The beginning of June also marks the beginning of Pride month – and what better way to kick off Pride month than by spotlighting a brand new LGBTQ+ press in York.
Ergi Press is an independent publishing house based in York, and publishes work by LGBTQ+ writers and artists.
“We wanted to create a space for creatives to have their work published by a completely queer team, and without briefs or themes to be restricted to,” said co-editor Kate McCaughey.
The name ‘ergi’ comes from a Viking term used to signify somebody who was not straight and is literally translated as ‘doing gender wrong’.
As a York-based press, the team at Ergi thought it fitting due to York’s vast Viking history and reclaimed the term “because at Ergi Press there’s no way of doing gender wrong.”
Ergi began when Kate pitched the idea to her fellow Publishing MA students at York St. John University.
A team of five was soon assembled with Imogen Davies and Alex Bestwick joining Kate as co-editors, Emily Greenman designing the zine, and Rachael Williams working on design and typesetting.
“We’ve been so surprised by how much support and encouragement we’ve received, both from peers and tutors on our course and from other publishers online,” said Kate.
“It’s daunting for a new press to build a community, but the queer community of York and beyond have been so excited for us and for the project.”
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The first issue of the zine was launched at the end of April, with a launch night that included poetry recitals where members of the LGBTQ+ community could perform their work.
The zine included poetry, prose and art submissions.
“Hearing from members of the community about the importance of queer spaces for creatives has made us very proud to have launched Ergi,” said Kate.
“Publishing especially can be very London-centric and commercialised, so we love that there’s a community here in the North of homemade presses and zines.”
So what’s next for Ergi Press?
“We’re just excited to keep going! We hope as we grow Ergi can keep building up and promoting the incredible queer writers and artists who submit work to us.
“We’d love to evolve and play with what presses and published work can do and break down barriers of who it’s ‘for’.”
Ergi Press are currently open for submissions for Issue 2 and 3, and are accepting prose, poetry and artwork. Please visit their website for submission guidelines.
There is no closing date for submissions, and Ergi Press have announced they are open “indefinitely”.
Ergi Press have also announced today (Wednesday) that submissions are open for work from queer-identifying writers for their first ever anthology ‘Trickster’ – inspired by the “mischief and duality” of Norse god Loki.
For updates, more information and to purchase Issue 1 check out Ergi Press’ website, Instagram and Twitter pages.