Known for championing the work of short story writers and poets, who face challenges in the publishing industry,[1] Press 53 was launched in the wake of 9-11 when founder Kevin Morgan Watson lost his job at US Airways.
[2] In 2005, Press 53's first titles were authored by Doug Frelke, a veteran of the United States Navy and the Gulf War.
[3] By 2006, the press had reprinted The Land Breakers, an out-of-print classic novel by North Carolina writer John Ehle.
The story collection "One Last Good Time" by Michael Kardos won the 2012 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for Fiction.
by Josh Woods (writer) won the 2019 International Book Awards for Fiction: Short Story.