Dream Baby Press
Matt Starr, cofounder and editor

Since its founding in 2021, Zach Roif and Matt Starr’s Dream Baby has provided a steady stream of new-media fodder with its splashy, X-rated events at Burger King, the Penn Station Sbarro (“the one that really blew up,” Starr says), and an East Village sex shop. Starr, whose day job involves coordinating events at Substack, is on a mission to pave a grimy, glittery underbelly to New York’s usual literary reading circuit—and publish some books along the way.

What sort of community are you trying to create?

When Zach and I started, we just wanted to throw readings that lowered the barrier to entry and were, like, most importantly, very fun—the WWE of readings. We were very inspired by the punk ethos also in the sense of “we can do whatever we want.” The people who come are people of all ages, and there’s no, like, one scene. And I think it’s really refreshing.

You only have one book out so far—your debut poetry collection, Mouthful. How does publishing fit into the picture?

We didn’t set out to become a press, but the events kept opening up all these wonderful opportunities and new friends. At a certain point, I said, “We built this wonderful community. Let’s put the books we want to see out ourselves.”

With Mouthful, I thought, “How can I get people to care about poetry?”

Because it’s just totally changed my life. There’s less time, everyone’s distracted. I tried to create something that would really make people excited to read. Our next book, which is by a pretty well-known person, is really of the time in that same way.

What’s next?

I want to start back up our writing clubs. I became friends with the management at the three-story Burger King in FiDi, so they let me do it there sometimes. Basically, we give prompts, everyone has time to write, and everyone has time to read, if they want. On average at least a hundred people show up, and they just read the craziest shit. It’s so sweet.

Dream Boy Book Club
Jonathan Blake Fostar, editor-in-chief

You’d be forgiven for not knowing that DBBC publishes books after a look at its eponymous Instagram, but the gallery of Y2K paparazzi shots and flashy typography would still give you a decent idea of its zeitgeist. In addition to a poetry- and leopard print–heavy catalog, DBBC offers a “Sunday School”—an entry-level online creative writing workshop run by Fostar, who is also an English professor at DePaul University, and guided (in spirit) by such mentors as Lindsay Lohan and Lana Del Rey.

Why did you start DBBC?

Dream Boy Book Club wasn’t my idea. My friend Emily thought it up while we were in rehab in Tucson, and I just sort of went along with it. We made a pinky promise. Then we got out, and she died. But I promised I’d do this, so I did it.

Your slogan is “books for people who don’t read books.” What does that mean?

I don’t really like book people. I’m so bored of Lacan and ketamine. That sounds meaner than I mean it to. I just mean I’m bored of seeing the same 12 people reading at every reading. I want to hold hands with something very, very far away.

Do you think of yourself as being aligned with any sort of scene?

People don’t really invite me to things.

Editorially, what do you look for?

I want writing littered with typos. I want something that feels like the kind of thing you probably should delete and never tell anyone about. I guess I want mistakes, or stuff from people who make a lot of mistakes. I get the feeling that in the future, that’s what will distinguish us from the robots.

Cash 4 Gold Books
Harris Lahti, cofounder and editor

C4G was founded by Harris Lahti and Jonathan Lindsey in 2024, three years after the death of Tyrant Books publisher and alt-lit patriarch Giancarlo DiTrapano. The press found its prodigal son in Peter Vack, the filmmaker and Instagram self-memer whose 2024 novel Sillyboy—“a classic love story between a meme-lord edgeboy and a tattoo artist e-girl”—put C4G on the chronically online media-criticism map. Now, Lahti, Lindsey, and coeditor Nathan Dragon are hunting for new treasures.

I need to hear the story behind the name.

The name was John’s idea, and it really informed a lot of the aesthetic. Our attitude fits with the idea of a pawn shop—these ragtag shops that contain both the profane and the profound.

For some critics, Sillyboy epitomizes the dive into self-obsessed absurdism that internet culture has taken. Are they misunderstanding the book?

I would argue no. But if you remove the fact that Peter is a provocateur on the internet, does the novel still read the same way? I think that Peter’s voice is electric. What I’m interested in is the energy level of the writing, the urgency of the writing, and the voice of the writing, and Peter is hitting all of those.

I also loved the juxtaposition of publishing Peter’s book next to The Champ Is Here by Nathan Dragon, which is vastly different.

Our next book is a short story collection by David Ryan, who’s a two-time O. Henry Prize winner and has a blurb from Lauren Groff. I don’t think Peter’s silliness detracts from their seriousness. I think there’s a sort of cohesion.

A lot of C4G’s books are centered on New York City and L.A. Would you say people are tiring of that?

I would, yeah! We come from New York and L.A., so we’re kind of just mining the obvious books we want to publish now. But we’re in talks now of republishing an early Rudy Wilson novel, and he’s from Iowa. David’s book isn’t in that world either.

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This article has been updated for clarity.