Midwestern Micro-Publisher Launches On-line Merch Store!

An Iowa-based independent micro-press has launched an on-line store of T-shirt, coffee mug, and other designs inspired by its literary projects, communities, and anthologies. Themes include "aggressively midwest" and "Greetings from Flyover Country!" The latter was inspired by the cover of a recently launched anthology of science-fiction flash and poetry, "Midwest Futures."

Product designs inspired by the Midwest Futures project include:

• “Greetings from Flyover Country!” (a Golden Age rocket ship flying across a contrail-filled sky)
• “Mars Needs Bacon!” (flying saucers abducting ... hogs?)
• “Astro-Cornfield” (an astronaut kneeling on a mutant blue-corn planet)

"We're always looking for new ways to engage people in constructive conversations," says editor-publisher Randy Brown. "Featuring the work of our writers and artists on a T-shirt or sticker seems like a fun way to further build awareness, community and conversation!"

Incorporated in 2015, Middle West Press LLC is a veteran-owned, Iowa-based independent micro-press. Annually publishing from 1 to 4 titles of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and journalism, its efforts are often inspired by the people, places, and history of the American Midwest.

"Our recently launched 'Midwest Futures' sci-fi anthology, for example, grew from a desire to reframe corny old stereotypes about 'flyover country,'" Brown says. "And our forthcoming project featuring Midwestern monsters—'Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn'—threatens to probe unexplored psychological depths of our prairies and plains states."

In addition to complicating and enriching narratives of what it means to live in the Midwest, the micro-publisher also often seeks to build bridges of empathy across the "civil-military gap" between military veterans and families on one side, and voters and taxpayers on the other.

In addition to publishing military -adjacent anthologies such as "Things We Carry Still" and "Why We Write," for example, Middle West Press serves as the administrator and underwriter of The Aiming Circle, an on-line community of practice for writers of military themes and topics. The new merch store includes products for that community as well.

For more information about Middle West Press, including its social media platforms, visit: linktr.ee/middlewestpress