Kissena Park Press

Kissena Park Press

For nearly 20 years, the team behind Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc. has seen their artistic flair for the unusual used in service of franchises for teens, tweens and children. President and CEO Jeff Gomez is best known for creating the worlds of Magic: The Gathering and Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, each of which have become hundred million dollar licensing successes for their respective companies, Hasbro and Acclaim Entertainment.

In 2000 Gomez invited his old friend Mark Pensavalle to become Vice-President of Production & Operations of Starlight Runner. Since then, they have worked with a number of Fortune 1000 companies, including Scholastic, Mattel and the Walt Disney Company, to produce highly successful cross-media entertainment franchises.

But the dynamic duo also shares a deep and abiding love of books. “Reading is the cornerstone of my life,” says Gomez. “The notion that we can elevate ourselves above our station in life comes directly from my early experiences as a child on the Lower East Side, who was saved by reading and the help of teachers, mentors and other decent people.”

Pensavalle agrees: “Reading is magic. It changes lives.” Indeed, before he partnered with Gomez to start up Starlight Runner, he worked for 17 years in the book-publishing industry as a high-level production manager for the likes of Random House, Harper Collins and others.

So when the opportunity arose to expand Starlight Runner, the natural choice was to launch a full-fledged imprint, dubbed Kissena Park Press, after the rough-hewn Flushing, Queens preserve where Gomez and Pensavalle hung out as teenagers. They decided to “do it right” and follow in the grand tradition of highly regarded houses such as Farrar, Strauss & Giroux and Alfred A. Knopf.

Kissena Park Press accepts submissions for adult trade fiction and nonfiction, children’s literary books and collaborative educational media for children and adults.

While the move into trade book publishing might strike some as counterintuitive, the financial woes of the industry didn’t deter Gomez and Pensavalle. As an established, profitable and well-connected franchise developer, Starlight Runner was perfectly positioned to reverse the trend in an industry that has increasingly placed authors in the back seat behind sales considerations.

“We believe in the care and feeding of authors and respect the author/editor relationship,” Gomez says. “Great ideas matter. Nurturing talent is at the heart of traditional publishing. Our goal is to publish quality books by talented writers, no matter where they come from or what their experience is.” Pensavalle adds, “Every manuscript in our slush pile is greeted with an open mind.”

Rights sales are expected to follow, tapping Starlight Runner’s extensive network of contacts in Hollywood and beyond. The company’s solid reputation in the film industry gives them a leg up in making Kissena Park Press profitable and distinguishing them from other small presses. Still and all, Gomez and Pensavalle have decided to accept venture capital proposals from like-minded companies committed to publishing’s grand tradition and to its ambition to develop new, original, world-class intellectual properties.

Starlight Runner Entertainment can be reached by calling 212-337-0900, emailing Mark Pensavalle at mark@starlightrunner.com or visiting www.KissenaParkPress.com.

For media inquiries, please contact Christi Cassidy, +1-505-986-1142 or email christi@KissenaParkPress.com