Ten years ago in December, 2013, Sahtu Press came into being with the release of its very first book, A Sticky Mess by Nor Sanavongsay, following a successful kickstarter campaign when the idea of crowdfunding a book with the Southeast Asian community in diaspora was a new and untested idea. But many recognized this as a labor of love, and threw their support behind the innovative project and the founders of Sahtu Press in the hope that it would be the beginning of many more exciting projects to come. A decade later, it is clear that support has been well-justified even as the road has continued to be a bit of a rollercoaster as the creators and our community pivot to meet the different needs and opportunities that come with creating Southeast Asian American literature in the 21st century. There wasn’t necessarily a clear roadmap for success, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying.
After the successful launch of “A Sticky Mess” in the Midwest, Sahtu Press began to attend festivals and community gatherings across the country in 2014, and made contact with the Lao American poet Krysada Panusith Phounsiri in San Diego. After conversations with him, and a look at the manuscript of poetry he had, Sahtu Press agreed it needed to be published, and in 2015 in time for the second Lao American Writers Summit in Minneapolis at the Urban Research and Outreach Center, Dance Among Elephants had its debut, and was also shared with the community at that year’s Asian American Studies Association conference in Madison, Wisconsin.
Sahtu Press played a supportive role helping Kryada Panusith Phounsiri bring the Lao American Writers Summit to San Diego in 2016 with community members recognizing the importance of creating a space for artists of all disciplines and an interst in our cultural preservation and renaissance. In 2017 the Lao American Writers Summit was held in Seattle, Washington and many of the writers and artists involved with Sahtu Press were a part of that gathering.
In 2018, Sahtu Press published the popular children’s book Mommy Eats Fried Grasshoppers by Vilayvanh Bender, exploring the bicultural experiences of Lao American youth in diaspora. Sahtu Press continued to present at a variety of conventions and events including Zappcon in Fresno, Silicon Valley Comic Con, Emerald City Comic Con, and many more across the US. Sahtu Press also helped other emerging independent Southeast Asian American poets get their books into the hands of readers curious what modern voices looked like.
2019 was a busy year for Sahtu Press with the release of Battlefield Blooming by Do Nguyen Mai, and support for the Joyce Award recipients Bryan Thao Worra who, with Kaysone Syonesa were presenting and conducting research across the country for the Laomagination: 45 project, and also a 20-year retrospective of Lao creative arts in Minnesota at the New Rules gallery space. Among the places they presented was the Smithsonian 2019 Asian American Literature Festival in Washington, D.C. During this time, Sahtu Press began to explore other product lines and support for other Lao American institutions and small businesses including the Center for Lao Studies and Sabaidee Buatique. In 2020, despite the pandemic, Sahtu Press managed to release two collections, Every Passing Minute, the second collection by Krysada Panusith Phounsiri 5 years after his debut, and Before We Remember We Dream, by Bryan Thao Worra. Both collections broke tremendous ground redefining what Lao American poetry books were going to look like and how Lao artists were going to be a part of such collections. That year they also supported efforts to bringing the children’s book Kong's Adventure by Prinston Pan to life, and efforts to help the community mark the 45th anniversary of the Lao diaspora.
Between 2021 to 2022, Sahtu Press spent a lot of time focusing on how our communities would navigate the pandemic and how we would nurture and encourage the next generation of artists and writers, especially while observing social distance and trying to overcome disparities in the digital divide, or digital opportunities, depending on who you talked to. During this time to the present, members of the Sahtu Press family presented at the Singapore Writers Festival, the Library of Congress, LitCrawl, the Vientiane International School, and many more.
In many ways, this has been an underdog story like The Little Engine that Could but as Sahtu Press looks ahead, we see several amazing books and projects in the pipeline, including several new poetry collections, including a few debuts by all new Lao American voices, in addition to new children’s books and projects that will expand our understanding of traditional Lao values, dreams, memories, and our imagination.
To all of our supporters who’ve stood by us, we thank you with a heartfelt khop jai!
