Ecopoetry from Paris

Kingdom Anywhere Publishing & Poet John Sannaee

Cover Art by Agnes Treherne

John Sannaee’s A Tentative Gardener’s Guide to the Evening (Kingdom Anywhere, 2026) explores the relationship between humans, the other beings of the natural world, and one another. His poems also examine his own search for belonging and his relationship to place, as well as the aesthetics of softness and violence.

I met the poet and professor John Sannaee when I first moved to Paris in 2010, at an English teaching company that turned out to be run by a UFO cult that believes in free love, human cloning, and one of the most problematic combinations of symbols in human history. That’s not the point of this piece, however, and I’ve already told that story over at SOUVENIR Magazine—you can read it right here or via the footnote down below—but suffice to say John and I bonded over quite a few extraterrestrial tales from the moment we met.¹

Since we met, we’ve had many-a-conversation over cold pints and red wine about literature, too, because John is a PhD in comparative literature, one of the most well-read and thoughtful human beings I’ve ever met.

More than his literary talents or impeccable style, however,

you want to read John Sannaee’s writing, I promise

I respect and admire John because he is a real-life, by-god-they-do-exist kind of writer, someone who believes in literary diligence, craftsmanship, and putting words on the page as an act of resistance and liberation.

We both believe writing is more a lifestyle than it is a vocation, which is why

On March 12, Kingdom Anywhere is publishing John Sannaee’s debut poetry collection, A Tentative Gardener’s Guide to the Evening.

For those of you who have no idea what Kingdom Anywhere is (yet), it’s the name for the micro-press I co-founded with Augusta Sagnelli, who also happens to be my wife. We came up with the idea for Kingdom Anywhere while falling in love during a global pandemic, a story which was the initial impetus for starting this Substack back in 2022.

The entire point of Kingdom Anywhere is that you can build a kingdom, anywhere, so long as you believe in it.

This led to me my decision, in large part thanks to Augusta’s design skills and editorial support, to buy buy the rights to my first novel, forego seeking a literary agent for my second, and instead connect with my communities to publish a limited 300-copy 1st edition of The Requisitions, which sold out quickly and continues to sell thanks to my Substack readers (shout out to Matthew Long for picking The Requisitions as his 2024 Book of the Year, and The Metropolitan Review for this thoughtful piece).²

Our second publication was SPILL, the debut poetry collection of Mitalee Mehta, a South Asian American badass from Texas who we met in Paris a few years ago. After I bought back my rights to my debut novel, we then re-published a definitive edition of Slim and The Beast: 10th Anniversary Edition, proving that it’s possible for authors to retain their rights from an industry that believes taking 80% + of profits from writers for the promise of a small advance is worth it … particularly when the advance rarely justifies the ultimate payout of the book and the design team thinks a glossy cover is preferable, whilst the overworked lead editor suggests changing the ethnicity of the main character to make the story “more relatable”—it happens all the time.

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.” Goethe

In November, Augusta and Kyle Berlin launched SOUVENIR Magazine, an English language arts and literature magazine based in Paris. SOUVENIR was just mentioned in The Guardian.

Augusta and I started Kingdom Anywhere as a passion project, a pro bono adventure of assisted independent-publishing, which has taught us much about bookmaking, editing, publishing and bookselling, but also how to cultivate a literary community around the principles of uncommon voices and radical authenticity.

Begin it, indeed.

Three years later, we’re taking the steps to turn Kingdom Anywhere into a real French publishing house this summer. Until the official (re)launch, we’re happy to bring you John Sannaee’s pensive, loving, and gracious debut, A Tentative Gardener’s Guide to the Evening on March 12.

There’s a delicateness to John’s prose akin to holding a glowing brittle leaf in the palm of your hand, an intrinsic love for nature in his language that will make you want to read outside on a quiet bench (I’ve learned a few gardening terms along the way). If that weren’t enough, John’s book includes multiple drawings by the supremely talented Agnes Treherne. Her work is incredible. Follow her Instagram here.

Agnes Treherne, The Channel, oil on birch, 31 x 33 cm

The book speaks for itself. These are words from from the very first poem:

Mind says: Each step is a running to live

And there is no destination

Feet reply: We do not yet seek to arrive

The darkness shudders vast and surrounding

In the heat and desperation of this century

Heart says: Still I might love you and tend this garden

The party (March 12, 6-10pm) is going to be a lively affair that brings a lot of artists and creatives together, in a beautiful art-space in partnership with Le Peloton Café, one of the OG specialty coffee shops in Paris, which has been around far longer and remains far more authentic than that trendy new coffee shop that’s a simulacra of the latest Instagram trend.

There will only be 200 copies of the signed 1st edition, many of them to be retrieved right here in Paris. A Tentative Gardener’s Guide to the Evening is a beautiful, unique collection of ecopoetry that fans of nature, lyricism, romanticism, and the sublime will want to revisit on their bookshelf again and again.³

Here’s to uncommon voices, cultivating community and radical authenticity, and believing it’s possible to build kingdoms, anywhere.

1. RAËLIAN BODIES

2. 2024 Book of the Year Selection!

3. If you’re still looking for links because you don’t like buttons: those living abroad can order a copy to be shipped to most places in the world (25 Euros / shipping included). Paris-based folks can pre-order John’s book via this link (19 Euros) or otherwise plan to attend the Paris launch party here and purchase directly.