Thank you, Imogene!

In Colorado on Saturday, September 10, runners from Flagstaff and around the country will once again take on the “one big hill” that is the Imogene Pass Run. For the first time since 2019, Soulstice Publishing won’t be running the course or selling books in Telluride or Ouray or, as founder Myles Schrag did in 2021, both.

It’s not that we don’t love you anymore, darling Imogene. We created a book in your honor, the award-winning To Imogene, a Flagstaff Love Letter, in 2019. We designed stickers and limited-edition prints and even T-shirts to celebrate your energy; and in return, you created Soulstice Publishing.

Because we liked creating a book that meant something to us and our community, we just kept doing it, learning the trade as we went. Like all athletes, we trained, tried new things, stuck with what worked. Like Flagstaff runners, we sometimes tripped on a rock. Also like Flagstaff runners, we got up every time. We started figuring out how to run a business. We’re still figuring it out. And we’ve moved forward from the Imogene book:

• Chasing Excellence introduced us to the inspiring Coach Joe I. Vigil and his devoted Vigilantes.
• Just a Teacher and Walking Flagstaff taught us the importance of the local.
• Myles ghostwrote Abdi’s World and Catch Me If You Can, waking up at 5 a.m. day after day to get words on the page.
• Julie edited the beautiful memoir Barbed and project-managed Voices of Navajo Mothers and Daughters: Portraits of Beauty and (soon to be released) The San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff Through the Lens of Time. She does love a long title!

Thanks to Imogene and everything she gave us, we get to be inspired by authors with passion and purpose. Making and selling books is not easy, but we are so lucky. Our heroes are author/creators Pat Melgares, Jim David, George Breed, Abdi Abdirahman, Filbert Bayi, Julie Morrison, Kathy Hooker, David Young-Wolff, and John Vankat. Matt Baxter and Ron Mann (2023), Kurt Brungardt (2024), you’re on deck!

It’s been a wonderful journey. And it all started with the Imogene Pass Run and all the Flagstaff runners who make it a special part of life in our mountain town. To everyone who has been part of Soulstice Publishing in these momentous three years, thank you! And if you’re the author of our next “book with soul,” please reach out to us. That’s why we’re here.