Bushwick's Molasses Bookstore Gets Into the Publishing Game

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Print: not yet dead. At least that's what Molasses Books owner Matt Winn is counting on, when his secondhand Bushwick bookstore (which also serves booze) launches its very own press.

"The press is not going to be like a huge operation," Winn told Bedford+Bowery. "But the idea is to put out really nice objects in small editions."

The first book on shelves will be Winn's own, Clowncar & Exquisite Starvation, two short story collections in one book. (On the "egocentric"—his word—decision to publish his own work first, Winn says, "If you want to make moves, you have to do it first to get it rolling.") The next two—by other authors—will be a "kind of poetic, pseudo-academic, long-form essay," and an art book with paintings of fake books that have titles like, "So You Grew Up In White Suburban America But You Love Bob Marley And Other Cultures."

And about that whole "print being dead" thing, it's hardly a concern of Winn's. "Whatever big publishing might be dealing with in terms of problems with Amazon and stuff like that, these are things that have no relevance to me putting out literally 250 copies of a small-run poetry book," he said. "These are almost community-centric products."

Since Molasses opened two years ago, the Bushwick lit scene has exploded along with it—Mellow Pages Library, Blonde Art Books, Human Relations Bookstore and Catland, the occult-themed shop, all opened shortly thereafter. In the meantime, head over to Molasses Books for your next good read—along with a glass of red, of course.
· Molasses Goes From Book Hawker to Publisher [Bedford+Bowery]
· Bushwick Now Has a Hotspot for Bookstores—and Bookstore Parties [Racked NY]