“The third thing” is the idea that emerges when we use imagination instead of compromise to solve a problem, meet a need, repair an injury, right a wrong, answer a question, question an answer, to get where we’re going, to go somewhere new.

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The 3rd Thing is an independent press dedicated to publishing necessary alternatives. We publish innovative work representing in form, content and perspective our interdisciplinary, intersectional priorities. Our projects are primarily by artists and writers who identify as members of traditionally marginalized groups, primarily Indigenous people, womxn, queer people and people of color. We think of each project as a break in the stockade—a way out of the settlement and into the wilderness. Come through.

Often our books are the result of an artist working in a non-dominant discipline—a playwright writes a book of poems, a theater-maker writes a book of essays, a filmmaker writes a book of theory…. And while our emphasis is on print traditions, our projects may take any number of forms: books, broadsides, performances, installations, colloquia, video anthologies, etc. 

Who Does What

The press is operated by a small, entirely volunteer staff.
 
Editor/Publisher: Anne de Marcken
Assistant to the Press/Project Editor: M Freeman
Assistant to the Press: Kelli Strain
 
We assemble small collaborative teams on our more ambitious projects:
 
Cane: A New Critical Edition was co-edited by Anne de Marcken, Carlos Sirah and Diane Exavier
Good Symptom: A Serial Anthology of Time-Based Disturbances was co-curated by M Freeman, Rana San and Chelsea Werner-Jatzke
Joy Has a Sound: Black Sonic Visions was a collaboration between 3rd and Wa Na Wari that was co-edited by Elisheba Johnson and Rachel Kessler 
 
The 3rd Thing was founded in 2019 by Anne de Marcken, M Freeman, Sarah Tavis and Grey. The press was helped along the way by Alison Bailey.