”To Hell’ is a brave venture headed up by an enterprising collective with the aim in mind to return vital writing, and in particularly, the best in contemporary fiction, to the main literary stage. I fully applaud their efforts and the editorial energies.’
To Hell with Publishing is a London based publisher whose mission it is to revive the role of the independent press in the UK’s literary scene. Inspired by the movement kick-started by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights bookshop and using as a model the great presses of the past such as The Black Sparrow and The Olympia Press, as well as modern ones like McSweeny’s. Alongside our book publications we issue To Hell with Journals, a journal with a planned lifespan of only twenty-six issues that aspires to be a document of our times and a testament to the chaos of the creative process, that has already received much media attention and boasts as guest editors Lee Brackstone, Hisham Matar and soon to join them Lisa India Baker.
Only established in 2006, and under the careful direction of Laurence Johns and Dean Ricketts, To Hell with Publishing has already successfully established itself in the highly competitive and lucrative limited editions market with books such as the critically acclaimed Juvenes: The Joy Division Photographs of Kevin Cummins and Shorty Loves Wing Wong by Michael Smith & Jim Medway with books by Saul Williams, Chris Ofili and Katinka Herbert already planned for later this year.
Also within that time the To Hell with Journals arm of the company has continued to gather much interest with high profile editors and contributors, events at London’s Soho Theatre, two successful launches at Holland’s Crossing Borders and an event planned at the prestigious Serpentine Gallery in London in February 2009. As well as having firmly established ourselves at Crossing Border and now entirely currating the Hay Fringe Festival we are also in talks with the Arts Council of Great Britain about initiating a large scale literary event in London.
2008 also saw the publication of our first novel Glass People by Tom Darling that was released in limited edition with cover artwork designed by the king of punk art Jamie Reid, designer of The Sex Pistols infamous Never Mind the Bollocks album cover.
‘The Kingdom of literature was built on the genius of small magazines, and none is more vital nowadays than To Hell with Journals’