The Empowered Press

14/01/2025

📚✨ One of the greatest joys of my work is meeting the incredible authors I have the privilege of publishing. This week, I had the honor of meeting and sharing a whiskey and wine with , the brilliant mind and heart behind Perfect Strangers: Echoes of a Black Suburban Youth. Sitting down with him in person was nothing short of inspiring—these moments remind me why I love what I do.

At Empowered Press and across our three imprints, we’re not just a publisher—we’re a family. As a boutique independent press, we pride ourselves on cultivating real, meaningful relationships with our authors. We know their stories are deeply personal, and we honor that by fostering an environment rooted in empathy, positivity, and one-on-one specialization.Our authors are not just another name on a roster. They are a partner, a collaborator, and someone we celebrate every step of the way. From the first manuscript to the book’s release and beyond, we’re here to walk the journey with you. Our authors’ successes are our successes, and that connection makes every milestone more meaningful.

Getting to meet my authors face-to-face, like I’ve been lucky enough to do with so many during my travels, makes this journey even more special. It’s a reminder of the heart, grit, and talent behind every story we publish.

Justin, it was an absolute pleasure, and I can’t wait to see how your memoir will resonate with readers everywhere. Thank you for trusting Empowered Press with your voice and your story.

Here’s to building relationships that last far beyond the books! 📖💛

09/01/2025

📚✨ Big News! ✨📚

Congratulations Empowered Press author . His debut memoir in verse, This is Not a Death Sentence, is now available at the iconic Powell’s City of Books in downtown Portland!

For writers, Powell’s isn’t just a bookstore—it’s a cathedral of creativity. As the largest used and new bookstore in the world, Powell’s occupies an entire city block and houses approximately one million books.

From scribbled lines to a masterpiece that resonates, Anton reminds us all: never stop writing, never stop dreaming, and never stop believing in the power of your voice.

🖤 Let’s celebrate this incredible milestone! If you’re in Portland, visit Powell’s and snag your copy. Not local? Check out Empowered Press or Powell’s online to grab your own piece of this poetic triumph.

📖💪 Because the best stories remind us we’re never defined by our hardest moments. Congratulations, Anton—you inspire us all!

16/12/2024

✨ COVER REVEAL TIME! ✨

🚀 The journey continues! 🌈 If you were captivated by 49 Days: The Psychedelic Discoveries of Jenni P. Perkins, Psychotic Scientist, get ready to dive even deeper into her wild, mind-bending adventures in The Rise of Divine Mother Love!

💫 The Rise of Divine Mother Love promises even more chaos, revelations, and the psychonaut brilliance you’ve come to love. Jenni P. Perkins is back, and this time, she’s rising higher than ever. The cover says it ALL!

📖 COMING MARCH 2025! Mark your calendars, tag your reading besties, and get ready to stay on this unforgettable journey. Her Voice Publishing (an imprint of the Empowered Press
✨ COVER REVEAL TIME! ✨

🚀 The journey continues! 🌈 If you were captivated by 49 Days: The Psychedelic Discoveries of Jenni P. Perkins, Psychotic Scientist, get ready to dive even deeper into her wild, mind-bending adventures in The Rise of Divine Mother Love!

💫 The Rise of Divine Mother Love promises even more chaos, revelations, and the psychotic brilliance you’ve come to love. Jenni P. Perkins is back, and this time, she’s rising higher than ever. The cover says it ALL!

📖 COMING MARCH 2025! Mark your calendars, tag your reading besties, and get ready to stay on this unforgettable journey. Her Voice Publishing (an imprint of the Empowered Press), 2025.

04/12/2024

Congratulations to Empowered Press author Today is PUB DAY for his debut memoir: “This is Not a Death Sentence: A Memoir in Verse”

Explore the depths of This is Not A Death Sentence: A Memoir in Verse by Anton Jones, where poetry meets the raw truths of living on the schizophrenic spectrum.
Jones crafts a poignant narrative that weaves together the threads of depression, mania, boxing, door-to-door sales, delusional crushes, poverty, haunted houses, su***de, healthcare challenges, homelessness, fatherhood, and the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest. Each poem serves as a fragment of Jones’s fractured reality, reflecting the relentless struggle to conceal stigmatized symptoms only to confront them head-on.

His poetry captures the essence of this lived experience, depicting the suffocation of coherent thought through a cascade of movements, associations, and vivid hallucinogenic imagery. Despite years of decline and what seems like an endless fight, Jones finds the strength to confront his illness, refusing to surrender to despair.

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite indie bookstore!

11/11/2024

📣 Join us LIVE tomorrow for an unforgettable conversation with author Anton Jones and Empowered Press! Tune in at 7 PM ET / 6 PM CT / 4 PM PT on either or ’ feed to dive deep into the powerful themes of his forthcoming memoir in verse, This Is Not a Death Sentence.

🌌 This Is Not a Death Sentence takes readers through the complexities of life on the schizophrenic spectrum, narrated through Anton’s vivid, courageous, and hauntingly beautiful poetry. From navigating depression and mania to boxing, homelessness, fatherhood, and grappling with reality itself, Anton’s words capture the relentless fight against stigma and despair. Each poem is a lens into his journey of resilience in the Pacific Northwest, revealing both the shadows and sparks of hope along the way.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear firsthand from the mind behind this powerful work—bring your questions, and let’s share in this unique storytelling experience.

📅 Monday, Nov. 11th
🕖 7 PM ET / 6 PM CT / 4 PM PT

✨ See you there! ✨

15/07/2024

Although I DO NOT recommend fragmenting oneself the way I have done the last seven years—graduating with a BA, writing a memoir, earning a double masters, running three publishing imprints, moving across the country, starting a bookstore pop up, opening a brick and mortar bookstore, coffee shop, wine bar all while enrolled in another Masters program (MFA)—I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is the beginning of the end of my MFA—the first of three thesis courses where I will refine my 90k word manuscript and present it to my thesis advisor and dean of my college in March of 2025. I will then officially earn my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Fiction, with a concentration in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. I started this journey in 2022 and of course have taken several detours.

But I never gave up.

Ive ugly cried more than once, screamed when no one was listening nearly every day—but I continue to persevere.

I know, I must look like a ridiculous fool to most of you, and perhaps I am but my foolishness and overzealous behavior, I belive, will pay off one day. Above all, I have learned so much and love that I’ve been able to implement said lessons into my daily adventures.

Here’s to never giving up—but also never fragmenting myself like this again!

Xoxo-Jill

07/07/2024

When a new customer comes into your small indie bookstore, has no idea you’re a publisher, and purchases two of your authors’ titles…I love my authors (and my bookstore and my customers!). Barbara Legere and Lainey Oslin.

06/05/2024

And then I found this circulating IG...

(sorry not sorry...you're gonna see lots of stuff--please don't be mean. If someones excitement bothers you, keep scrolling)

06/05/2024

Sometimes Googling your business can be nerve wracking (cuz people can be mean!)...but today was a good GOOGLE day! After a STELLAR soft opening weekend, Margin Notes Booksellers is buzzing around EL PASO! LOVED happening upon this shoutout this morning in TO DO EL PASO!

This bookstore/ coffee&wine shop is opening in The Canyons! It’s such a cute space, and will have an area with children’s books, where kiddos can also sit and read while mamas enjoy a cup of coffee or wine! Soft opening is this weekend! Wine won’t start being poured till the 14th, but yall be ...

12/03/2024

For Women’s History Month, we’re revisiting a piece honoring Gloria Steinem - the glue that has held the Women’s movement together for 50 years. Learn how she’s continuing to speak up and speak out, breaking the silence for women everywhere.

Follow the link in our bio to read the full essay.📝❤️

Written by Adrienne Monestere
Originally published Sep 24, 2022

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08/03/2024

Happy International Women’s Day!🥰

Our very own Jill Carlyle wrote an essay to honor this special holiday that combines a little bit of history, a few of her own anecdotes, and a call to action for everyone reading. Link in bio!❤️💃🏼

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01/03/2024

The Empowered Press is built on our promise to give voice to the stories that matter. To kick off Women’s History Month, we’re giving a voice to these books written by women, about women, and for women.❤️🎉📚

This month empowers women to share their stories and encourages us to remember the history of women who fought for the right to do so. Not only do these stories shine a light on incredibly important stories about women experiencing and learning from the world, but their authors have each dedicated themselves to breaking the silence so often forced on women.

Which titles would you add to this list?🧐

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29/02/2024

Calling all ☎️ We’ve got a new writing prompt comp for you in honor of Leap Year!

Comment with your flash fiction piece and the winner will get a story feature on the page!🎉 The winner will be selected by the EP editorial team and announced on Monday (March 4th) at 12pm PST.

We can’t wait to see what you all come up with - have fun!❤️

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21/02/2024

Today’s inspiration.📝✨

How does your life inspire your writing?

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20/02/2024

Join us weekdays for our one hour Morning Meetings on Zoom to elevate your writing and grow your community!📝

The Writers Roundtable is your one-stop-shop for everything you need in a writing group. At our morning meetings you’ll find creative space to write and a community that will hold you accountable.❤️

Sign up with the link in our bio and take the first step toward unlocking the full potential of your stories.✨

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09/02/2024

Today we’re featuring , author of 49 Days: The Psychedelic Discoveries of Jenni P. Perkins Psychonaut Scientist (launching February 13th - in just 4 days)!🍄🔬✨

Shuna has previously published three non-fiction books on The BodyMind Bridge System of Self-Healing ( ), but 49 Days is her first novel! Right now, there is an upwelling of research that points to the incredible benefits of psychedelic medicines, and this is what inspired her to write the story of Jenni P. Perkins—a brilliant young neuroanatomist who discovers the out-of-the-box information she can access when these medicines usher her into her deeper consciousness. 49 Days is a story for these times, filled with magical moments and also with real science regarding this mushrooming topic! Her hope is that people will be entertained while learning about the benefits and the correct and safe use of these amazing plant medicine molecules.🍄👩‍🔬

📚Her favorite books:
-Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
-How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
-DMT The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman, MD
-Braided Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
-Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

📖What she’s currently reading:
-How Psychedelics Can Help Change the World by Stephen Gray
-Swimming in the Sacred: Wisdom from the Psychedelic Underground by Rachel Harris, PhD

When she’s not absorbed in writing her second “Jenni” book, she’s frolicking in forests or mountains near her home in Washington state— or on a road trip in her little white hybrid car with her adventurous wife and lots of “road food.”📝🌲

We’re happy to have you as a part of the EP family of authors, Shuna!❤️

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07/02/2024

Calling all ☎️ We’ve got a new writing prompt comp for you!

Comment with your flash fiction piece and the winner will get a story feature on both the page and !🎉 The winner will be selected by the EP editorial team and announced on Friday (February 9th) at 12pm PST.

We can’t wait to see what you all come up with - have fun!❤️

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05/02/2024

✨ Manuscript Monday? ✨

Ready to elevate your writing? One of the benefits of the Writers Roundtable is Manuscript Monday! On the first Monday of each month, members have the opportunity to have their writing workshopped and volunteer to offer constructive feedback to fellow writers. Manuscript Monday is your gateway to a supportive writing community where sharing, growth, and collaboration are at the heart of what we do. Whether you’re in search of solid feedback or ready to take your writing to the next level, we’ve got you covered.

What is the Writers Roundtable all about? The Writers Roundtable writing community facilitates empowered writing, builds community, and helps each member evolve and grow through a mutual connection. We meet every morning for writing time and every Monday and Wednesday evening for workshopping and invaluable lessons in Craft.

🔗 Find the sign-up link in our bio to join the next session and dive into a safe space dedicated to writers like you, navigating the journey together.

Don’t miss out on this chance to connect, share, and grow. Save this post, follow us for more updates on writing and publishing, and take the first step toward unlocking the full potential of your stories.

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