PRONK is a new press based in Cape Town, South Africa, and Ukiah, California.
Our publications explore and celebrate hybridity, complexity and contradiction. We find ourselves preoccupied with the spaces between, peripheries, the marginalised, and sites of collision, infusion and (dis)connection. While the ideas, visuals and narratives we bring to life in print might be overlooked by the mainstream, we believe they are amply deserving of your attention.
Our first-ever print project is an artist edition of The President, Xander Beattie’s propulsive political thriller.
the PRONK manifesto
We don’t take ourselves too seriously (though we’re rather earnest about reading, writing and publishing, it’s true).
We believe in the possibilities literature holds for protest, provocation, enquiry and escape.
Our publishing projects explore and celebrate hybridity, complexity and contradictions with daring, verve and nuance.
We think a fairer future is worth fighting for. So is one in which you can safely be your authentic self.
We abhor bullies and intolerance. We’re wary of the powerful. They deserve scrutiny, critique and accountability. Might doesn’t equal right. Growth is not inherently good. Sufficiency is an underrated virtue; it’s damn well time to make it sexy again.
Nerds are hot. Trees are wise. Laughter is medicine. Compassion is classy.
We love transit. Municipal libraries. Public pools. Bike lanes. Long walks. Skinny-dipping and stargazing. Pistachios. This precious, over-heating, staggeringly beautiful, brutalised earth.
We are restless. Persistent. Curious. Intrigued by the peripheral and the marginalised, the spaces between, and nodes of collision, infusion and (dis)connection. We yearn to understand the big picture, but find delight in the little details. We’re dreamers who seek solace in the everyday, adventurers who value a welcoming home. Sometimes the asking matters more than the answers, the journeying more than the place you’re trying to get to.
We are not luddites. Not all tech is trash. Spoiler alert: AI is SO overhyped. It is no substitute for critical thinking or the messy exhilaration of creativity and meaning-making.
There is much to be said for the analogue, life offscreen, the printed page. In this relentlessly, restlessly deafening age, silence and stillness are golden. So is a blank sheet and a mechanical pencil.
Quality should trump quantity; rigor beats speed. We find value in slowing down, in pauses, reflection and play.
We craft books in Cape Town, South Africa, and Ukiah, California. They’re made with care, vigor and a pinch of sass. By book-lovers. For book-lovers.
We are
PRONK PRESS.
