Hagfish

Hagfish

From Three Percent Podcast by Open Letter Books

November 25, 2025 · 1h 6m

About this episode

This episode features a discussion with the cofounders of Hagfish about their publishing model and recent titles.

Dropping on the same day that Hagfish’s first publication— To Smithereens by Rosalyn Drexler—was named as one of the New York Times ’s “ 100 Notable Books of 2025 ,” this podcast explores the Hagfish business model with its cofounders, Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman. They discuss how the press came to be, what draws them to particular titles, the difficulty of distribution, why they’re only doing two titles a year, and much more. The conversation also focuses on their second title, Man Hating Psycho by Iphgenia Baal, a brilliant collection of stories that’s raucous, well-crafted, and, like what Dylan Thomas said about At Swim-Two-Birds , “just the sort of book to give your sister if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl!” (It really would make a great holiday present . . . just saying.) This is part of a new thread of Three Percent Podcasts in which an indie press discusses the inner workings of publishing, through the lens of one of their recent publications. This episode on World Editions and The Cracks We Bear by Catalina Infante & Michelle Mirabella was a sort of soft launch for this, and we do have several episodes lined up for the next few months . . . This week’s music is “The…

People in this episode

Hosts: Three Percent Podcast, Open Letter Books

Guests: Julia Ringo, Naomi Huffman

Topics covered

  • indie publishing
  • book distribution
  • Hagfish business model
  • recent publications
  • author discussions

Keywords

  • Hagfish
  • To Smithereens
  • Rosalyn Drexler
  • Man Hating Psycho
  • Iphgenia Baal
  • indie press
  • book publishing

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: To Smithereens, Man Hating Psycho, The Cracks We Bear

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