About Bottomlands Press

Bottomlands Press is an independent publisher rooted in the Mississippi Delta — one of the most culturally rich and least represented regions in American literature. We publish across genres, across formats, and across the world, but our editorial sensibility begins at home: in the flatlands, the blues towns, the Italian immigrant settlements, the levee roads, and the way the Delta holds its stories close and releases them slowly.

The press was founded by Sean Johnson, a sixth-generation Mississippian with fifteen years in heritage tourism, destination marketing, and cultural storytelling. He has served as Tourism Director for Cleveland-Bolivar County, President of the Mississippi Delta Tourism Association, and has lived and worked internationally — in Costa Rica, London, and across Southeast Asia. He writes literary fiction, true crime, thriller, humor, and children's books, often simultaneously, under his own name and several pen names.

Bottomlands Press exists because good stories deserve to be in print — and because independent publishing, done right, is one of the few places left where a book gets made because someone believed in it, not because a committee approved it.

We publish our own titles, selectively publish other authors under the Bottomlands imprint, and offer publishing services to writers and organizations who want to bring their own stories to life. Our children's imprint, Red Lantern Press, publishes the Dumling and Squip series and focuses on culturally rooted stories for young readers.

If you have a story worth telling, we'd like to hear about it.