by L.A. Jones
Union editor

Anoka's Gail Cerridwen is hoping her upstart Word Warriors Press turns out to be mightier than the sword, able to pierce through a myriad of social and other complex problems young people from their teens through their 20s are increasingly experiencing in their lives.

"I see young people really hoping and looking for meaning in their lives," said the former teacher at a school for alternative students. "It's all consumerism today, and many of them (these young people) are lost."

After losing her job as a teacher in spring 2003, Cerridwen acted on a tiny concept but albeit a large dream to establish her own publishing house as an outlet for young people - their drug addictions, their dysfunctional and sometimes abusive families, their struggles over sexual identity, their battles with depression, suicide and mental illness, their deep and innate sense of isolation and emptiness.

"I had been kind of kicking around this idea in the back of my mind," she said. "This thin idea I had in my head, I took it and it's still inspiring me. I've been wearing a lot of different hats since then, and I'm always tired. But it's worth it."

Cerridwen established a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in September 2003 after spending most of her summer researching her prospective endeavor and setting the mechanism in motion to publish her first young author's book, "Yesterday's Warrior" by Heather Harrison.

The Anoka publisher likes to look at the books she plans on putting in polished, pointed and provocative form as "throwing a ladder down" for young people who have shared many of the same sets of experiences, disappointments and disillusionments.

She chose Word Warriors Press as the name for her fledgling publishing house because she likes the idea of words being used as weapons or shields against what society wields at young people today.

"I'm thinking of this as the newest lost generation," she said.

A few of the older adults who have read "Yesterday's Warrior" by Harrison, according to Cerridwen, had a hard time believing all that actually happened to Heather.

For Cerridwen, therefore, Word Warriors Press will hopefully be a wake-up call for adults who have avoided much of a different kind of adversity shared by young people today, while at the same time giving young writers and readers something to share in common.

Those familiar with the publishing world today all agree that the biggest market in literature for the future will be by and about young people, she said.

Her second author, Scott Sundvall, a 20-year-old expatriate of California, submitted the very manuscript Cerridwen had been looking for.

Without knowing a soul in Minnesota, Sundvall "followed that gossamer thread that guides all artists, and arrived here in time to hand the press an extremely powerful manuscript tentatively titled "Outlet," which should be published in September or October, she said.

Sundvall was the first one to agree with Cerridwen and become thoroughly enthused about the idea of Word Warriors Press helping to foster a new direction in publishing - pointed, provocative, controversial - all the while raising an acute awareness about the type of young people whose stories never get told.

"This is definitely a politically edged press," she said.

Although Cerridwen is modestly twice the age of all of the authors and young people she is attempting to serve, she believes Word Warriors Press needs to remain a young people's publishing house and have young people totally involved.

"I've spent so much time around young people, I really feel I know the kind of b.s. they're tired of," she said. "They want real stories that reflect their lives and their experiences, and I don't believe in speaking for other people."

Now that "Yesterday's Warrior" has been published, Cerridwen is seeking investors in Word Warriors Press for future books, all the while refinancing her house and using credit cards to get the venture off the ground.

She's not just confident that Word Warriors will succeed - she's absolutely sure of it.

"I've just had this passion and faith this was going to work," she said. "It's all happening; the press is going to make it."

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