With 15 published pieces so far and more on the way, Ooligan Press is definitely a success. They represent a large variety of work, including conspiracy thrillers, magical realism, poetry and political writing.
Some of their better-known pieces are Ricochet River by Robin Cody (a title that many Oregon high school grads will remember from English class) and The Portland Red Guide by Michael Munk.
The press works with authors from all over the globe, ultimately deciding on whether to publish a piece based on the quality of the writing, and it’s Portland State grad students who make that decision.
Dennis Stovall, the program coordinator for Ooligan, says this setup allows the press to be “generously open to experimentation.”
Ooligan Press is student run and driven. According to Stovall, there are about 70 to 90 students running the publishing process at any given time. This means that students are in charge from beginning to end, from acquisition to publishing, and they work with four to six pieces a year.
The submissions acquired this year will be the pieces that future students will work on, and the pieces being printed this year are the results of student decisions from previous years. Students collaborate to complete the process, breaking into groups that focus on specific areas of production, such as editing and marketing.
Since these groups change at times, and they work on different titles, students gain a broader knowledge of the publishing process, giving them an edge when it comes time to find work outside PSU.
That edge is not purely academic, though. The works Ooligan puts out aren’t the things that couldn’t get printed elsewhere; they are interesting, well written and critically acclaimed. Author Molly Gloss called Jose Builds A Woman (Ooligan Press, 2006) “One of the most magical and beautiful and honest novels about men and women, lovers, husbands, wives, about mothers and sons, about life and death, that you’ll ever be privileged to read. Baross has a gift for tender beauty on the page. I can’t remember when I last enjoyed a book this much.”
The products that Ooligan Press puts out are equal to, if not better than, those of larger publishers, a fact that Stovall agrees with.
“We make mistakes, like other publishing houses. We just talk about them,” Stovall says, explaining more about some of the differences between Ooligan and other professional publishing houses. Perhaps that is why Ooligan shows so much promise. The balance of academic and real world issues allows students to come to a deeper understanding of book publishing, and they’re happy for that experience.
In keeping with the university’s motto of “let knowledge serve the city,” Ooligan Press works with local schools, writers and libraries by setting up curriculum, offering ideas and inspiration, and giving consideration to work. Stovall says they also serve the university itself, though not in the traditional sense, by offering a public face through national distribution.
Apart from working on pieces to publish, the press works on other projects, such as the recent short fiction contest they hosted for Portland State students. The winners of the annual Ooligan Editors’ Choice Short Story Contest will be announced soon, and the submissions will be available to read in an online literary journal on the Ooligan Press website. And of course, PSU students are always welcome to submit works for publishing consideration.
For more information on Ooligan Press, visit their website at www.ooliganpress.pdx.edu.