Slant has become an idea lab as well as a press—and ultimately, a place to return again and again for works of intellectual depth and spiritual nourishment.

—Susanne Paola Antonetta, author of The Devil’s Castle and Entangled Objects

Dear Friends:

W.H. Auden’s phrase, “poetry makes nothing happen,” has been misinterpreted: instead of saying that literature is ineffectual, Auden was simply resisting the idea that literature should be reduced to propaganda. Indeed, a couple lines below the phrase Auden writes that poetry “survives, / A way of happening, a mouth.” Literature, in short, doesn’t put up barricades; it is, rather, a “mouth” that makes the “nothing” of words happen.

You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t agree, so I’m hoping that you will make something happen for Slant Books by making a tax-deductible donation today.

After all, if there’s one thing Slant readers know in a visceral and intimate way, it’s that great literature changes us. The experience we long for, the pang of nostalgia we often feel, is for the books that changed us, that renewed us. And no, this isn’t “literature as therapy”; it’s literature as the imaginative conveyor of truth, goodness, and beauty.

We may read for entertainment or for knowledge, but in the end most of us read because we long to be transformed. Of the millions of books published every year, only a few books have the combination of craft, vision, and soul to have that sort of impact on us. We’d like to think that we’re publishing some of them here at Slant Books. Which is why a National Book Award nominee can say:

“Slant Books stands as a vital counterpoint to the noise of the current age, rejecting the cheap comforts and instant judgments of contemporary culture. To read a Slant book is to commit to a slow, thoughtful transformation, emerging not merely entertained, but fundamentally changed by the enduring power of literature.”

—Bryan Bliss, author of We’ll Fly Away

The most transformative books are the product of an individual writer’s imagination, the result of a unique life experience, particular stylistic gifts, and devotion to finding a form. In other words, great books reflect what the philosophers called haeccitas—“thisness”—something no large language model or AI slop will ever possess, mired as they are in the generic.

Books capable of transforming us also place demands on us; they ask much of our hearts and minds before they more than repay that effort—hence they can easily be replaced by the distractions of a digital age, which we all know too well. What’s even more worrying is that even among those who seek to renew the culture there is an addiction to discourse about art rather than allowing something deeper than discourse—the imagination itself—to change us.

It’s no wonder, then, that the truly daring, innovative creative works get lost amidst both the distractions and the discourse—and thus need a community to stand behind them and ensure that they have a chance to see the light of day.

As Robert Giroux, the brilliant editor who made Farrar, Straus and Giroux into a literary institution, once said: “This is the most sobering of all publishing lessons. Great books are often ahead of their time. The trick is how to keep them—and their authors—afloat until the times catch up.”

If you are reading this appeal letter, you are already a member of the community that knows how important it is to support the creation of new work, to live in and engage with the present moment. And so we have the temerity to ask you, once again, to make a sacrifice to make these books possible and to help us get them out into the world. Before you make your donation, though, you should consider whether we’ve earned it. So here’s what happened in 2025:

• Slant’s “Close Reading” blog now appears on Substack as well as our website, gaining many new readers;
• In Search of the Human Face by Luigi Giussani was chosen as Communion and Liberation’s official book for the fall, selling over 1500 copies;
• Leslie Williams’s Matters for You Alone was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Awards and various titles won medals for the Next Generation Indie Press Awards, the IPPY Awards, and the Southwest Books of the Year;
• Slant titles have been reviewed or featured in many leading outlets, including America, Comment, Commonweal, Fare Forward, Mere Orthodoxy, North American Review, and Presence and featured on numerous podcasts, including Word on Fire;
• Slant was present at three major events: New York Encounter, AWP Convention, and Windhover Literary Festival;
• With the publication of Invited to the Feast, poet Bonnie Naradzay made her debut at age 80;
• Thanks to a generous grant, we were able to hire a managing editor, Emily Kwilinski, who is already working wonders.

And 2026 is shaping up to be a banner year:

• SlantCast, the official podcast of Slant Books, will be expanding, doubling its frequency of episodes and exploring the core themes animating the press, including the tradition of literary humanism, the practice of close reading, the role of indie presses, and much more;
• New poetry collections by Paul Mariani, Scott Cairns, Susan L. Miller, Baron Wormser, John Poch, and Robert Cording;
• A stunning debut YA novel in the tradition of Madeleine L’Engle, Light in the Canyon, by Darren Cools;
• A darkly hysterical novel—Miller Cane: A True and Exact History—by Samuel Ligon;
• Absorbing short story collections from Gilbert Allen and Tom Howard;
• Luigi Giussani’s exploration of the meaning of vocation in Time and the Temple

Not bad for a small press that has been both indie and non-profit for less than five years!

We hope you will help keep us on the way to financial stability—we have a ways to go on our trajectory toward full sustainability, but so far we are on course! You keep us “afloat”!

As Slant Books continues to cultivate community, engage readers, and broaden the artistic possibilities of its writers, they need support. They have mine. I encourage you to join this vibrant fellowship of writers and readers and ensure Slant Books continues to do what they do best.

—Lori A. May, author of The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship and the Writing Life

You, our readers, make all this possible, through your purchases and donations.

Will you support a press that features works of transformative imagination? Will you help us to keep literary culture vibrant, challenging, unpredictable, open to mystery? We hope you will consider making a donation before year’s end.

Thanks, as ever, for your generous support.

Yours,

Gregory Wolfe, Publisher & Editor

P.S. I hope some of you will consider becoming monthly givers: that kind of consistency provides us with a bedrock of support and spreads out your gift!

P.P.S. Don’t forget that you can now purchase books directly from us! They will take a little longer to reach you but those purchases let us keep a bigger cut of each sale and help us become more sustainable.