Feathered Serpent Press was founded in Baltimore in 2025 out of a frustration a lot of writers know intimately. The traditional publishing industry is gatekept by design, and navigating it means conforming to its standards, its timelines, and its idea of what's marketable. For writers whose work doesn't fit that mold, the options are limited: keep querying, keep waiting, keep shrinking the work to fit the door. Or self-publish and absorb the full cost, financial, logistical, emotional, alone.

We thought there was a third option. So we built it.

We are an independent literary press specializing in dystopian, speculative, and dark literary fiction. Work that takes ideas seriously and doesn't flinch from where they lead. Our catalog is built around writing that is formally ambitious, culturally grounded, and unwilling to sand down its edges for the sake of a wider market.

The Chicanismo ethos runs through everything we do. We build our own spaces, we support the writers and readers in our community, and we operate on the belief that independent publishing is not a consolation prize. It's a choice. A refusal to wait for permission. It's proof that spirit, craft, and community can produce work that competes, endures, and matters. Every title we put out is an argument for that.

This press exists because community is infrastructure. Readers, writers, and makers who show up for each other, fight for each other, and build something worth building. That's what Feathered Serpent Press is. Come as you are. Stay because it matters.

Our catalog is growing. Right now it includes a bi-monthly literary journal, a neurodivergent friendly guided CBT workbook, and a dystopian speculative sci-fi thriller releasing soon. This is just the beginning. We have no intention of slowing down, and we have every intention of showing the industry what a community that believes in itself can build.

Our mission

Feathered Serpent Press is an independent literary press dedicated to publishing bold, ambitious fiction and nonfiction that serves underrepresented readers and communities. We exist to create space for voices that the traditional publishing industry overlooks, building a home for work that is ambitious and culturally grounded. Guided by the Chicanismo ethos of community, self-determination, and collective advocacy, we build infrastructure for writers and readers who refuse to wait for permission.