Founded in 2009 as the literary book imprint of the Department of Creative Writing at UNCW, Lookout has spent our first decade championing emerging and historically underrepresented voices and engaging authors in collaborative editing and marketing to build national conversations around their books. In a publishing landscape increasingly indifferent to literary innovation, Lookout offers a haven for books that matter. Our advocacy model allows for devoted focus on a single book a year. Since the beginning, we’ve offered all authors a robust, equitable, and transparent 50-50 profit sharing model. We’ve become known for publishing groundbreaking story collections, debut novels, researched nonfiction, and breathtaking poetry. With our sister publication Ecotone, Lookout is a centerpiece of the Publishing Laboratory at UNCW; through our certificate programs, we prepare BFA and MFA students for leadership in literary publishing. Lookout made history in 2011 as the first independent press to have its debut book, Edith Pearlman’s Binocular Vision, featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. The collection went on to be named a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Story Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, which it subsequently won—a feat that prompted Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles to call ours “one of the most auspicious publishing launches in history.”

Lookout Books

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