Founded on the belief that our collective best future rests in each of us understanding, manifesting, and offering our own uniquely valuable experience to the wider world, Manifest Identity serves authors looking for an authentic, personal, and mission-driven publishing experience. Combining many years working in publishing and book design with her training as a chaplain, Lindy Gifford helps people offer their stories and experience through the co-creation of thoughtfully, beautifully produced books.
Over the many years I have worked in publishing, I have been touched by how difficult the process is for authors, whether they make it through the door of the traditional publishing houses, work with a pay-to-publish company, or attempt to navigate the challenging world of independent publishing on their own. My training as a chaplain has given me the ability to really listen, not only for what the author wants from their book, but what the author’s experience has to offer the collective and how best we can work together to effectively communicate their message.”
—Lindy Gifford, on why she started Manifest Identity
Ethos & Land Acknowledgment
The name Manifest Identity stands in direct contrast to the better-known concept of “manifest destiny,” the idea that the United States was divinely destined to expand across the entire North American continent, forcibly removing the people that lived there. Manifest Identity is located in the state of Maine, on the ancestral lands of the Wabanaki, People of the Dawnland. We acknowledge that we inhabit land which was taken by our ancestors in the brutal implementation of manifest destiny and that to this day the Wabanaki are still suffering the consequences of this doctrine as it has been written into United States and Maine law.
Lindy is committed to participating, in a small way, in redressing the erasure of marginalized individuals’ stories and reducing economic and other barriers to their stories being told. She invites anyone interested in reduced rates or payment alternatives to reach out to her directly. Wabanaki and other Indigenous authors are especially encouraged to contact Lindy, as she believes their stories are essential at this time.