Understory. an underlying layer of vegetation
specifically : the vegetative layer and especially the trees and shrubs between the forest canopy and the ground cover. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Understory Books was founded in 2019 by Tom Lecky as a home for his own books and those of other artists investigating related themes. The imprint is informed heavily by the practices of 20th century small press publishers such as Robert Creeley’s Divers Press and Jonathan William’s Jargon Society of the 1950s, and by the traditions of poet/artists of the so-called Language school such as Bernadette Mayer (0 to 9) and Lyn Hejinian (Tuumba Press). Understory aims to be both resolutely experimental and democratic in approach, but from the vantage point of innovating within the tradition of the book, of finding works that may look conventional but are skillfully crafted with exploratory methods to reveal emotional depth and, for lack of a better word, the uncanny.
Understory is the imprint of Riverrun Books & Manuscripts.