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Publisher Spotlight: The Wee Tale Of Alien Buddha Press, As Told By Red Focks

2/18/2021

By Lina Romero

Alien Buddha Press publishes creative work from up-and-coming authors and visual artists. Their mission is to amplify new voices in the arts world and make good art accessible to all. They are currently accepting pieces in a variety of genres and forms online, and the submission process is free and easy. Red Focks is one of the founders and current operators of ABP. Here is his bio:

Red Focks is an American author, publisher, and folk artist. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife, where he operates Alien Buddha Press. Red enjoys art with undertones of absurdism, cheerful nihilism, and rebellion. In addition to his contributions to Alien Buddha Press, Red has been featured by Horror Sleaze Trash, 17 Numa, Ramingo’s Porch, Transcendent Zero Press, Nixes Mate, Rust Belt Press, and Madness Muse Press. His novel Haight was published in 2018 by Cajun Mutt Press, and his short story collection The Abandon was published in 2019 by Concrete Mist Press. Red is one half of the art team ‘Pseudonym Lastname’ and is the head writer of the graphic novel American Antihero. Red’s other books include Duffy Street & Other Dubious Incidents, The Philanthropist’s Suicide, 36 Haikus and a Horror Story, and Dead Celebrities.

The statements that follow , taken by the Quail Bell Crew via an email interview, have been edited for length and clarity:

"I started Alien Buddha Press over 5 years ago with a writer from Buffalo named Jay Miner. We were in some poetry groups on Facebook together, and wanted to start up a press that highlighted the type of writing showcased in said groups. A few years ago, Jay moved on from ABP to start Rust Belt Press, and Alien Buddha has sort of gone off in a new direction, expanding outward beyond the original group of contributors.

We publish books composed by indie writers, typically poets or fiction writers, but we have published art and photography books as well. When we work with authors, often times when they do not have cover art attached to the manuscript, I will provide my work from my own catalog, which is mostly abstract patterns or landscape photography. Our themed anthologies are popular among the writers and artists in our network. The recognizable Alien Buddha mascot on these covers, as well as on our logo is a character designed by Freeda Focks, a brilliant artist/ cartoonist, and a lovely wife/ mother. Freeda and I operate ABP together here out of our home.

We have published a lot, lot, lot of titles. Our acceptance rate is around 60%-70% and we put out a lot of zines and anthologies. I treat ABP like my full-time gig.

Alien Buddha Zine is our monthly publication. We run previews of new releases from ABP authors, a monthly press/ publication crossover feature on page 100 and general submissions that get sent in, among other things.

[At the end of] last year, ABP published Quail Bell founder Christine Sloan Stoddard's black-and-white photography collection Hello, New York: The Living and the Dead, an arrangement of deep and cutting photos of the NYC cityscape."