History
Strange Violin Editions was founded in 2011 with the initial mission of serving a small niche audience of readers: Mormons, former Mormons, and people interested in Mormonism who sought thought-provoking, intelligently written, Mormonism-related books that strove to attain a high level of literary quality. The press published four books from 2012 to 2013, including one nonfiction and three fiction titles. The press’s goal was to select books for publication without regard to orthodoxy or the lack thereof; rather, books would be selected based on their insightfulness, originality, appealing prose style, and entertainment value.
From 2014 to 2025, the press was inactive and not acquiring new titles. In 2025, Strange Violin Editions published an ebook reprint of founder Therese Doucet’s novel The Prisoner of the Castle of Enlightenment that had gone out of print when the original publisher (D.X. Varos) went out of business due to the owner’s passing.
Current Status
As of 2026, the press is considering new titles for publication by invitation only. In the future, the press’s focus will broaden to include general interest fiction and nonfiction.
Staff and Past Contributors
Therese Doucet, Publisher
Strange Violin Editions was founded by Therese Doucet in 2011. Therese is a writer and former Mormon and has worked as an editor in the past. She founded the press after researching ways to publish her own novel and realizing that there was a dearth of publishing options for Mormonism-related books that fell outside the parameters of LDS orthodoxy. She studied philosophy as an undergraduate at BYU and later earned graduate degrees in cultural history and public policy from the University of Chicago and the George Washington University. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Therese Doucet’s personal website
Other Contributors
Matt Page created the artwork and designed the cover for A Short Stay in Hell.
Brooklyn-based playwright and actor Sergei Burbank produced the audiobook version of A Short Stay in Hell.
How the Press Got Its Name:
Strange Violin Editions takes its name from a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Neighbor” (Der Nachbar):
Strange violin, are you following me?
In how many far cities has your solitary night
Spoken already to mine?
Do hundreds play you? Or only one?
Are there in all great cities
Those who without you
Would have lost themselves long ago in the rivers?
And why does it always involve me?
Why am I always neighbor to those
Who fearfully bring you to sing
And to say: Life is heavier
Than the heaviness of all things.
– Translation by Therese Doucet
Strange Violin Editions 