Red Cygnet Press

The small publisher will always have my love. Though big honking companies may wrangle themselves onto our book and library shelves, I've a great affection for the small, perfect, meticulous presses that never get enough attention. So it shouldn't be too surprising that I missed the birth of Red Cygnet Press until now.

They describe themselves thusly:

Red Cygnet Press is a new kind of children's book publishing company--one that gives some of the most-talented college students a chance to be published authors by the time they graduate, or shortly thereafter. To do this, we have developed partnerships with the Art departments of America's best universities. These partnerships enable our editorial staff to evaluate the talents of each school's students and then to offer the most promising individuals a chance to create an entire children's book, which Red Cygnet Press will publish.

It sounds like it could be bloody awful, but the images of the books themselves make them out to be quite sophisticated. More so, I would dare say, than those coming out of some of the larger presses. Of course I haven't seen any of these first-hand (though Vagabonding looked vaguely familiar) so there is always the distinct possibility that the writing itself is sub-par. The art students who create the images also, it would seem, write their own books. And being that writing a picture book is a haphazard undertaking of enormous skill (are they offering contracts to students with masters in Creative Writing?), there are bound to be duds.

So I call upon you, the viewers at home, to tell me more. Has anyone ever stumbled across a Red Cygnet book? Their new Fall titles have just been released, after all. I should mention that they also, and this is very important, have a blog. Clever modern dickens.

Thanks to Kids Lit for the link.