else is so often outside of our control. Resilience is innate.” As for general advice about what they publish, general manager J.K. Fowler suggests, “Folks ask what we look for in our writers. Authenticity. Alignment with core. Writing that aims to further connection. Commitment to community engagement, to something larger than ourselves. A desire to work toward change on a personal level and in our communities.” Notable Black authors published through Nomadic Press include accomplished poet and flautist Yeva Johnson (Analog Poet Blues), Oakland’s first poet laureate Ayodele Nzinga (Sorrowland Oracle) , famed poet and musician Norm Mattox (Black Calculus) , and artist and poet James Cagney (Martian: The Saint of Loneliness) , poet and activist Dee Allen (Plans) and notable spiritual writer Tureeda Mikell (Synchronicity: The Oracle of Sun Medicine).
They also extend gracious words to those they will publish and to those they will inevitably have to decline. “Our reality is that we must decline the invitations of many, some of whom we know and see at community events regularly. This is difficult. We know it is also difficult to receive declines to any invitation. We know this because we, too, are writers and receive numerous declines. A declined invitation may mean it is simply not the right time. It may mean that your work simply does not fit within the scope of what the press hopes to accomplish in that given year. It may mean any number of incalculable things. We want to offer some advice that can, of course, be freely disregarded: try to send your invitation without expectation or attachment to whether or not the invitation is accepted or declined. There is immense power and beauty in simply extending the invitation. Everything
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