Lapsus Calami since 2003

Calamari Archive is an autonomous island of misfit lit, art and music, beholden to no one. Since 2003, Calamari has pushed the envelope of what language can do, publishing over 100 book and album objects (including Sleepingfish magazine and the incorporated 3rd bed and Starcherone imprints). Some of these have been first books by emerging writers such as Brandon Hobson, Miranda Mellis, Blake Butler and Chiara Barzini, while others have been resurrected reprints of out-of-print cult classics by authors such as David Ohle, Garielle Lutz and Kenji Siratori. Calamari Archive shrugs off genre, authorship, marketability and other conventions of traditional publishing, suffice to say we revere language and the book/album format as a canvas on which to make art.

In 2014 the entity formerly known as Calamari Press lopped off the pushy-sounding press from its name to become Calamari Archive, ink. The word archive more accurately reflects our organizational ambitions, incorporated (and ink-operated) as such, as an independent collective, a curated collection. This name change represents a philosophical schism in response to a shifting landscape that aggressively markets books and albums as consumer commodities, diminishing their integrity as art objects. Calamari Arↄhive eschews copyrighted works and encourages posthumanistic and anon/pseudonymous works, with an emphasis more on the art itself than on the humans making it. This post provides a nuts and bolts account of how we operate.

In 2025, Calamari Archive expatriated to Bologna, the third time we've fled to Italy to escape the U.S. socio-political situation (and another time to Nairobi). We still publish in english, but are now more focused on cultures outside of the U.S. (or counter-cultures within).

Proposals for full-length books or albums are always being considered. If you're not familiar with Calamari Archive then please check out the catalog, there's lots of stuff freely available online. Authors and artists from diverse and marginalized backgrounds are encouraged to send work, white american dudes w/MFAs have had plenty of opportunities. Email to: submission.

Masthead