We Begin with Fire

Torch & Tinder Press exists because words matter.

Because stories outlast regimes, and books survive even when institutions fall silent.

Because memory is a defense, and publishing is resistance.

We are not the first to carry this flame. We follow in the steps of pamphleteers, samizdat printers, kitchen-table zines, underground poets, and educators who smuggled knowledge through hostile times. Their lesson is simple: when freedom is under siege, we do not wait for permission. We print. We publish. We pass it on.

Why We Publish

Autocracy thrives on exhaustion, distraction, and amnesia. It floods the zone with noise until truth feels unreachable. It erodes trust until people stop believing change is possible.

Our response is deliberate: we publish to cut through the fog.

• We publish handbooks, field guides, memoranda, and quests that offer practical tools for resistance and resilience.

• We publish Embers, our cultural zine, where poetry, essays, music, and art explore what it means to be human, to resist, to imagine freedom.

• We publish creative works that speak not only to the mind but to the heart — because resistance without imagination cannot last.

Our books and zines are not just artifacts. They are companions — designed to be copied, adapted, and carried into classrooms, kitchens, community halls, and hands that need them.

Our Commitments

1. Freedom Is a Practice

We treat freedom not as a possession but as something lived day by day — in habits, relationships, and choices. Our publications are meant to be used, not admired.

2. Resistance Is an Ecosystem

No single voice, leader, or strategy is enough. We publish a chorus — guides for organizers and caregivers, essays from staff and contributors, and the creative fire of artists who keep imagination alive.

3. Access Over Gatekeeping

Knowledge hoarded is knowledge lost. Every Torch & Tinder title is released in a free community edition, licensed to be shared, remixed, and adapted. Supporter editions, in print or digital, help sustain the work — but the words themselves remain free.

4. Care for Contributors

We are committed to compensating our writers, artists, and staff as our capacity grows. Cultural resistance cannot be built on unpaid burnout. Sustainability is survival.

5. Integrity in Publishing

We do not chase clicks or trends. We do not pad our catalog with empty pages. Each work must serve — as a tool, a companion, or a signal.

Culture as Resistance

Laws may shape what is permitted, but culture shapes what is possible. That is why we publish not only strategies for resilience but also works of imagination. Poems and essays. Art and song. Stories that refuse erasure and reimagine what freedom can look like.

Embers is where these voices gather — a space for shared creativity, collective reflection, and the joy that keeps resistance alive. Because resistance without culture becomes brittle, and culture without resistance becomes hollow.

The Work Ahead

We are a small press with a large mandate: to help people remember, resist, and rebuild. Our resources are modest, but our network is vast — because each reader becomes part of the press when they share a PDF, print a copy for a neighbor, or pass on a phrase that struck them.

We do not claim to have all the answers. But we know this: silence serves the autocrat. Memory, story, and knowledge serve the people. Our task is to keep those alive and moving.

The Call

If you read us, you are part of this work.

If you support us, you help pay writers, designers, and staff who keep the flame burning.

If you share us, you spread the light farther than we ever could alone.

Torch & Tinder Press is not just a publisher. It is a signal.

Our books and zines are not the fire itself — they are tinder. They are sparks, meant to ignite other fires, in other places, in other hands.

The world needs many lights. Let’s make sure they never go out.

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