Alternating Current is an independent press dedicated to publishing and promoting incredible literature that challenges readers and has an innate sense of self, timelessness, and atmosphere. We love science, history, homebound roots, rural landscapes, poetic literary fiction, diverse voices, and all that is electric in the literary world.

We have existed since 1993, creating chapbooks, paperbacks, zines, online resources, zine libraries, spoken word events, poetry readings, national book tours, and literature collections, as well as offering services in author and press promotions, such as blog tours, book tours, book trailers, audio recordings, merchandising, editing, critiquing, and book clubs.

We are the home of Footnote: A Literary Journal of History, a print journal that features authors’ personal and non-scholarly viewpoints on historical people, places, events, and ideas in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We are also the home of the Luminaire Award (for individual poetry and fiction), the Charter Oak Award (for best historical), the Electric Book Award (for an unpublished manuscript to become a book), the Coil Book Award (to recognize an already-published book), and Microgrants for Marginalized Writers, including the Oblaye Award (Native Americans), Still I Rise Grant (black women), and Unsilenced Grant (Muslim American women). We also feature daily news, columns, interviews, book reviews, and award-winning writing in our online literary magazine, The Coil. Check us out. We’re ready to light you up.