Centipede Press

Last updated
Centipede Press
Founded2001
FounderJerad Walters
Country of originUSA
Headquarters locationLakewood, Colorado
DistributionConsortium Book Sales
Publication typesBooks, Journals
Fiction genres Horror, Gothic, science fiction, weird, crime, thriller, abnormal psychology
Official website centipedepress.com

Centipede Press is an American independent book and periodical publisher focusing on horror, weird tales, crime narratives, science fiction, gothic novels, fantasy art, and studies of literature, music and film. Its earliest imprints were Cocytus Press and Millipede Press.

Contents

Background

Centipede Press was founded in 2001 in Lakewood, Colorado by Jerad Walters. Since inception, it has published over two hundred volumes including currently well-known authors (including Stephen King, Peter Straub, Richard Adams, John Fowles, Neil Gaiman, Frank Herbert, and Patrick McGrath), as well as resurrecting out-of-print works of past genre writers. As of 2025, the press releases one to three new books a month, principally in luxury or oversized, signed or traycased hardback editions aimed toward the collector's market.

Centipede Press received the Horror Writers Association Specialty Press Award in 2013, with its other volumes being named finalists in other years for the Bram Stoker Award in Non-fiction twice and once for Fiction Collection, [1] [2] [3] the Locus award for Single-Author Story Collection, [4] and World Fantasy Award for Best Multiple-Author Anthology (from its first released book, World Fantasy Award for Stigmata in 2001). [5] In 2018, the World Fantasy Convention presented three "Special Award--Professional" trophies to the writer, artist, and editor behind its volume on Patrick McGrath, Writing Madness. [6]

Noting this press's novel treatments and presentations of the fiction of Stephen King, Thomas Ligotti, and Patrick McGrath at the Stoker Awards presentations in New Orleans on 15 June 2013, the Board of the 1,300 member-World Horror Association lauded how Centipede "specializes in horror, crime, and science fiction", yet also regularly produces important "art books, career retrospectives, and critical studies on horror films". As the award presenter put it: "Centipede Press titles strive to be excellent examples of bookmaking, with superior design, page layout, and dust jackets." [7]

Critical reception

The Press's new fiction is included regularly in annual print retrospectives, including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, [8] The Year's Best Science Fiction , [9] The Best Horror of the Year , [10] The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror , [11] and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror . [12]

In an article from the leading trade journal on rare volumes, Fine Books & Collections, Richard Goodman contends that Centipede Press's major contribution is to show how the "weird and upsetting" are alluring or how "the ugly is beautiful" through the commissioned pen and ink drawings, paintings, photography, and woodcuts that accompany texts. [13]

In 2010, Centipede Press also launched a periodical, The Weird Fiction Review, [14] a yearly color print journal ranging from 300-400 pages that discusses the eerie, monstrous, and decadent in film, literature, comics, and magazines. The journal is edited by S. T. Joshi and features articles, essays, original fiction, poetry, and interviews. [15]

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References

  1. ↑ "2015 Bram Stoker Awards". 2016-05-15.
  2. ↑ "The Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot". Horror Writers Association. February 23, 2016. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Announcing The 2017 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot". TOR.com. Macmillan. 2018-02-05. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  4. ↑ Staff (May 5, 2015). "2015 Locus Award Finalists (Centipede Press's _The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Lafferty. Volume One: The Man Who Made Models_". Horror World. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  5. ↑ "World Fantasy Award Nominees Index". World Fantasy Convention. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  6. ↑ "World Fantasy Awards 2018". Worldfantasy.org. World Fantasy Convention. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  7. ↑ "HWA Stoker Awards 2013 (minutes 40-47)". HWA Stoker Awards 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  8. ↑ Fowler, Karen Joy, ed. (2016). The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016. Mariner. pp. 101–106. ISBN   978-0544555204.
  9. ↑ Dozois, Gardner, ed. (2016). The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection. St. Martin's Press. ISBN   978-1250080844.
  10. ↑ Datlow, Ellen, ed. (2015). Best Horror of the Year, Volume 7. Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-1597808293.
  11. ↑ Datlow, Ellen (2007). The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. pp. lxiv–lxxv. ISBN   978-0312369422.
  12. ↑ Jones, Stephen, ed. (2009). The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20. Running Press. pp. 30, 46, 47. ISBN   978-0762437276.
  13. ↑ Goodman, Richard (July–August 2006). "Centipede Press". Fine Books & Collections: 20–21.
  14. ↑ Dirda, Michael. "Beyond George R.R. Martin: A Critic's Pick of Science Fiction and Fantasy". Washington Post. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  15. ↑ Datlow, Ellen (2015). Best Horror of the Year Series. Book 7. New York: Night Shade Books. ISBN   978-1597808293.
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