Emilie Buchwald Launches New Press

by Claire Kirch, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 7/20/2006

After enjoying only three years of retirement, Emilie Buchwald, 70, founder and publisher emeritus of Milkweed Editions, is launching a new press. This time, however, instead of focusing on literary fiction and nonfiction as she did in her 25 years at Milkweed, Buchwald’s new venture—Gryphon Press—will publish children’s picture books.

“I have a little bit of a niche that nobody has picked up on and I’d like to establish it,” Buchwald declares, describing her list as titles intended to inspire readers grades K–3 to empathize with, respect and care for animals, especially pets.

Gryphon Press’s first two titles are Buddy Unchained by Daisy Bix, illustrated by Joe Hyatt, with a 7,500 copy print run, and At the Dog Park with Sam and Lucy by Bix, illustrated by Amelia Hansen, with a 10,000-copy print run. Both titles will be published in October, with four to six titles scheduled for release each year. Gryphon Press is distributed to the trade by Consortium.

Julie Schaper, Consortium’s president, explains that Consortium regularly takes on publishers new to the industry, though sometimes with some trepidation, as the learning curve can be a steep one. “But Emilie has a wealth of publishing experience, and she’s doing children’s books. We’re interested in growing our list of quality children’s books. Both of these factors mean a lot to us.”

While Buchwald acknowledges that she indeed has no experience in children’s picture book publishing, she’s confident of success in her new endeavor. Not only has she edited more than 200 books for both adult and young readers during her long affiliation with Milkweed, she says, she also has had two children’s books published by Harcourt. And, being a mother and grandmother, she has read children’s picture books for most of her life.

“I know the field well. I think a publisher, to be successful, must feel a love for the material that he or she publishes, and feel in sync with it,” she explains, adding that animal rights activism has always resonated with her. In fact, she considered launching Gryphon Press in the early 1980s, “but then Milkweed got busy,” eventually becoming one of the largest nonprofit literary publishers in the United States.

Asked if she was certain she wanted to return to the rough-and-tumble world of publishing, Buchwald responds, “This is enjoying my golden years. Publishing is hard, but if you love what you are doing, if you feel you are making a contribution, go ahead.”