Steve Semken with some of the many titles he has published at Ice Cube Press. (Photo by Ann Rinehart)
Iowa author Mary Swander remembers when Iowa had numerous small presses – before many of them left the state in search of funding elsewhere. Small presses, she says, are important “to give voice to top quality literary work.” That’s why she’s grateful Steve Semken’s Ice Cube Press is still going strong. Semken, 43, operates Ice Cube Press out of the North Liberty home he shares with his wife, Laura, and their daughter Fenna, 7. Semken started the press in 1993, making it one of the longest-running, non-state-subsidized publishers in Iowa. He focuses on publishing “place-based” books. His desire: To share stories about where we live and to demonstrate the value and the importance of the place we call home. Swander has contributed to various books published by Ice Cube Press, including the recent “Letters To A Young Iowan: Good Sense From the Good Folks of Iowa For Young People Everywhere.” She calls Semken a “lovely person” who is detail oriented and good to work with. She believes the types of books Semken publishes are important. “Our society is transient and disoriented. We’re looking for some sort of stability,” she says. “Place provides stability if it is well known and well explored.” Semken earned a degree in history and English from the University of Iowa in 1987 and a master’s in English from the University of Kansas in 1990. He was intrigued by the writer’s life, but assumed he’d be a teacher. Having a story published in a literary magazine while a graduate student at Kansas demonstrated what was possible, but he still pursued teaching. When he couldn’t find a teaching job, he worked as a sales trainer. It was during that time that he decided to take writing more seriously. He began reading more and more. During his lunch break, he would go to the bookstore and buy books. One book was Wendell Berry’s “Home Economics,” a collection of essays ranging from economics and education to agriculture and a sense of place. Berry’s writings on the passing of community and farm life especially struck a chord with Semken. About a year later, while living out West, Semken began publishing a newsletter called Sycamore Roots in which he shared stories of people who were exploring why they lived where they lived, a sort of quest to discover the meaning of becoming native to a spot. In 1993, he made the jump from publishing newsletters to publishing books. Ice Cube Press was born. “The whole value of my press is harvesting stories about where we live and recognizing the place where we live as being important,” Semken says, seated under a screened-in canopy in his backyard. “That’s why I exist today.” Many Iowans believe that if you are really good at something, you must live in other places, like New York or California. Semken knows that notion is ridiculous and hopes his place-based books help show the value of living in places like Iowa. “I’m dedicated to better understanding how to live in Iowa and the Midwest — what it means to live here. I don’t like that people don’t see (living here) as an opportunity for stories and for a future. I’m dedicated to role-modeling and showing that there are stories and that you could live a meaningful life here in the Midwest without feeling unimportant.” Books like “Letters to A Young Iowan” do just that. Some of the essays are advising Iowa’s youth to stay in Iowa; some tell them to leave, take the good they’ve learned with them, and then come back. His Harvest Book series focuses on the environment and has a spiritual component in that he explores “caring for and understanding how we can better care for where we live.” “I don’t pick a book because I can make money at it,” he says. “I pick it because I like the way they (the authors) write. I like what they have to say. Then I look at, ‘Can I sell it?’ ” While he rarely steps into the role of writer, when he does, he does well. His debut novel, “Pick Up Stick City: Restoration Fiction” was published a couple years ago and a second book, “The Great Blues,” about the Great Blue Herons in Kansas, was named a Notable Book of Kansas last year. Semkens' only regret: that he didn’t publish those books himself. “I wanted to prove I could get books done by publishers other than myself. I have that out of my system now,” he says. For more information, visit www.icecubepress.com.2007 titles by Ice Cube Press:
“The Feel-Good Heat: Pioneers In Corn and Biomass Energy” by Sheila Samuelson with Ed Williams of Century Farm Harvest Heat ($16.95)
“Letters to a Young Iowan: Good Sense From the Good Folks of Iowa for Young People Everywhere,” edited by Zachary Michael Jack ($19.95).
“Grace of Grass and Water: Writing in Honor of Paul Gruchow” (Various authors, $16.95)
“R.F.D. Iowa: Iowa Poetry,” by Myrna Sandvik ($8.95)
“Tough Little Beauties: Selected Essays and Other Writings by Stephanie Mills” ($16.95)
