Coffee House Press

Coffee House Press' logo as featured on their website.

Allan Kornblum, founder of Coffee House Press.

Coffee House Press (CHP) is an internationally renowned nonprofit publisher located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They publish many different formats of writing, focusing on stories that challenge societal norms determining what books should be along with focusing on engaging the community in the publishing process.

History and Mission

Coffee House Press originally started in 1972 as a small letterpress company founded by Allan Kornblum. It was inspired by the small press movement of the 1960s and 70s and was officially made into a publishing house in 1984. Founder Allan Kornblum was CHP's editor and publisher from 1984 until 2011.

Coffee House Press is more interested in publishing works that are creative and unconventional than works that are mainstream and make a lot of money. They are devoted to expanding the definition of literature and who it belongs to. Their ultimate goal is to be the nation's leading independent literary publisher to spread their literature to new audiences.

Structure

Ownership

Linda Ewing, the current executive director of Coffee House Press.

CHP is a nonprofit organization led by a board of directors, in which there is a president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. The company itself is led by a staff of nine: Linda A. Ewing as Executive Director, Robyn Earhart as Production Editor, Cara Geze as Development Associate, Laura Graveline as Director of Publicity, Mark Haber as Director of Marketing, Ülrika Moats as Director of Operations, Michael Shuldt as Finance Manager, and Ken Chen and Youmna Chlala both as Spatial Species Editors. The head of operations, executive director Linda Ewing, has a long history in managing nonprofits with several different companies before working for Coffee House Press. Most, if not all, of the staff studied some form of English or education in college and had experience in writing or publishing before joining CHP.

Financials

Being a nonprofit organization, the press receives most of its funding from donations, private foundations, corporate giving programs, and government programs. They gain about $1 million in revenue each year, half of which they spend on staff salaries. Their last tax form from 2023 indicates that the publisher made a negative profit that year, but it appears that this was not a major setback as they most likely had money left over from previous years and/or receive enough donations each year to keep their mission alive.

Publishing Program

Terry Dactyl, a 2025 book by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, demonstrates Coffee House Press' signature abstract cover design.

Catalog

Coffee House Press prints all of the common types of literature: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and even translation. CHP is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, so they also have a separate section of their website dedicated to authors from Minnesota. The works they print tend to have a central theme of questioning the status quo in literature and addressing topics the public tends to avoid or ignore, such as mental health, sexuality, and the downsides of capitalism.

The overall impression of Coffee House Press' catalog consists of sophisticated, elevated literature. The cover designs tend to be abstract, yet pleasing, giving audiences the sense that the works themselves are outside the norm but still palatable. The press' website and brand follow this trend, sporting neutral colors for the brand logo and a clean, minimalistic, modern design for the website itself.

Notable Titles and Authors

Notable authors that have had their work published by Coffee House Press include poets Ron Padgett and Anne Waldman. Some of the most famous books they have published are Somewhere Else by Matthew Shenoda and The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Taniguchi. Both books have received numerous awards.

The Mind Reels by Fredrik deBoer

One of CHP's most notable works at the moment is a fiction novel called The Mind Reels, written by Fredrik deBoer. The novel follows a college-age girl named Alice with worsening mental health. A review in the Chicago tribune says the novel is "gripping without making any effort to manipulate the reader through a redemptive plot arc or even milking sympathy for Alice." Published in October of 2025, this book exemplifies the typical modern title from Coffee House Press: a jarringly realistic story that puts a spotlight directly on problems people like to push aside.

Sand-Catcher by Omar Khalifah has been longlisted for a National Translation Award this year.

An example of what a customer would receive if they purchased a seasonal subscription. This is the fall 2023 bundle that includes Alt-Nature by Saretta Morgan.

Other important works recently in publication are Alt-Nature by Saretta Morgan and Sand-Catcher by Omar Khalifah. Alt-Nature is a collection of black, queer poetry that compares emotions with geography, showing off CHP's progressive ideologies, and Sand-Catcher is a work of translated fiction that, as of September, has been longlisted for a National Translation Award in prose. Sand-Catcher is just one of Coffee House Press' many works to be nominated for an award.

Logistics

Right now, Coffee House Press exclusively publishes in print, but some titles can be accessed on e-book via Overdrive, an online library service. PDF copies of their books can also be provided to teachers upon request. Coffee House Press's graphic design, book production, and typesetting services have all most recently been done by Bookmobile and Offset. Books from CHP generally cost around $18.00 on average but can range from $8.95–$60.00 for an individual book. They also offer seasonal subscriptions—where, if purchased, one would receive every book printed within that season—for $155.00 per season.

Community

Makenna Goodman's book Helen of Nowhere, currently on tour.

As mentioned in the mission statement, Coffee House Press is dedicated to redefining who literature belongs to through cultivating audience and artist interaction. One example of this put into practice is the press' Books in Action program. The program is an ongoing series of public events and projects that engages the community in collaboration with the publisher and authors. The most recent of these events is CHP in the Stacks, a curation of artist and reader works in public collections to inspire audiences to get involved in the publishing community.

Tom Comitta's novella Patchwork, on tour now.

Other ways Coffee House Press engages with the public is through participating in festivals and organizing book talks and tours with the authors. Right now, two authors published at CHP are on tour: Makenna Goodman for her book Helen of Nowhere and Tom Comitta for his novella Patchwork.

CHP is also active on social media. They post frequently about release information, current events, and tours, but also engage their audience through behind-the-scenes looks at production elements such as book packing for a new release and touring the equipment used in office.

Summary

Coffee House Press is a small press with big dreams, expanding the public's current views surrounding what literature is and can be. They strive to be a place of community, interacting with their audiences frequently and genuinely. Thus is how they impact the publishing industry as a whole: redefining the idea of the traditional publisher by making their readers members of the team and providing an outlet for creative endeavors outside the norm.