Black Iris Belles Lettres

Books that make you feel alive

Black Iris Belles Lettres is an erotic literature imprint whose central impulse is to help readers return to their literal senses, experiencing transcendence through embodiment. We can think of no better representation of this erotic energy than our namesake, The Black Iris by Georgia O’Keeffe (1926).

We use erotic in the sense of Audre Lorde—“the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way”—or of Dylan Thomas, “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” The books we publish are manifestations of this belief, offering the gift of embodied experience to the reader.

What We’re Looking For

Short but substantial belles lettres (~25,000- to 60,000-word manuscripts) that elucidate the erotic—in other words, books that make us feel alive, whether fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.

Think the letters of Joyce to Nora Barnacle, the diaries of Anaïs Nin, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, Bear by Marian Engel.

Or, in more modern parlance: All Fours, Written on the Body, Fingersmith; the films In the Mood for Love and Moonlight rendered in prose.