846)
Walk With Me by Madeleine Kunin (Green Writers Press | September 28, 2023)
The “three-term Vermont governor invites the audience to step into her world, to slow down and find new serenity in older age and unexpected love” in this poetry collection.
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9798988382058)
Called Back by Rosa Lane (Tupelo Press | September 2, 2024)
In this poetry collection, Lane “brings a necessary, gender-fluid, feminist perspective to the Emily Dickinson table of debate.”
(Distributed by the University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9781961209107)
Disaster Tourism by Rena J. Mosteirin (BOA Editions | October 14, 2025)
Mosteirin—who owns a used bookstore in Hanover, New Hampshire—“gives us a lens to re-imagine our dangerous surroundings in the hopes that we strive toward a better existence, even when it hurts.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781960145772)
Fiction
Nathalie: An Acadian’s Tale of Tragedy and Triumph by Debra Amirault Camelin (Ronsdale Press | February 20, 2023)
This YA novel, following 13-year-old Acadian Nathalie Belliveau, “is grounded in the historic facts of the 1755 Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia and their exile in Massachusetts for ten (Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781553806714)
Lonesome Ballroom by Madeline McDonnell (Rescue Press | March 2, 2025)
According to Leni Zumas, this novel set in a New England college town is “a magnificent dive into film, fashion, feminism, motherdom, and the manifold performances that make up a life.”
(Distributed by Itasca Books. ISBN: 9798988683902)
Now Lila Knows by Elizabeth Nunez (Akashic Books | June 7, 2022)
In this novel, “Caribbean professor Lila Bonnard arrives in Vermont for a short-term teaching position and is forced to confront the terrible legacy of American (in)justice.”
(Distributed by W. W. Norton. ISBN: 9781636140247)
Endpapers by Jonathan Strong (Grid Books | October 15, 2024)
In these two novellas—Discourses, with Donkey and Playful and Thoughtful, set in Vermont and Massachusetts—“youth and age come into close contact and understanding.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781946830234)
Here in the Night by Rebecca Turkewitz (Black Lawrence Press | July 21, 2023)
The thirteen stories in Turkewitz’s debut collection “traverse a boarding school in the Vermont woods, the jagged coast of Maine, an attic in suburban Massachusetts.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781625570574)
The Little Ambulance War of Winchester Country by I. M. AIken (Catalyst Press/Flare Books | September 10, 2024)
Set in Vermont and Massachusetts, this is “a fascinating and darkly funny novel giving readers front-row access to the world of EMS and other first responders.”
(Distributed by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. ISBN: 9781963511024)
Nonfiction & Anthology
Flood by Christine Kalafus (Woodhall Press | June 1, 2025)
Kalafus’s memoir follows “her parents’ memories of the historic flood of 1955 that devastated Connecticut’s upper and lower Housatonic River Valley, the impossible expectations of modern motherhood, and a chilling brush with medical gaslighting.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781960456311)
The 2025 Connecticut Literary Anthology (Woodhall Press | November 4, 2025)
Edited by Victoria Buitron, Frederick-Douglas Knowles II, and Christine Kandic Torres, this anthology of poetry, nonfiction, and prose is a “love letter to Connecticut writing and writers.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781960456496)
The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life by Helen Whybrow (Milkweed Editions | June 3, 2025)
Set in Vermont’s Green Mountains, The Salt Stones “offers an intimate and profoundly moving story of what it means to care for a flock and truly inhabit a piece of land.”
(Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9781571311627)
Independent Publishers Based in New England
Connecticut
Woodhall Press
Maine
Alice James Books
Bateau Press
Deerbrook Editions
Nat 1 Publishing
Sandorf Passage
Shanti Arts
The Poets Corner
The Telling Room
Massachusetts
Anomalous Press
Arrowsmith Press
Black Ocean
Cervena Barva Press
Diptych Press
EastOver Press
Fork Apple Press
Galiot Press
Game Over Books
Grey Coven Publishing
Lily Poetry Review
Nine Syllables Press
Pangyrus
Perugia Press
Poetose
Rainproof Press
Restless Books
Rose Metal Press
Scriptor Press
Sea Crow Press
Slate Roof Press
Staircase Books
Sword & Kettle Press
Tupelo Press
Wildhouse Publishing
Zephyr Press
New Hampshire
Folded Word
Yas Press
Rhode Island
Barrow Street
Vermont
Cuneiform Press
Green Writers Press
Whisk(e)y Tit
Print Literary Magazines Based in New England
Connecticut
Long River Review
Maine
Beloit Poetry Journal
Crow Name
Gaslamp Pulp
Still Points Arts Quarterly
Massachusetts
AGNI
The Cenacle
The Common
Harvard Review
Lily Poetry Review
Literally
Massachusetts Review
Molecule- a tiny lit mag
Naugatuck River Review
Orion Magazine
Osiris Poetry
Page Turner Magazine
Ploughshares
Queer/Trans Magic Magazine / Vulpecula Poetica
Salamander
Talk Vomit
Thimble Literary Magazine
Three Decker
Transition Magazine
Voyage of Verse
Worcester Review
New Hampshire
Meetinghouse Magazine
Rhode Island
Barrow Street
Prismatica
Vermont
Bennington Review
ITERANT
New England Review
Book Fairs and Festivals in New England
Massachusetts Teen Spoken Word Festival
Boston, MA
2025: March 15-16
Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival & Small Press Fair
Durham, NH
2026: April 17-18
Newburyport Literary Festival
Newburyport, MA
2026: April 24-26
Massachusetts Poetry Festival
Seaport, MA
2025: May 31-June 1
Boston Book Festival
Boston, MA
2025: October 25
Bookstock
Woodstock, VT
2025: May 16-18
Green Mountain Book Festival
Burlington, VT
2025: October 18
Brattleboro Literary Festival
Brattleboro, VT
2025: October 17-19
Connecticut Book Festival
Hartford, CT
2025: November 22
Maine Book Festival
Thomaston, ME
2025: August 23
Maine Book & Print Fest
Waterville, ME
2025: September 6-7
New Hampshire Book Festival
Concord, NH
2026: October 2-3
Regional Awards
Maine Literary Awards
The Maine Literary Awards, sponsored by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, are given for published books, as well as drama, short works (either published or unpublished), and student writing by Maine residents.
Mass Book Awards
The Mass Book Awards, given by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children’s/young adult literature, and translation published by permanent residents of Massachusetts.
New England Book Awards
Given by the New England Independent Booksellers Association, the New England Book Awards honor books about New England, set in New England, or written by an author residing in New England.
New Hampshire Literary Awards
Given by the New Hampshire Writers Project, these biannual awards recognize outstanding published works about New Hampshire as well as works by New Hampshire natives or residents.
Vermont Book Awards
The Vermont Book Awards, awarded through a partnership between Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Department of Libraries, honor literature by Vermont authors in the categories of children’s literature, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.
