| Founded | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Berkeley, California |
| Distribution | Random House Publisher Services |
| Publication types | Books |
| Nonfiction topics | Raw Foodism, Mediumship, Parapsychology, Spirituality, Religion, Holistic Health, Sustainability, Nutrition, New Age, Fitness, Yoga |
| Official website | www.northatlanticbooks.com |
North Atlantic Books is a non-profit, independent publisher based in Berkeley, CA.[1] Founded by authors Richard Grossinger and Lindy Hough in Vermont, North Atlantic Books was named partly for the North Atlantic region where it began in 1974, as well as Alan Van Newkirk's Geographic Foundation of the North Atlantic, an early (1970) ecological center founded in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, by radicals from Detroit. The publisher also cites Edward Dorn's 1960's poem, "North Atlantic Turbine: A Theory of Truth," which very early described the dangers of global commoditization by the Western World, as an inspiration in the company's name. The company's mission statement reads: “Our mission is to affect planetary consciousness, nurture spiritual and ecological disciplines, disseminate ancient wisdom, and put forth ways to transmute cultural dissonance and violence into service.”[2] Genres published by North Atlantic Books include internal martial arts (through its imprint Blue Snake Books), somatics, homeopathic medicine, shamanism, Martian mysteries, alternative medicine, the history and philosophy of medicine, natural foods, New Science, Buddhism, parapsychology, Western esotericism, Sufism, deep ecology, gay and lesbian studies, conspiracy theories and Jungian psychology.[3] In 1980, North Atlantic Books was incorporated within the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. They are a client of Random House distribution services.[4]
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While Grossinger attended Amherst College and Hough at Smith College in Massachusetts, they founded North Atlantic Books progenitor Io Magazine[5], an alternative college literary magazine in 1964, featuring work from Robert Kelly, Charles Stein, and Nels Richardson, among others. Over the next decade, Io became a counter-cultural journal mixing literature, science, and history, as it came out of Michigan, Maine, and Vermont with issues such as Alchemy, Doctrine of Signatures, Ethnoastronomy, Oecology, Dreams, Earth Geography, and The Olson-Melville Sourcebooks. Io is credited for publishing early works by Stephen King (his poem, "Brooklyn August," was featured in Io Issue #10[6]) and Jayne Anne Phillips, and launched as well the work of writers including David Wilk, Rob Brezsny, and Phoebe Gloeckner.
In 2009, North Atlantic books created the Io Poetry Series[7], featuring collections from under-recognized voices in American poetry. Featured poets include Gerrit Lansing, Kenneth Irby, and Lindy Hough."[8][9] In 2010, Kenneth Irby's Io Poetry Series book The Intent On received the Poetry Society of America's 2010 Shelley Memorial Award.[10]
North Atlantic Books is the publisher of the first installment of the New York Times bestselling book 'Walter the Farting Dog'[11] by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, with a 10th Anniversary edition of the book published in August 2011. The publisher is also credited with publishing the complete thirteen-volume series of short stories from Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon.[12] Other notable works from North Atlantic include Jon Klimos's Channeling: Investigations on Receiving Information from Paranormal Sources (1998, ISBN 1-55643-248-8), described by Newsweek as "the sacred text on channeling,"[13] and Patrick Doud's The Winnitok Tales, a series the Midwest Book Review praised for "memorable characters, poetic language, and driving narrative to these timeless tales that recall the classic epic adventure stories.”[14]
According to filmmaker, author, and performer Miranda July, Grossinger and Hough's daughter, her brother and her were part of the company's early operations which included "packing Jiffy bags with books for shipment."[15] July claims her upbringing, North Atlantic Books presence specifically, instilled in her a love of writing "that is at the basis of all the things that I do."[16] Bestselling author and writer Jonathan Lethem has also been tied to North Atlantic Books as the publisher's first paid employee, and later provided an introduction for Theodore Sturgeon's book, The Man Who Lost the Sea.[17]
March 2011: Publishers Weekly listed North Atlantic Books as a 'Top 10 Fastest Growing Indie Publisher.'[18]
April 2011: Endless Path by Rafe Martin received a Storytelling World Resource Award in the Storytelling Collection category.[19]
May 2011: Noach Dzmura, editor of Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community, received the Lambda Literary Award for the best nonfiction piece in the Transgender category.[20]
June 2011: Keep Your Wives Away From Them, an anthology edited by Miryam Kabakov, received a Golden Crown Literary Award in the Anthology category.[21]
Launched in 2011, EVOLVER EDITIONS is an imprint of North Atlantic Books presenting voices of the transformation movement of "psychic evolution," a spiritual counterculture that explores the concept of consciousness. The imprint is a collaboration between North Atlantic Books and Evolver LLC, which publishes the online magazine Reality Sandwich and online social network, Evolver.net.[22] Topics covered by EVOLVER EDITIONS authors include shamanism, environmental design, theories in cosmology, and strategies for political organizing, among others.[23] Key authors include Daniel Pinchbeck, José Argüelles, and Charles Eisenstein.
Blue Snake Books was founded in 2005 as a dedicated martial arts imprint of North Atlantic Books,[24] though the company has been publishing martial arts titles for over 25 years.[25] Disciplines of martial arts featured include capoeira, karate, muay thai, tai chi, ba gua, judo, jiu jitsu, and more.[26] Blue Snake Books authors include t'ai chi master Bruce Frantzis and Russian Prime Minister and judo practitioner Vladimir Putin.[27]