Press 53 Publishing Imprints

Press 53 has established the following publishing imprints for private projects that allow us to visit other genres outside of poetry and short fiction.

Opine Press was established in the Fall of 2023 with its first title arriving on November 30, 2023: Stardust and Scar Tissue: Rambles, Ruminations, and the Search for an Authentic Culture of Life by Mick Scott, former editorial page editor for the Winston-Salem Journal. Mick won numerous awards for his thoughtful, inquisitive, and often funny opinion columns that he published between 2016 and 2023. Being a fan of Mick’s columns, we established Opine Press to preserve and share some of Mick’s favorite pieces and to share them with readers beyond Winston-Salem. Visit the Opine Press page to find Mick’s book.

Plot Hound Books was established in 2017 so we could continue working with local writer and retired news anchor Cameron Kent. In 2010, when Press 53 was still publishing novels, we published Cameron’s Civil War-era historical novel The Road to Devotion. The novel sold well and was selected for On the Same Page, the Forsyth County Public Library (North Carolina) community-read program. Cameron also writes mystery/thriller novels, and when the original publisher of When the Ravens Die closed its doors, we established Plot Hound Books to bring this popular book back to print and to publish more of Cameron’s genre novels, including The Sea Is Silent, and most recently, The Oak Island Book Club. A note on the name: The Plott Hound, originally bred for hunting bears and named for the Plott family, is the official state dog of North Carolina. Since Cameron’s books are plot- and character-driven, we thought dropping a T from Plott would be only fitting for a mystery/thriller publishing imprint based in “The Writingest State.” Visit the Plot Hound Books page to find Cameron’s novels.