Neck of the Woods Press

The publishing company’s name, like most revelations in my life, began with a conversation with my dad, the late Dr. Syed Arshad Husain.  Technically, the name is inspired by every conversation with my dad. But there is one that stands out in my mind.

I was a sophomore at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota when I received the following phone call:

“Hey Dad, how are you doing?”

“Very, well.  What’s going on in your neck of the woods?” Asking what was up in your “neck of the woods” was one of Dr. Husain’s signature phrases.

After giving him a summary of the previous week, he was waiting with an interesting proposal: “I was in the neighborhood and if you weren’t too busy, I thought I’d stop by.”

Now, keeping track of my dad’s travel schedule was an impossible task.  No location was a surprise.

So, when he said he was close by, that didn’t shock me. “Oh, are you in Minneapolis?” I assumed.

“Well, not exactly,” was his coy reply.

“Where are you, then?” I inquired.

“Montreal,” was his one-word answer.

At age 19, I was no geography major. I knew, however, that Montreal was nowhere near “my neck of the woods.”

“Dad, you do know Montreal is further away from St. John’s than where you live?”  In fact, a lot further away.  Columbia, Missouri (his home for over 50 years) is 541 miles from Collegeville, Minnesota.

Montreal? 1,167 miles.

Anticipating my skepticism, his rationale was at the ready, “I know, but I was North and you’re North, and I thought, what a great time to see you.”

You will have to forgive my father. The man who traversed two continents and crossed an ocean in pursuit of his education thought where I was going to school two states away was too far for his liking.  He expressed as much to my mother when they dropped me off for my first day of college. Never really having drifted from home, tears were welling in my eyes as my parents drove away.  My dad, in a rare moment of panic, turned to my mother and said, “What have we done?”

And so, he never passed up on a chance to check up on me.  Sometimes in person, sometimes by phone. This practice continued throughout every stage of my life.

Since his passing in 2022, what I miss the most are the conversations with no particular agenda at all – just the desire to know how I was doing.

What I have come to find out is I am not the only one who feels this way: It is mind-bending the number of people Dr. Syed Arshad Husain performed these check-ins with. And that was my dad’s superpower – a warmth and kindness that when you spoke to him, he made you feel like you were the most important and beloved person in the world.

My mother was visiting our home during the holidays while I was attempting to come up with the appropriate name for my burgeoning publishing company.  After every creative spark, I would make the trek down the stairs from my home office to the living room where she was stationed.  Each attempt was met with the kind of encouraging response only a mother can give when their child’s efforts are well intended but have missed the mark.

On the verge of giving up, I pitched to my mom, “What about Neck of the Woods Press?”  The smile that appeared immediately on her face indicated we had reached perfection.

If you were fortunate enough to have my father ask you “what’s up in your neck of the woods?” it wasn’t due to some formality that accompanies polite discussion. He was genuinely interested. So much so, that It was also common for my dad after hearing about your life to suggest, “You should write a book!” It was his belief that everyone’s narrative was noteworthy and in turn, every person should be valued.

The Conversations passed down from generation to generation are the ties that bind humanity together.  It is the mission of Neck of the Woods Press (NOW) to bring these “homegrown stories” into the light.

The Nine Devines of Chippewa Falls is the first of these endeavors.