"When you get up and read in front of an audience, if you have confidence and you're a good reader, you get immediate feedback. There are lines that make people gasp. There are lines that people laugh at. The way people respond, even word by word, line by line, is something that you can never expect or tell. And when a poem is so good, and you can hear a pin drop when they finish, it's powerful and spontaneous and unexpected."

Jennifer Joseph founded the local San Francisco publishing company, Manic D Press, when she was 21 years old. After fifteen years, this internationally distributed independent literary press - that specializes in fiction, poetry, and comix by established and new writers - is finally financially in the black. This fact alone speaks not only to Ms. Joseph's belief in her writers and their work, but also to her independent spirit that has fueled and kept her word-business alive these many years.

Despite the challenges of running essentially a one-woman business from her home, Ms. Joseph appreciates the opportunity it gives her to spend time with her preschool-aged daughter. She began self-publishing because "a book is the proper place for words to live. Just like one would like to have a nice apartment in the city and furnish it with something besides milk crates, it seemed that having a nice place for the words to live was what I wanted for my writing." And for the writing of others.

If one had to define Jennifer Joseph's work ethic, it would be "to encourage other people to be writers." Since 1988, Joseph has hosted the longest-running weekly poetry reading in San Francisco at the Paradise Lounge. "I've had stunning moments of revelation with people who've gotten up and read something and I've never seen them again. Like the guy who got up and said, 'Waiters ask the hardest questions. Do you know what you want? Do you need more time?" In her role as host, she has been able to act as a de facto teacher for many writers who made their start at the Paradise. These weekly readings provide a forum for writers, at any stage of their literary careers, to succeed or fail with the immediacy of a live audience.

The Manic D Press Home Page is at http://www.manicdpress.com.