MISSION
Anomaly is an international journal of literature and the arts. We provide a platform for works of art that challenge conventions of form and format, of voice and genre.
Anomaly is committed to actively seeking out and promoting the work of marginalized and underrepresented artists, including especially people of color, women, queer, disabled, neurodivergent, and gender nonconforming artists. We recognize that, as Kazim Ali wrote brilliantly to Aimee Nezhukumatathil: “The notion of an unbiased concept “literary merit” is an inherently and inescapably racist principle. An institution that relies on it is by definition a white supremacist institution.” Anomaly recognizes that aesthetics are not neutral, and that difference tends to be marginalized.
Anomaly is committed to encouraging experimentation in the arts.
Anomaly believes in the importance of compensating artists for their work, and we are working toward financial sustainability, which will allow us to compensate our contributors and our editorial staff for their work.
Anomaly focuses on especially innovative and experimental literature and arts. Anomaly is run by an entirely volunteer staff, dedicated to literature and art and the internet (well, more like literature and the art on the internet, but we’re fans of the medium, too).
HISTORY
Anomalous Press was founded in 2010 in Boston, MA by Erica Mena, Shannon Walsh, Rachael Trousdale, David Johnston, Sarah Gilmore, and Matt Landry. The original incarnation of was Anomalous, a web journal, completely hand-coded, that published 17 issues between 2010 and 2015.
In 2011 Anomalous Press began publishing print chapbooks in hand-made letterpress-printed cover editions of 100. Since then, Anomalous Press has published 23 books (as of 2018) of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literature in translation.
In 2014, Anomalous Press founding editor Erica Mena joined Drunken Boat as the Managing Editor, and in 2015 was asked to step into the position of Editor and Executive Director. Erica, along with the entire board and editorial staff, resigned from Drunken Boat in 2016 (to learn more about that, please see this blog post). The editorial staff elected to continue working together by starting Anomaly, and we’re glad to continue this work together and with you here.