Melville House Moves to Brooklyn

By Craig Morgan Teicher -- Publishers Weekly, 12/18/2007 7:43:00 AM

Melville House, independent publisher of political books such as What We Do Now and novelists including Stephen Dixon and Tao Lin, is moving its headquarters from Hoboken, NJ to Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood, home to other indie publishers like Akashic books and PowerHouse, and former home to Soft Skull Press. Melville’s new space, at 145 Plymouth St., will house not only the publisher’s offices, but a bookstore and event space.

Co-Publisher Dennis Loy Johnson (who runs the press with his wife Valerie Merians) told PW, “We felt that there was no real hangout for independent publishers, both book publishers and journals. We got quite an offering from the Brooklyn developer, the Two Trees company. We made a proposal to them and they liked it, and the deal for the space is something we could not have gotten anywhere else. Brooklyn is just an amazingly vibrant scene and we wanted to be there.”

In the 1200 square foot event space, Melville plans to host readings, panel discussions, and book events for their own authors and other indie presses. To begin with, the bookstore will only sell Melville titles, but Johnson said they may stock other publishers’ books in conjunction with events in the future.

The move will take place in mid-January.