Centipede Press
{{Infobox publisher
| name = Centipede Press
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| predecessor =
| founded = 2001
| founder = Jerad Walters
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| country = USA
| headquarters = Lakewood, Colorado
| distribution = Consortium Book Sales
| publications = Books, Journals
| topics =
| genre = Horror, Gothic, science fiction, weird, crime, thriller, abnormal psychology
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| url = {{URL|centipedepress.com}}
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Centipede Press is an American independent book and periodical publisher focusing on horror, weird tales, crime narratives, science fiction, gothic novels, fantasy art, and studies of literature, music and film. Its earliest imprints were Cocytus Press and Millipede Press.
Background
Centipede Press was founded in 2001 in Lakewood, Colorado by Jerad Walters. Since inception, it has published over two hundred volumes including currently well-known authors (including Stephen King, Peter Straub, Richard Adams, John Fowles, Neil Gaiman, Frank Herbert, and Patrick McGrath), as well as resurrecting out-of-print works of past genre writers. As of 2025, the press releases one to three new books a month, principally in luxury or oversized, signed or traycased hardback editions aimed toward the collector's market.
Centipede Press received the Horror Writers Association Specialty Press Award in 2013, with its other volumes being named finalists in other years for the Bram Stoker Award in Non-fiction twice and once for Fiction Collection,{{Cite web | url=http://www.locusmag.com/News/2016/05/2015-bram-stoker-awards/ | title=2015 Bram Stoker Awards| date=2016-05-15}}{{cite web|title=The Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot|url=http://horror.org/the-bram-stoker-awards-final-ballot/|website=Horror Writers Association|accessdate=10 March 2017|date=February 23, 2016}}{{cite web|title=Announcing The 2017 Bram Stoker Awards Final Ballot|url=https://www.tor.com/2018/02/05/final-ballot-for-bram-stoker-awards-2017-announced/|website=TOR.com|publisher=Macmillan|accessdate=10 February 2018|date=2018-02-05}} the Locus award for Single-Author Story Collection,{{cite web|last1=Staff|title=2015 Locus Award Finalists (Centipede Press's _The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Lafferty. Volume One: The Man Who Made Models_|url=http://horrorworld.org/2015-locus-award-finalists/|website=Horror World|accessdate=11 January 2017|date=May 5, 2015}} and World Fantasy Award for Best Multiple-Author Anthology (from its first released book, World Fantasy Award for Stigmata in 2001).{{cite web|title=World Fantasy Award Nominees Index|url=http://www.worldfantasy.org/index.php/awards/nominees/|website=World Fantasy Convention|accessdate=10 January 2017}} In 2018, the World Fantasy Convention presented three "Special Award--Professional" trophies to the writer, artist, and editor behind its volume on Patrick McGrath, Writing Madness.{{cite web |title=World Fantasy Awards 2018 |url=http://www.worldfantasy.org/world-fantasy-awards%e2%84%a0-2018/ |website=Worldfantasy.org |publisher=World Fantasy Convention |accessdate=25 November 2018}}
Noting this press's novel treatments and presentations of the fiction of Stephen King, Thomas Ligotti, and Patrick McGrath at the Stoker Awards presentations in New Orleans on 15 June 2013, the Board of the 1,300 member-World Horror Association lauded how Centipede "specializes in horror, crime, and science fiction", yet also regularly produces important "art books, career retrospectives, and critical studies on horror films". As the award presenter put it: "Centipede Press titles strive to be excellent examples of bookmaking, with superior design, page layout, and dust jackets."{{cite web|title=HWA Stoker Awards 2013 (minutes 40-47)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpME8uHAdRw&t=2856s|website=HWA Stoker Awards 2013|accessdate=January 10, 2017}}
Critical reception
The Press's new fiction is included regularly in annual print retrospectives, including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy,{{cite book|editor1-last=Fowler|editor1-first=Karen Joy|title=The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016|date=2016|publisher=Mariner|isbn=978-0544555204|pages=101–106}} The Year's Best Science Fiction,{{cite book|editor1-last=Dozois|editor1-first=Gardner|title=The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection|date=2016|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1250080844}} The Best Horror of the Year,{{cite book|editor1-last=Datlow|editor1-first=Ellen|title=Best Horror of the Year, Volume 7|date=2015|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-1597808293}} The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror,{{cite book|last1=Datlow|first1=Ellen|title=The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection|date=2007|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|location=New York|isbn=978-0312369422|pages=lxiv–lxxv}} and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror.{{cite book|editor1-last=Jones|editor1-first=Stephen|title=The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20|date=2009|publisher=Running Press|isbn=978-0762437276|pages=30, 46, 47}}
In an article from the leading trade journal on rare volumes, Fine Books & Collections, Richard Goodman contends that Centipede Press's major contribution is to show how the "weird and upsetting" are alluring or how "the ugly is beautiful" through the commissioned pen and ink drawings, paintings, photography, and woodcuts that accompany texts.{{cite journal|date=July–August 2006|title=Centipede Press|journal=Fine Books & Collections|pages=20–21|last1=Goodman|first1=Richard}}
In 2010, Centipede Press also launched a periodical, The Weird Fiction Review,{{cite web |last1=Dirda |first1=Michael |title=Beyond George R.R. Martin: A Critic's Pick of Science Fiction and Fantasy |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/beyond-george-rr-martin-a-critics-pick-of-science-fiction-and-fantasy/2019/04/30/8fcc7d60-6aa2-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html |website=Washington Post |access-date=1 February 2023}} a yearly color print journal ranging from 300-400 pages that discusses the eerie, monstrous, and decadent in film, literature, comics, and magazines. The journal is edited by S. T. Joshi and features articles, essays, original fiction, poetry, and interviews.{{cite book|last1=Datlow|first1=Ellen|title=Best Horror of the Year Series. Book 7|date=2015|publisher=Night Shade Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1597808293}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- [http://www.centipedepress.com Centipede Press]