River Glass Books represents a culmination of passions. We know the time that goes into crafting every line and want to honor that work by creating the highest quality books we can. Apart from the writing it houses, we believe the book itself—from the way it’s produced, marketed, and sold, to those who benefit from its sale—can be a tool for achieving social and environmental justice. We hope you’ll join us for the journey.
Mission
Our mission is to foster a culture of sustainability in the arts and support climate justice solutions—all while publishing compelling contemporary literature in fine limited edition chapbooks. We believe that just and equitable solutions to the climate crisis are only possible by undoing historic systems of inequity and dispossession, and that the current flux of the world presents, among deep and myriad tragedy, the opportunity for positive change. River Glass Books seeks to be a vehicle for this change.
Can we leverage art to heal the earth?
The Artists for Climate Justice Fund is an interdisciplinary effort that supports equitable, grass-roots environmental conservation and other climate justice solutions through the arts. We launched the Fund with our 2022 titles, Táíwò Hassan’s Bird’s Don’t Fly for Pleasure and Stella Lei’s Inheritances of Hunger, as a testament to the power of art to nurture and connect.
In late 2023, using proceeds from book sales, we helped start the After School Birding Program for the Mandari Panga community, empowering the next generation of conservationists and naturalist guides in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. Also in 2023, we donated $1000 in book sales to landslide relief efforts in the Pastaza valley of Ecuador. These charitable efforts were made possible by collaboration with the US NGO EcoStudio Foundation and Ecuadorian NGO EcoMinga Foundation.
In 2025, we launched the Writes of Nature series with Edie Dillon’s Pulling Together in Rising Waters: Reciprocity as Practice. Titles in the collection focus on socio-environmental themes and help raise awareness of the global rights of nature movement.
The proceeds from all our titles currently support the conservation of threatened Charapa turtles (Podocnemis unifilis and Podocnemis expansa) and the sustainable development of the Mandari Panga community in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin. This is only the beginning.
We hope to create ways for all writers and readers to participate meaningfully in environmental conservation through their work, even if they don’t call themselves environmentalists (yet).
Looking Back
River Glass Books was born in one half of a shotgun house on Birch Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2018, we started hand-binding books of poetry in limited edition print runs, using fine handmade materials sourced from local stores whenever possible. Our first distribution network consisted of the little free library boxes around the neighborhood. We have the deepest gratitude to the writers, readers, editors, reviewers, booksellers, and many others who have supported and sustained us since then. Our first four titles—Bossa Nova by Brian Jerrold Koester, Latch by Jen Grace Stewart, Model Home by Eve F. W. Linn, and 28,065 Nights by Katie Manning—were printed by Josh Randall and his team at Southeastern Louisiana University. In late 2020, after a move from New Orleans to Syracuse, New York, our fifth title, Into Night’s Tent by Stephen Frech, was printed using sustainable practices by Boxcar Press, on paper made from reclaimed fabric from the garment industry. Ever since, our books have been printed by Kim Vinciguerra and her team at Upstate Printing, Inc., in Syracuse, NY, on 100% post consumer fiber text stock. From 2021 to 2025, the press was an imprint of EcoStudio Foundation, a nonprofit that contributes to environmental conservation through programs in education and the arts. In June of 2025, the press formed as a limited liability company in Vermont.
What’s Next
We can’t wait to open our doors to more who’d like to take part in the work of the press. If you’d like to drop us a line, feel free get in touch over social media, email or post. We look forward to hearing from you.
Editor
Marley Stuart (he / him) is the founder and director of River Glass Books. He co-founded the 501(c)(3) EcoStudio Foundation and served as Executive Director from 2021 to 2025. He has designed and directed fifty educational programs abroad for fifteen U.S. universities and has supported over 800 students and professionals on experiential learning programs in Ecuador. He currently serves as a Board Member-at-Large for The Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean (AAPLAC). He reads fiction for Louisiana Literature as an Assistant Editor and is a graduate of the Bennington Writing Seminars. His writing has been published in SPEAK The Magazine, The Chattahoochee Review, Permafrost, and Painted Bride Quarterly, among others.
Assistant Editor
Emma Timbers (she/her, they/them) is a poet, writer, and teacher. Emma received an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University in 2023 and a BA in English from Bates College in 2014. Over the last eight years, Emma has taught students of all ages, from preschoolers to undergraduates, working to build progressive classrooms that center issues of social justice. Emma is also Office Manager of EcoStudio Foundation, and is grateful to be part of a team working at the intersection of education, art, and environmental justice.
River Glass Books logo by A. E. Landry. See more of her art at https://www.ariellandry.com.