About Us:
Hotspur Publishing, LLC is an independent book publisher founded in 2022 by bicycle messengers, travelers, back country explorers, and other goof-offs whose usual base camp is located in or around Salt Lake City, Utah.
Our goal is to publish art and writing in print form. We believe strongly in the art of printing and book design and arrangement. We have produced a range of writing and art we hope to bring to market in unique style and format.
If you have questions, submissions, or just general chit-chat about writing, art, writing, book-making, design or anything else that’s on your mind as it relates to our work do not hesitate to send us a comment or question at: zach@hotspurbooks.com
Publications:
Courier journal
We currently publish the literary story collection titled “Courier: journal of a modern goliard.” The series is a collection of interconnected tales from perspectives of bike messengers and couriers. In the series we follow the characters of Messenger Homie, Little Booker, Hotspur (himself), John Breakwater, Falscher Nick, and others as they navigate a fictional world of changing streets, languages, and bicycle parts. The series contains original stories, artwork, and drawings by the Hotspur Publishing team. Follow the link on this site to find out more. The first series came out in autumn of 2024 and we look forward to the second Courier series appearing end of January 2025.
What’s a goliard?
The goliards were wandering poets in northern France and Germany. They wrote poetry and songs in low and in high verse, in both Latin and the vernacular languages that became the modern Western European languages we know today: English, French, and especially German. They are contemporary with other writing trends that are apparent in the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer or Dante. The sit just at that moment where langauges shift and change as social and economic expectations intersect and collide.