Sutton Hoo Press is a literary fine press founded in 1989 by poet C. Mikal Oness while he
was a student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. The press is named after a famous Anglo-Saxon
archaeological dig of a royal ship burial. Sutton Hoo Press' editorial mission is to bring
to light the work of promising young writers and poets, as well as to publish work by
well-known authors, in order to define exacting standards of writing in contemporary fiction
and poetry. The primary mission of the press is to publish contemporary literature in
handsomely designed limited editions, released at Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, and
Memorial Day.
In 1991, C. Mikal Oness moved to Potomac, Maryland where he worked at The Taoist Center in
Washington D.C., where he was commissioned to print Selections from
the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic for Sutton Hoo Press. In May 1992, C. Mikal and
his wife Elizabeth Oness moved the press to Columbia, Missouri, where they pursued PhDs in
English. Over the next five years, the goal of the press was to produce at least one title a
year.
In 1997, Sutton Hoo Press moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin; C. Mikal Oness accepted a position
at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as an assistant professor of English and Elizabeth
Oness took over the task of marketing and development for the press. In 2001, Elizabeth
Oness accepted a position at Winona State University, and the Sutton Hoo Press was relocated
to Winona, Minnesota. C. Mikal Oness now runs the press full-time, producing several
editions and broadsides each year.
