Book bans have seen an astronomical increase in the last few years. How are they impacting the book industry, booksellers, and publishers? We had the opportunity to check in with book professionals at a recent conference about what alarms them about book bans, their experiences, what kinds of books are banned, and what we can do to fight bans and challenges
In his classic no-frills style, Ben Snakepit documents the daily events of the years 2022 to 2024. Each day since 2001, he’s drawn a three-panel comic about his day, creating a rhythm with subtle humor and genuine feeling that draws you into events both startling and mundane.
This collection starts off in San Francisco, but aging parents and a major family emergency cause Ben to move back in Richmond, VA. After 23 years away, Snakepit returns to the place where it all started. His band breaks up, he turns 50, and the world and his life change dramatically, but Ben keeps bringing us a comic—and a song—every day throughout it all. Grown-up punks, fans of outsider art and diary comics, and anyone with aging parents will get it—and once you get it, much like growing older, there’s no going back.
Yep, that’s right, if you’re in Portland, you can come shop in person at our Portland bookstore (located at our warehouse), by appointment! Our staffed hours are 11am-3pm Mon-Saturday.
Here are the details:
If you’re shopping for items for yourself
To help with juggling our workers’ busy schedules, we’re asking shoppers to purchase a digital gift card for $50 or more in order to make a shopping appointment. The gift card will be applied to your in-store purchase. Leave an order note that says “I want to make an appointment to browse at the store,” when you check out. (If you forget to leave a note after purchase, email orders@microcosmpublishing.com with your order ID and someone will be in touch!)
If you’re shopping for items to resell in your own store
Email our sales department at sales@microcosmpublishing.com or call us at 360-291-7226 and we’ll figure out a time for you to come by.
Face masks are required for everyone entering our building!
If you have any questions, please email orders@microcosmpublishing.com, and someone from our customer service team will help!
Running out of books is a good thing, actually! Jelani Memory of A Kid’s Co is back with Joe and Elly to talk about what to do with excess inventory, donating overstock vs pulping, and how “you can’t sell what you don’t have” usually doesn’t apply to books.
In case you missed it, the Spectacular Spring Warehouse Sale is going on until April 6th! Elly has a few favorites included in the sale that she wanted to make sure you knew about, Check ’em out below, and if you decide to snag one, just use code SPRING2025 at checkout to get 50% off.
Getting Things Done – When I first started at Microcosm ten years ago and could no longer manage my work in an extremely ad hoc and disorganized manner, this book saved my bacon. It’s a classic for a reason. Great for figuring out how to get the shit done you need to in way less time with way fewer tears.
The Silence of Our Friends– A timely and bestselling graphic novel about the Civil Rights Movement, and a playbook for the advocacy skills and alliances we need to rebuild now. Illustrated by the incredible Nate Powell (of March fame, but, fun fact, Microcosm published his first book!)
How to Get Rid of a President– This is exactly what books are for, folks, to learn the skills you need to succeed in life.
Head Case is a memoir by Microcosm’s editorial manager Lex Orgera about how she coped with her father’s Alzheimer’s. Lex is a poet and all-around brililant and empathetic writer and this book has resonated so hard with other readers who’ve been there.
Incredible Doom – this comic by Matthew Bogart and Jesse Holden brings you RIGHT back to the online 90s, when you’d bike to your friend’s house to log into a BBS.
Will It Waffle? – I got a $2 waffle maker at yard sale last year and messing around with weird stuff to waffle-ize has seriously been a highlight of the last year. A very low price for joy. And seriously, there are no limits to what will waffle!
(Updated 4/8 with one more extension and a tweak on the coupon, for the folks that missed it all the first time around.)
We need to clear our a bit of space in the warehouses to make room for new stock, so we figured now’s as good a time as any for a big spring cleaning sale.
From now until April 20th, get 25% off any of the titles tagged Spring Sale when you use coupon code SPRING2025 at checkout.
There are over *800* books included in the sale, so to help, we’ve made a few special toplists with popular subjects to get you started. There are some great picks in kid books, witchy things, and a bunch of Microcosm-published titles!
Plus, you can use the subject search filter at the top of the page to narrow things down by category, like if you want to search for all the books included that are about activism.
The sale runs until April 20th, so you still have a little time to snag yourself a book (or two!) as treat. Or maybe a friend is going through it right now and needs a boost. (Aren’t we all)?
Print-on-demand books have been called cheap, low quality, and the publishing equivalent of fast fashion. But is that true? What are the upsides of publishers using POD? How do publishers know if POD is the right call? Jane Friedman of The Hot Sheet is back to talk about it!
Portland, Oregon, is a queer city in the queerest state in the US. It’s also a place where, like anywhere in this country, you can experience bigotry, violence, and discrimination. Out of these contradictions bursts this sparkling collection of first-person stories—a heady mix of fiction and fact—written by contributors from across the queer spectrum and beyond, serving vulnerability, humor, and realness.
Immerse yourself in familiar scenes and landmarks like Washington Park, Caffe Mingo, the Silverado, Powell’s City of Books, Umbra Penumbra, St. Mary’s Academy, the Lloyd Center Mall, Hawthorne Boulevard, Food Front Co-op, Darcelle XV, a ghost bike installation, a backyard barbecue, a call center during third shift, and the many bridges over the Willamette River. Read Gabby Rivera’s original story that became the hit novel Juliet Takes a Breath. Revel in David Ciminello’s tale of a waiter who falls in love with a straight guy from the café next door. Learn Marc Acito’s answer to the question “Where do you find hot men in Portland?” Elevate your vocabulary with Stevie Anntonym’s “Lesbian Lexicon.” Whatever your orientation, these accounts of queer and trans life in the Rose City will make you see the world and your place in it from a different angle.
This new edition of the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology includes a poem by Nastashia Minto and stories by Christa Orth and Kalimah Abioto, along with a new introduction from editor extraordinaire Ariel Gore.
Unbannable. Unbeatable. Distributed out of a backpack!
In this Year of Zines, we’re exploring all kinds of ways to dig into our DIY roots in the ever-expanding underground, where art and ideas to flourish beyond the clutches of the mainstream—and the powers that enforce it.
In this spirit of kicking it old school and under the radar, we made this flyer that you can print and distribute yourself in and around your community. Print and copy, grab a stapler, and head out into your small world armed with resources to empower your kindred, comrades, and neighbors!
From library bulletin boards to lamps posts to the local infoshop, reclaim the commons while spreading the zinester spirit. This flyer features cool stuff we proudly publish, but we want to be just one piece of a thriving autonomous network of zine creators crafting passionate pocket publications about what they love and why. You can help make it happen. So pick up your tools, invite a friend, and join the cause—zines forever!
If you have a zine you think makes a good fit with Microcosm, give our submissions guidelines another look and get in touch!
Just in time for spring, we’re talkin’ bugs! They’re everywhere, whether you like it or not. And they’re such cool little critters.
Bug Life author Karyn Light-Gibson joins Joe and Elly this week to talk about entomology, the importance of maintaining bug populations, how the book could have been much, MUCH longer, and fun insect facts.
