“Publishers are the curators of America’s stories. They are gatekeepers who decide whose stories will be told and whose will not. They have a moral and social obligation to ensure that the pluralism of American society is presented more robustly in our literary canon.”
—Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, chief program officer for PEN America’s Literary Programs
Remé Grefalda & Sophie Ibardaloza at Paloma Press’ first ever book launch at the Library of Congress in 2017
Eileen Tabios at the launch of Manhattan: An Archaeology at the Filipino American Book Festival in SF in 2017
Aileen & Sophie in 2014, the year we made zines by hand for the holidays, paving the way to book publishing in 2016
We celebrated our 6th year with a collection of lyric essays by Barbara Jane Reyes. It is a work of reclamation and reckoning that we feel also articulates the many ways in which we continue to navigate, negotiate, and fortify this curious space we find ourselves in as immigrant women in the U.S. publishing industry. This year as well we started the process of applying for fiscal sponsorship as a path to eventually becoming a 501(c)(3), and in October, we announced our partnership with Independent Arts & Media as our fiscal sponsor to help us build capacity and focus on cultural strategy.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that this year, we released our 25th book, a debut poetry collection by Cynthia Buiza, which was officially launched in our father’s native Bicol on December 3rd. Additionally, between 2021 and 2022, we made it to Kirkus’ Best Indie Books (thanks to Jeanne-Marie Osterman’s Shellback), Politico, and The New York Times (thanks to Lara Stapleton’s The Ruin of Everything) for the first time! We are grateful for the support of our readers, reviewers, and the literary ecosystem that has helped bring visibility to our press.
We are grateful, most especially, to the authors who made us possible. What motivates us at Paloma Press is the opportunity to be a conduit of stories, and to be transformative and intentional in curating these stories. When someone reads our books, we would like for them to see a diverse and, hopefully, more balanced narrative of our lived contexts, to walk a mile in someone’s shoes, ask questions, and arrive at their own conclusions. What moves us most are moments that bear witness to how narratives are changed, and we continue to marvel at possibilities.
Faithfully, always in community,
Aileen Cassinetto & Sophie Ibardaloza Co-Founders, Paloma Press
PALOMA PRESS 