53rd State Press

53rd State Press publishes lucid, challenging, and lively new writing for performance. We favor work that expands our notions of the theatrical in performance and in print, and we are committed to making more widely available the work of emerging and experimental artists.

Our catalog includes new plays as well as scores and notations for interdisciplinary performance, graphic adaptations, and essays on theater and dance.

The press was founded in 2007 by Karinne Keithley in response to the bounty of new writing in the downtown New York community that was not available except in the occasional reading or short-lived performance. In 2010, Antje Oegel joined her as a co-editor. In 2017, Kate Kremer took on the leadership of the volunteer editorial collective.

Our name is taken from Karinne Keithley's ASTRS. "In the cosmos," she writes, "associations ring across distances. In the 53rd state they meet in the corner."