A Year In Books, intro

A series on the books I've helped bring into the world in 2025.

Years and years ago, sitting alone on a playground swing during recess, I told my 3rd-grade teacher I was going to be a publisher. This was just before I then told her I was a communist.

No, I didn’t know what communism was back then, any more than I knew what a publisher was. I really couldn’t have possibly had any good reason to say either of those things, and yet I did.

She had come up to me and said that I was looking really serious. I was absolutely a really serious kid, so this wasn’t the first time anyone had said something of the sort to me. However, she’d said something that offended me on her approach, and nine-year-old me wanted to make damn certain she knew it.

She’d said, “You look really serious. You should be a documentary host.”

“No,” I’d told her. “I’m going to be a publisher.”

She’d looked quite taken aback, and, trying to play along, said something about how much money I could make doing either of those things as an adult.

“Capitalism is stupid,” I’d then said. “I’m a communist.”

That ended the conversation quite quickly, as I’m pretty sure she’d understood I intended to keep being really serious about it all, and there was no point arguing with me.

And here I am, years later, a communist (more an autonomous Marxist, really, but I didn’t know what that was in elementary school, sorry) and a publisher. I’m other stuff, too, but that’s not really relevant to this essay.

Anyway, those of you reading me for a long time have probably noticed that I’ve been quite damn busy and not writing as much as I’d usually write. That’s because I’ve been busy being a communist (not really) and a publisher. Because of all that being busy in 2025, Sul Books, which I run and co-own, published 19 books this year.

Honestly, I never thought publishing could be this fun. (Communism’s a lot less fun, if I’m really being honest). It’s kind of the dream job I didn’t realize I always wanted, even though apparently I predicted it in third grade.

And I’d love to tell you about all the books I published in 2025. In fact, I’m going to. But I won’t just tell you about the books, but also something about my life during its publication.

So, daily for the next few weeks, you’re going to be getting a short little essay from me about every single one of the books I published in 2025.

Told you, Ms. Jenkins.