The idea for Replacement Press came about in the spring of 2009, when Andrew and Sarah De Young (that’s us) started thinking together about the future of literary publishing.

We weren’t the only ones; there’d been a lot of hand-wringing lately about the future of the printed word. John Updike had recently passed away, reminding everyone in publishing about what they already knew but didn’t like to talk about: a generation of American writers and readers was aging, and the generation poised to replace them supposedly wasn’t very interested in reading. Revenues were flat or down, big East Coast publishers were cutting staff, and some were calling for a government bailout of the publishing industry, arguing that novels, short stories, and poems were just as important to the health of the nation as banks.

All of this would seem to suggest that literature is on the decline, that this is a bad time to start a literary press—but the more we talked about the challenges facing literary publishing the more we felt that something more than talk was necessary, and the more we felt compelled to offer that something more. So, Replacement Press is a response—a response, and an experiment, a way to test out some of our beliefs.

We believe, for one, that literature can not just survive but also thrive in the digital age. Literature as we know it may be on the decline, but those words—“as we know it”—contain a promise: something is ending but something is also beginning, something new.

We also believe that the next generation—Gen Y, Millenials, digital natives, the MTV generation, whatever you want to call them (us!)—has something important to say, something that the world needs to hear.

But finally and most importantly, we believe that the next generation, our generation, has not just something to say but, somewhere within our ranks, the brilliant writers to say it, and the readers to read it—the replacements, waiting in the wings.

Andrew De Young, Managing Editor
Sarah De Young, Designer/Assistant Editor
St. Paul, Minnesota