Cune Press is a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

-based US publisher. It was established in 1994 by American entrepreneur Scott C. Davis. Cune features a variety of

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

-related books, with a focus on Syria and the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. Cune also publishes literary nonfiction with an interest in women of courage and West coast authors. To support its literary publishing efforts, Cune also publishes books on education and is developing how-to titles on various subjects.

History

Davis established Cune Press in May 1994 in his native

. Reportedly, Davis took his cue from Andre Schiffrin, the legendary New York editor and intellectual who ultimately left Pantheon to establish the New Press. Davis financed Cune Press from the income of his private construction company. He was soon joined by founding "partners"

Mamoun Sakkal Mamoun Sakkal ( ar, مأمون صقال) is a Syrian type designer, artist and calligrapher. Awards * ADC Typography Bronze Cube 2018 for Sakkal Kitab Font. *Third International Calligraphy Competition: First Award in Kufi A kufi or kufi cap ...

(who was born in Aleppo) and Steven Schlesser as well as dozens of other volunteers. Sakkal was a well-known

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

calligrapher in the Kufic style, and Schlesser was an independent historian. The name Cune was derived from "

cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

" a term that in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, means "wedge" (the shape of a stylus point in soft clay tablets).

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

script was used by early Syrians—

Phoenicians Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

on the coast who developed the phonetic alphabet in their settlements near the current day city of Latakia.

Editorial Focus

Cune's website says that the publishing house is interested in Syria-related material and "thoughtful" non-fiction books including titles demonstrating political and cultural courage among women. Cune authors include

Ali Farzat Ali Farzat or Ali Ferzat ( ar, علي فرزات; born 22 June 1951) is a Syrian political cartoonist. He has published more than 15,000 caricatures in Syrian, Arab and international newspapers. He serves as the head of the Arab Cartoonists Associ ...

, a prominent political cartoonist; Ramzy Baroud, a Palestinian-American scholar who writes on the Arab-Israeli conflict and runs PalestineChronicle.com; and

Sami Moubayed Sami Moubayed ( ar, سامي مروان مبيّض) (born 16 July 1978) is a Syrian historian and writer who has written extensively on the modern history of Damascus from the late Ottoman period until creation of the United Arab Republic in 1 ...

, a Syrian historian and author of "Steel & Silk: Men and Women Who Shaped Syria." In 2003, Davis himself published an account of what he had seen in 1987 in Syria: "The Road From Damascus" which was based on 400 pages of hand-written notes jotted down during his journey. Davis is now developing a sequel called "Light in the Palace."

Staff

Cune Press is located in Seattle. It has a four-person back office staff who work remotely from different locations in the world. Cune's editors serve pro bono on individual projects that they feel deserve to find a public audience.

References

{{reflist Book publishing companies based in Seattle Publishing companies established in 1994 Publishing companies of the United States 1994 establishments in Washington (state)