1998-99, the seed of an idea.

The concept was to create a Press to publish people who would be reading at the month long poetry festival, Bardfest99. That didn't exactly play out as we had imagined but what did was a publishing entity that did publish work of some of the poets who had been the driving forces behind the festival. Dianne Miller's "I'm Not Finished Yet" was the first collection brought out. That was in 1999.



While the poetry festival succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings, the co-founders of Plan B Press had concerns beyond those of printing books. Dianne had a family and stevenallenmay had a zillion other projects to begin. There would be Bardfest2000, Lebanon Poetry Project, Lancaster Poets Out Loud (Dianne Miller with Terri Durden primary organizers), Bardfest2001, and scores of individual and group readings and events across Central Pennsylvania.

from our frantic beginnings

Initially publishing poets from Central Pennsylvania, Plan B Press has evolved into a more urban-based Press. Plan B Press began as the brainchild of stevenallenmay, who began the press with Dianne Miller in 1998. Plan B Press evolved out of a poetryzine called "Two Thought Minimum" named for the poetry series where they met in 1996. Dianne was the one with a computer and the desire, stevenallenmay was the one with the idea and the energy. In 1999, these two collaborated to present Bardfest, the only 30 day poetry festival to occur in the United States during the month of April. The Press published its first handful of books over the course of the next two years.

In 2003, Dianne Miller passed control of the press to stevenallenmay and Katy Jean May, who initiated an editorial and geographical shift. Plan B Press was moved to Philadelphia and began publishing multiple titles by a distinctive array of authors. The reach of the press expanded to other states, and in 2005 to other countries. Plan B Press continues to grow and define itself by not only the authors that it publishes, but also by its readers.

Plan B Press is transitioning into a 501c3 non-profit in order to better serve not only the authors it publishes, but also the community at large. By being able to expand its catalogue of wonderful grass-roots writers, it has the opportunity to enrich the literary community at the same time.

Artistically, Plan B Press is looking for artists who might, in this age of internet and digital access, not be entirely comfortable with the confining tag of "poet" or "writer" but who sees his/her own work as something beyond labels. An artist who presents multimedia work, including text may in fact rather be called "artist". This merging of technology and art with the striction of literature and poetics is one of the spaces that Plan B Press now attempts to fill. Jump-starting this process, over the summer of 2005 Plan B Press began developing a new division called "Stay At Home Press" specializing in the direction toward 'art books'.