History of Black Rain Press

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Black Rain Press came about when in 1998 I self published Millstone and Me: Sex, Lies and Radiation in Southeastern Connecticut. I write mostly journalism, and that book came out of my desire to do an extended piece of that kind of writing, as well as to address the effects of the nasty nukes where I come from on myself, my family and friends and my community there. After several attempts to place the book with publishers in NYC didn't work out, I decided to put the book out myself, and learned how to along the way.

I chose to call my publishing entity Black Rain Press after seeing the movie Black Rain and then reading the novel of the same name by Japanese writer extroardinaire Masuji Ibuse. His book tells the story of hibakusha, survivors of the US bombings of Hiroshima. As they travel across the bay to escape the annihilated city, black rain, contaminated with massive amounts of radioacticity, falls on them. The story follows them through life after the bomb, and their struggles to survive, go on, and overcome the effects of the atomic blast.

In writing Millstone and Me I felt a kinship with the people in this book, for I found that people where I came from were also struggling to go on with their lives in communities contaminated by 35+ years of radioactive contamination from the Millstone nukes. We too were hibakusha. Thus was born Black Rain Press. The name also brings to mind other interpretations, and you're welcome to add yours.

I subsequently self published other books, which you see displayed here, under the guise of Black Rain Press. These were fiction, but always dealt with real life issues like homelessness, racism, sexism, and lots of other isms and outer and inner prisons that afflict people I see suffering what I call the Post Industrial Blues.

This brings to mind the Louis Armstrong song "Why Was I Born So Black and Blue?" which has extra added meaning lately after the devastation of his home town of New Orleans by a hurricane and monumental neglect of "responsible authorities" on all levels. One cannot look at images of the detroyed Crescent City without thinking of Hiroshima. And so the Black Rain keeps falling, and all of us keep Pressing on, wondering where the next twist of the plot will take us.