Alternative stories and experimental writing have always run deeply in Emily Riches’ veins.
So when the former Mullumbimby High School student set up her own publishing company, Aniko Publishing, it was with a strong sense of determination to publish tales from outside the mainstream.
And this philosophy is clear in Aniko’s first published book, a collection of short stories called The Slip.
Penned by Victorian writer Miriam Webster, The Slip explores moments of connection, grief, and yearning that ripple through everyday lives.
‘The collection at the beginning was about mad women and reclaiming the wild,’ says Ms Riches who now calls Sydney home.
‘Then it morphed into more of a book about grief and the ephemeral and impermanent nature of things.’
The tales in The Slip explore lovers floundering in the push and pull of desire, and families caught between duty and disarray.
A restless couple are visited by an old flame, a washed-up playwright faces his demons in the wake of #MeToo and a woman returns to her childhood home to confront her twin brother’s ghost.
The theme of grief and loss is there but the stories are also very funny… there’s a lot of humour…’ Ms Riches says.
Mullum’s influence
‘She has a lot of empathy for characters who are not the best people but who are very relatable.’
The publisher says growing up in Mullum has profoundly influenced her work.
‘I think alternative stories are in my blood,’ she says.
‘Mullum is such a creative town… so welcoming of different ideas, open-minded…
‘So many of the teachers at Mullum Public were supportive of writing. That was where I realised you could be a writer, that it was something you could actually do for a living.’
After battling it out in the mainstream scene for a few years, Ms Riches decided to set up as her own alternative publisher when an internship was brought to a premature end by the COVID lockdown.
After originally setting up a literary magazine, she switched attention to book publishing around three years ago.
‘I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it,’ she says.
‘It was definitely a lot of work, but now that the book is out there I definitely feel like I could do it again at some point.’
To purchase a copy of The Slip or to learn more about Aniko, visit the publisher’s website: AnikoPress.com.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
