Type Of Publisher
Press
Year Established
2009
Address
Kensington, CA
Name
Marguerite K Richards, based in Sri Lanka.
Title
Editor
Mission Statement / Editorial Focus
Book artist and editor team Marguerite and Camden Richards will create a limited edition (30 handmade, hand-bound copies), illustrated book of poems about birth traditions from around the world to be launched for Codex Foundation's 2022 International Book Fair. Please find Camden Richards Artist Mission & Marguerite Richards Editor Mission below: Camden Richards >
As an artist, I focus on telling the stories of people and places that are in danger of being
lost or forgotten, with a focus on women, children and the environment. History repeats
itself too often: by telling these stories I help others to remember, to learn from the past,
and to take action for the sake of our present and future. By committing these stories to
the collective memory and empowering others to take action based on their experience of
and relation to the stories, I aim to effect positive social change. I am a conservation and
preservation artist. I am a conserver and preserver of stories about people and their places;
young and old, small and large, quiet and loud, secret and well-known. I am specifically drawn to the artist’s book format as a sculptural medium to convey these
stories because it is tangible, experiential, and provides an interactive experience for the
viewer. You cannot stand idly by and view my work hanging upon a wall; it requires you to
turn pages, open drawers, lift panels, navigate word and image; it can draw you in and
repel you; it demands discovery. In other words, my books create a liminal space, where
liminal is defined as “of or relating to a sensory threshold, a state of betwixt and between.”
During this state of being, one’s sense of identity dissolves to some extent, initiating a
period of transition where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior
are relaxed, thus leading to new perspectives. In this sense, the pieces I create are liminal
spaces (either physical or psychological) that engage viewers in the betwixt and between
space, thus enabling a transformative experience that results in the formation of unique
perspectives on what has come before and what may come next. Camden M. Richards
Read more about Camden here: https://www.liminal-press.com/about Marguerite Richards, Editor >
As often as possible, I try to promote cultural awareness by supporting the voices of those heard less often than me, specifically through literature.
From one culture to the next (be that ethnic, racial, gender or LGBTQ+ culture) I believe that there is more that ties us together than tears us apart. I feel it is the responsibility of writers and editors to bring that narrative to the forefront.
On the whole, the media is perpetuating the story of our conflicts, instead of telling the stories of our beauty, diversity, and shared humanity. I believe the stories we tell about our world through the media influences the reality of our world, which writers and editors again report, and the cycle continues that way.
As a white, cis-gendered, heterosexual person, I know I am privileged to feel this way. I recognize that my ideal has never been threatened due to racial or social profiling, and I’ve never been the target of racist aggressions, large or small. I have lived quite freely and have been heard quite readily in my life, thanks to this privilege. I still have so much to learn about allyship and much questioning to do about my own biases. Racism and xenophobia are complex systems, and I am learning more and more how it differs from one country to the next. I am only beginning to understand the consequences of white supremacy over the generations, in my home country and the world at large.
With this belief motivating me in a time when people with Muslim backgrounds are experiencing startling prejudices on many levels, I curated a collection of diverse stories by authors from many Muslim worlds, entitled The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human.
Please find more about Marguerite Richards here: https://www.margueriterichards.com/
Accepts Unsolicited Submissions
Yes
