Just a week after Dzanc Books expanded its staff to include a publicist and art director, the non-profit literary house has agreed to acquire OV Books, another small literary press. Under the terms of the agreement, OV executive director Gina Frangello and senior editor Stacy Bierlein will prepare at least one book a year for publication under the OV imprint with Dzanc providing production and distribution support.
“Basically, I very much want to continue publishing books, but I had come to a point in my life where I was no longer interested in or able to run a ‘small business,'” Frangello emailed when asked about the decision to sign with Dzanc. “OV Books and Other Voices magazine had become an increasingly complicated business to manage as it grew—grant writing and fundraising and such things took up as much or more of my time than the manuscript selection and editing, and we were also doing all the work of arranging author events and other publicity for the magazine and book press.” Dzanc’s Dan Wickett contacted OV when he learned about plans to shut the magazine down, offering his imprint’s logistical support with the book publishing. “I’ve long admired the work Dan was doing,” Frangello said, “and I esteemed the writers Dzanc was starting to work with, and so a joint effort of this sort appealed to me a lot. I trust Dan and his partner Steve Gillis, because the work they’re doing in the literary and literacy communities speaks for itself, in terms of where their hearts and intentions are.”