Why Dionysus? 

You may wonder why we have decided to name our publishing company after the Greek god Dionysus. The reason is simple. We have always been drawn to the worlds of reading, writing, creativity and publishing, and felt that Dionysus was a fitting name for our venture.

Dionysus, meaning “born twice”, was Zeus’s son and one of the twelve Olympian deities in ancient Greece. Just as Dionysus was associated with transformation and renewal, we believe that writing is a form of rebirth. Through reading and writing, we continually rediscover ourselves and the world around us.

Dionysus represents intuitiveness, creative overflow and the pursuit of truths hidden in secrets, as well as the beauty found in both the savage and the independent. Hence, Press Dionysus seeks to inspire and provoke its readers.

Dionysus’s journeys took him across Greece and beyond. According to mythology, during his travels he discovered the cultivation of grapes and the art of winemaking. His association with wine, joy and ecstasy became central to his identity. For us, this journey also offers a metaphor for publishing. Every book is a journey for both its writer and its reader. Authors begin with an idea, a discovery or an experience, and through writing transform it into something that can travel beyond its point of origin. Readers, in turn, embark on their own journeys through the pages, returning with new perspectives and experiences.

Dionysus’s association with wine also reminds us of the importance of quality over quantity. He shows that good wine is shaped by both its ingredients and the care devoted to its making. Similarly, we believe that publishing should be guided by quality rather than quantity. Our aim is to bring books to readers that deserve to be read, discovered and remembered.

Baudelaire’s poem “Be Drunk” feels as if Dionysus himself has written it.

You have to be always drunk. That’s all there is to it—it’s the only way.

So as not to feel the horrible burden of time
that breaks your back and bends you to the earth,
you have to be continually drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish.
But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace
or the green grass of a ditch,
in the mournful solitude of your room,
you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone,
ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock,
everything that is flying, everything that is groaning,
everything that is rolling, everything that is singing,
everything that is speaking, ask what time it is.

Wind, wave, star, bird, the clock will answer you:

“It is time to be drunk!
So as not to be the martyred slaves of time,
be drunk, be continually drunk!
On wine, on poetry or virtue as you wish.”

Dionysus represents melancholy and gloom. As vines dry in winter and remain fruitless for months, pain and sadness constitute a significant part of Dionysus’s identity. Dionysus is associated with an oscillation between joy, ecstasy, vitality, sorrow, pain and death. Writing is not necessarily a joyous act. To write is sometimes to suffer. To appreciate what is written is a source of joy. As one reads and writes, consciousness grows, and aesthetic pleasures feed creative action.

Press Dionysus sees all these states of emotion as necessary features of one’s journey of recognition and discovery; thus, it invites qualified writers to meet qualified readers and become intoxicated with literature.

Please see our submissions page for further information on how to submit your work to us.

Dionysus books are proudly indexed in prestigious libraries across the United Kingdom, including the British Library, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, the Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, and Trinity College Dublin.