Learn more about the landscape of independent publishing in the Pacific Northwest, including presses and magazines based in the region, local book fairs and festivals, and regional awards, as well as books based in the area.
In keeping with the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, CLMP defines the Pacific Northwest region as including Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
Books Set in the Pacific Northwest
Nonfiction
Daughterhood by Emily Adrian (Autofocus Books | August 20, 2024)
“Part memoir, part autofiction, and part interview,” Daughterhood—which is partially set in Oregon—“charts a map of Ellen’s life before and after she became Emily’s mother.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9781957392325)
Cascadian Zen: Bioregional Writings on Cascadia Here and Now (Watershed Press | September 1, 2023)
This anthology of poetry, prose, and art explores “the nature of the bioregion known as Cascadia,” which extends from Cape Mendocino, California, to Mount Logan, Alaska.
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9798887574394)
Conservation Confidential: A Wild Path to a Less Polarizing and More Effective Activism by Mitch Friedman (Latah Books | August 13, 2025)
This book by the founder of Conservation Northwest “documents challenges, success stories, and key lessons along the way to helping preserve Northwest ancient forests, peaceably recover wolves in the region, and much more.”
(Distributed by Ingram Wholesale. ISBN: 9781625571540)
Broken Open by Martha Gies (Wandering Aengus Press/Trail to Table Press | August 26, 2024)
In this memoir in essays, Gies “seeks right livelihood and spiritual balance in her beloved Portland and also while leading creative and cultural retreats in Central and South America.”
(Distributed by Ingram. ISBN: 9798218382704)
Animal Mycophiles by Eva Gordon (Green Writers Press | August 19, 2025)
This book by a Pacific Northwest–based mycology expert explores “how animals hunt, farm, self-medicate, and even get intoxicated on mushrooms, all while playing a crucial role in the delicate balance of nature.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9798992398847)
Positively Uncivilized by Rena Priest (Raven Chronicles Press | August 4, 2025)
This essay collection, which “examines the impact of human inhabitants on planet earth, includes “personal accounts of the deterioration of salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest and the loss of Indigenous history.”
(Distributed by IngramSpark. ISBN: 9798991403238)
The Maps They Gave Us: One Marriage Reimagined by Wayne Scott (Black Lawrence Press | February 11, 2025)
In this memoir, which takes place primarily in Portland, Scott “offers the perspective of a queer (bisexual) man in a mixed-orientation marriage.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781625571540)
Poetry
The Autobiography of Rain by Lana Hechtman Ayers (Barclay Press/Fernwood Press | August 5, 2024)
The poems in this collection, which is set on the Oregon coast, “explore the healing powers of art and nature in a world that is as rife with grief as it is as ripe with beauty.”
(Distributed by Ingram Lightning Source. ISBN: 9781594981388)
I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State (Empty Bowl Press | April 4, 2023)
Edited by Rena Priest, this anthology “sings of salmon—lamented and praised, hooked, and netted, spawned out and dammed from home; of their magnificence and generosity, of how the fish continue to give and of what they gave.”
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9781737040897)
Binded by H Warren (Red Hen Press | July 11, 2023)
According to David Nikki Crouse, the poems in this collection “are all love poems—to Alaska, to a dog, to the homeless community and the queer community, to one’s own body.”
(Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9781597099318)
Fiction
Tell the Rest by Lucy Jane Bledsoe (Akashic Books | March 7, 2023)
In this novel set in Oregon, “two estranged childhood friends find themselves on parallel paths to return to the site of the conversion therapy camp that tore them apart.”
(Distributed by W. W. Norton. ISBN: 9781636140797)
Sweet Constance by Jane Carlsen (Unsolicited Press | August 5, 2025)
“After the death of her daughter and the end of her marriage, Connie Sweet sells a portion of her farm and forestland to be made into a vineyard,” in this novel set in Oregon wine country.
(Distributed by Asterism Books. ISBN: 9781963115444)
I’m Here: Alaska Stories by David Nikki Crouse (Red Hen Press | August 8, 2023)
The stories in this collection “dramatize life in the Alaskan interior, describing the difficult lives of people in Fairbanks, Alaska, as they move through the long, brilliant days of summer into the deep winter months.”
(Distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN: 9781597099349)
Closer by Miriam Gershow (Regal House Publishing | June 3, 2025)
According to Jennifer Oko, in this novel set in Oregon in 2015, “Gershow deftly navigates a tangled web of crisscrossing landmines—family, friendship, class, race, adolescence, and love.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781646035892)
On the Way to the End of the World by Adrianne Harun (Acre Books | September 15, 2023)
Set in an isolated mill town in the Pacific Northwest after the Cuban Missile Crisis, this novel “is an adventure story riven with secrets, a national fairy tale twisted into a whodunit.”
(Distributed by Chicago Distribution Center. ISBN: 9781946724656)
Stealing Home by Sharon Hashimoto (Grid Books | September 10, 2024)
This short story collection “traces the costs of war and internment as felt across generations of Japanese Americans living in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.”
(Distributed by Independent Publishers Group. ISBN: 9781946830227)
Independent Publishers Based in the Pacific Northwest
Oregon
Airlie Press
CALYX Press
Concrete Wolf Poetry Series
Fernwood Press
First Matter Press
Fonograf Editions
Forest Avenue Press
Fuente Fountain Books
Future Tense Books
Lost Horse Press
Mercury House
The Poetry Box
Red Shoe Press
Unsolicited Press
YesYes Books
Washington
Bainbridge Island Press
Black Heron Press
Copper Canyon Press
Empty Bowl Press
Entre Ríos Books
Feral House / Process Media (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Generous Press
Homeward Books
Kelsey Street Press
Latah Books
Madrona Books
Milltown Press
Rachilde & Co.
Raven Chronicles Press
Slant Books
The 3rd Thing
Wandering Aengus Press
Watershed Press
Wave Books
Tulipwood Books
Print Literary Magazines Based in the Pacific Northwest
Alaska
Alaska Quarterly Review
Permafrost
Idaho
Talking River Review
Montana
Whitefish Review
Oregon
Buckman Journal
CALYX
Camas
Pile Press
Washington
Crab Creek Review
Edge City
Poetry Northwest (Read our publisher spotlight here.)
Square Lake
seedfall
Willow Springs
Fairs and Festivals in the Pacific Northwest
Bainbridge Book Festival
Bainbridge Island, WA
2024: October 4-5
Feria del Libro Oregon Book Fair
Salem, OR
2025: May 24
Get Lit! Festival
Spokane, WA
2025: April 10-13
Portland Book Festival
Portland, OR
2025: November 8
Sisters Festival of Books
Sisters, OR
2025: September 12-14
Written in the Northwest Book Fair
Lynwood, WA
2024: November 23; 2025: Date TBD
Regional Awards
Oregon Book Awards
The Oregon Book Awards, sponsored by Literary Arts, are given for books poetry, fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, children’s literature, young adult, and drama by Oregon residents whose legal residence is in Oregon at least six months of the year.
Washington State Book Awards
The Washington State Book Awards, sponsored by the Washington Center for the Book, honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors.
