LittlePuss Press

Topside Press published Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick's speculative fiction anthology Meanwhile, Elsewhere in 2017. After Topside Press disbanded, Plett and Fitzpatrick co-founded LittlePuss Press to continue printing the anthology. LittlePuss Press launched in 2020. The name "LittlePuss" is a portmanteau of Plett's Little Fish and Fitzpatrick's Glamourpuss works. Plett and Fitzpatrick describe LittlePuss Press as "a feminist press run by two trans women", focusing on publishing works by authors that might struggle to get a publisher due to background, lack of prior publications, or unfinished manuscripts. Another motivation was to make space "for trans writing that was off-kilter, really unique, really creative, and not necessarily commercial." They focus on publishing works by queer and trans authors, although they welcome submissions from anyone. LittlePuss takes inspiration from the collaborations between earlier lesbian presses and bookstores, who created their own networks of distribution for marginalized works. Plett and Fitzpatrick are more involved with author writing than is standard for the publishing industry, and they publicize books via word-of-mouth like many other small presses. Originally, LittlePuss Press works were edited by either Fitzpatrick or Plett. Other duties were divided so Fitzpatrick handled publicity-oriented work while Plett handled financial concerns. Both founders contributed personal funds to begin the press. Plett said it was an unexpected blow but that LittlePuss adjusted with the help of personal networks who connected them to other distributors like Ingram, which became LittlePuss's new distributor. In 2025, LittlePuss was one of 35 of SPD's former presses to receive an award from the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, earning $15,000 and a one-year membership. , Emily Zhou, who previously published her debut work with LittlePuss, was an editor for the press alongside Fitzpatrick, while Plett worked as a publisher. == Reception ==

Meg Reid of Hub City Press cited Plett and LittlePuss as an inspiration, in their care for authors and determination to fix holes they see in literary culture. Luke Sutherland and Andrea Morgan were inspired by LittlePuss's influence on the Brooklyn trans literature community and decided to create Lilac Peril to emulate their work in Washington, D.C. Sutherland said Plett, Fitzpatrick, and Zhou "have built a culture where joy is the norm". The New York Times profiled LittlePuss Press in 2022, but some criticized the paper for including a text box inside the profile "with links to fearmongering articles", and the textbox was later removed. Kay Gabriel described the contrast as "an extraordinary snapshot of the different aims of very mainstream liberal journalism right now", between "occasionally buttressing trans cultural creation" and repeating claims that aim to "limit access to trans medicine, as if the threats to trans safety were somehow separate from the concerted attempt to limit, or block entirely, access to transition care." Plett responded that she "hate[d] that some higher-up at the NYT put that infobox in there, and [she was] also not terribly surprised." She was pessimistic about institutions like this improving in their treatment of trans people, and wanted LittlePuss to be part of an independent institutional ecosystem to support trans writing. == Works ==

The first publication by LittlePuss Press was a reissue of Meanwhile, Elsewhere. Plett said this was a helpful work to start the press with because it already had been edited and formatted. Plett was the book's editor. Girlfriends won the 2024 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. It was a finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction and the 2024 Ferro–Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. S. Bear Bergman, reviewing for Xtra, said the work was "great", with stories that were "finely observed and funny and, in a way I find a bit difficult to describe, so very queer." Roz Milner, writing for Full Stop, said "Cross’s insights and experience as both a scholar and a poster make Log Off a book that’s fascinating reading and bound to stir up arguments." 2025 In 2025, LittlePuss published two debut works: Vivian Blaxell's Worthy of the Event: An Essay, and Anton Solomonik's Realistic Fiction. Both books received positive reviews. Erin Vachon, reviewing for The Rumpus, said "reading both LittlePuss books back-to-back is like attending a celebration with two different but equally sharp jokesters. Blaxell unspools a devastating meditation on life, sideswiping you with rapid-fire jokes. Solomonik spins fictions that feel like jokes before you realize you are devastated by them." Agnes Borinsky, for the Los Angeles Review of Books, writes that Blaxell's "prose makes me want to get up out of bed and dance with it", with the book asking "What if transness—and by extension, trans writing—is better understood as nothing more or less than an experience of beauty?" Realistic Fiction Realistic Fiction is a set of eleven short stories. Sam Karagulin, writing for Full Stop, said that Solomonik's "essential contribution to [the] robust and growing tradition [of trans literature] lies in his humorous skewering of trans masculine loneliness and privilege". Willow Campbell, for the Cleveland Review of Books, said Solomonik's "refreshingly self-aware, dark, maniacal prose allows these stories to resonate. Solomonik’s characters are at once trapped by the form of fiction and freed by it." The original gendertrash helped shape a growing trans cultural movement and was well-remembered in the trans community, but had received little broader attention. The anthology, with an introduction by poet Trish Salah and afterword by historian Leah Tigers, was the first to collect the zine into a book and share it for a wider audience. In April, the press published Missed Connections with Tall Girls, a poetry book by Gwen Aube. It was LittlePuss's first poetry book, and chosen because Plett felt she had to publish Aube's work after hearing Aube at an open mic. Aube had published the chapbook Pulp Necrosis in 2025, but Missed Connections was her first full book of poetry. It centered on the trans community, poverty, Windsor, and how people can have fun and work together for better futures. The press planned to publish Violet Allen's romantasy novel Plastic, Prism, Void: Part One in May 2026. == See also ==