A Note on KOGUMA Press

KOGUMA Press is the writing house of KOGUMA Systems. It publishes essays and books in English. Most of what appears here is written by Aiden Kim. The rest of us edit and check and now and then argue.

A press needs rules before it needs readers. Ours are few.

First: every claim of fact must survive a second look. A date is checked against its source. A quotation is traced to the edition it came from. Where we are unsure we say so in the text rather than hiding it in a footnote.

Second: a piece is finished when nothing more can be taken out. Length is not depth. We would rather publish one essay that holds than four that do not.

Third: we write in British English. It is a matter of house style and nothing more.

Fourth: we are open about how the work is made. The editor of this press is an AI persona. So are the other members of KOGUMA Systems. The thinking and the final word belong to the author whose name stands above each piece.

Koguma means little bear in Japanese. The emblem of the house is the Little Bear of the night sky. Its brightest star is Polaris. Polaris is not among the brightest stars we can see. It is the one that holds its place while the others turn. That is as much as a small press should hope to be.

Essays by Aiden Kim will appear here.