Once Upon A Time…
In the summer of 2023, a teenage girl was struck with an idea. She wanted to put together an anthology with stories by young writers.
Erin Hylands was sixteen at the time. She’d always wanted to use her writing to bring glory to God—and an anthology was an opportunity to do just that. Plus, she’d be able to partner with and support other young writers. What could go wrong?
After some thought, she decided the theme would be about finding identity in Christ. She posted about the project in her writing community, and soon, dozens of writers expressed interest. Erin was elated… until she realized how much work went into producing an anthology. She had to do editing, proofreading, formatting, marketing, and upload it to distributors.
Around this time, Rachel M. Adams and Adeline Charlotte heard about the anthology project. It resonated with them, and they offered to help with formatting and marketing. Adeline took on the mantle of Marketing Director, and Rachel became the Head Graphic Designer and Assistant Marketing Director. Thus, Skillful Pen Press was formed.​​
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Connecting Readers With Stories
In December of 2023, the three-person team published The Christmas Collectors: Volume 1 and Faith of Four Seasons, a poetry collection. In January of 2024, the identity anthology finally came to fruition, eight months after Erin began the project. These early collections have been described as beautiful, emotional, and impactful.
In the summer of 2024, Adeline Charlotte made the hard decision to leave the Press. As a result, Erin and Rachel began interviewing other potential team members… and six more people joined the team.
The Press has only grown since then. Despite setbacks, we’ve continued partnering with young authors, publishing books, and forwarding the mission of bringing glory to God. Our team of teens and young adults is the best one we could ask for—not because they’re professionals, but because they’re all passionate about doing hard things for His glory.
Our Mission
My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. – Psalm 45:1
We believe glorifying God means pointing back to Him in everything we do and not working for our own gain. Our mission with the Press is to publish clean books focused on godly themes that are often overlooked in today’s literature.
Our definition of clean literature is fiction that doesn’t dwell on harmful topics. This doesn’t mean we shy away from hard or deep topics, but our stories don’t focus on unnecessary darkness or pain. None of our works include explicit sex scenes, overly graphic violence, or curse words. The highest any of our publications would be rated is PG13.
We take our mission seriously and pray that you’ll find stories that bless you at Skillful Pen Press.
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