Muse Ink Press

Muse Ink Press was established in 2012 out of the passion of our founder to bring back in print all the works of Sanora Babb, a critically-acclaimed 20th century author who many scholars and critics deem worthy of inclusion in the American literary canon. This opinion is supported by her legion of enthusiastic readers and fans alike. Years before starting our publishing company, Joanne Dearcopp worked with Sanora on publishing her work with the most meaningful success being the publication of her Dust Bowl era novel 60 years after it was written. The rediscovery of Babb was energized when her life and Whose Names Are Unknown were featured on the Ken Burns PBS Dust Bowl documentary. Since then recognition for her work has gained momentum and her books are taught in colleges and universities around the country. Another milestone on the recovery of Babb is the 2021 publication of Unknown No More by the University of Oklahoma Press. In this collection of essays, distinguished scholars explore her life and work—positioning it within the literature of the Great Plains and American West, exploring Babb's leftist political odyssey in the 1930s and 40s, and her prescient ecofeminist sensibilities reflected in the environmental themes she explored in her fiction and nonfiction. In 2021 Muse Ink Press completed the mission of having all Sanora Babb's work in print, including two new collections—Told in the Seed and Selected Poems and The Dark Earth and Selected Prose from the Depression Era. All her books have extensive introductions by outstanding scholars."The Vindication of Sanora Babb" by Ed Vulliamy in the 2021 summer issue of The New York Review of Books offers significant recognition of Babb's place in our literary heritage.