Graywolf Press

Graywolf Press is a smaller literary publisher in Minneapolis, Minnesota known for their “risk-taking, visionary writers who transform culture through literature”. They publish fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and even works in translation [https://www.graywolfpress.org/].

Their Mission

Graywolf’s mission is to shine a light on writers who oftentimes get left out by the larger publishing world. They are committed to publishing diverse voices and making their press accessible to everyone. They believe that “When writers are free to do their most ambitious work, their books serve as portals to new possibilities and enable deeper understanding between people”.

The History Of Graywolf

Scott Walker founded Graywolf Press in Port Townsend, Washington in 1974 with the goal of publishing limited-edition chapbooks of poetry. Walker and his colleagues created these chapbooks by using a letterpress and sewing, which is a sharp contrast to how the company operates today with an annual budget of five million U.S. dollars. They still publish poetry today, but also work on nonfiction and fiction projects as well. Every year, they publish around thirty to thirty five books by authors from around the world. The company was moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1985 and in 1994, Fiona McCrae became the Director and Publisher. In 2002, Graywolf merged with Straus & Giroux as well as Farrar for distribution purposes and moved again to Minneapolis in 2009. Fiona retired in 2022 and Carmen Giménez stepped in to fill the role of Publisher and Director. Although there have been many leadership and location changes, Graywolf’s mission has withstood the test of time and continues to be the driving force behind the company’s operations.

Ownership and Structure

Graywolf Press is a nonprofit company with only about seventeen people on staff. The press doesn’t really have a corporate owner, rather, is supervised by Carmen Giménez as well as a board of directors composed of twenty two people. Since Graywolf isn’t owned by a larger media conglomerate and is a smaller company, the majority of their work is funded through the sales they make off of books as well as grants .

Financial Information

At the end of 2022, Graywolf Press spent 4.9 million U.S. dollars on all their expenses. However, they have a 5 million dollar budget and they’ve continued to receive massive amounts of revenue from donors and grants. Although the press is small, it’s quite clear that they’re still able to make ends meet and this publisher isn’t going underwater anytime soon as they continue to support all their employees and board members.

Formats

While Graywolf mainly publishes works through physical formats with both hardcover and paperback books, they’ve also partnered with audiobook companies and have continued to experiment with e-book formats as well. The cost of their books varies depending on how long a work is and how much of their resources and materials had to be dedicated towards that project, but a lot of their books seem to be between $18 and $25.

Brand Identity

This is the logo Graywolf Press currently uses.

Their website has a very minimalistic aesthetic and the colors in their logo are red, black, and gray. A lot of the books they publish have people on the covers, highlighting their connection to humanity and their dedication to publishing stories that revolve around humans. While some titles definitely have different aesthetics, the branding seems to consistently reflect that these stories are about humans and how we interact. Additionally, their logos incorporate wolves, which is fitting given their title.

Carmen Giménez, the Director and Publisher of Graywolf Press.

Editorial Staff

Graywolf Press has seventeen people on their staff working in marketing, publicity, sales, and editorial. The key members of their editorial staff include: Carmen Giménez, Katie Dublinski, Yuka Igarashi, Anni Liu, Ethan Nosowsky, Jeff Shotts, Brittany Torres Rivera, and Troy Wilderson. Carmen Giménez, the Publisher and Executive Director of Graywolf, is the author of many successful poetry collections including Milk and Filth, and has won numerous awards and prizes for her work. In an interview with Publishers Weekly, she attributes Graywolf’s success to “editorial risk” and talks about how her “strategic plan” for Graywolf “‘centers on preserving their ability to support and sustain that vision’”. She also mentions Graywolf Lab, Graywolf’s online platform where artists can interact in a “discussion of a particular theme, which is then, over a period of weeks, expanded upon” into “a variety of formats–essays, poems, short fiction, interactive works, even a podcast”. Giménez stated that the idea behind this online platform is for artists to be “‘in conversation’”, showing how she has used collaboration between artists to form new communities beyond the one that already exists at Graywolf Press.

Publishing Program

Graywolf Press publishes all genres underneath the sun from poetry to nonfiction to fiction. They stay true to their mission in shining a light on lesser-known writers and subjects. Although they don’t directly publish audiobooks, they do work with other companies to make their published works available in audio formats and they publish e-books as well so that their readers have more options to choose from when deciding how to read. The press is very cognizant of the fact that reading isn’t just about what to read, rather, how to read as well, and the ways they make their titles accessible to their audience reflects this. On their website, they allow viewers to see past catalogs of their published works and give the option to apply filters so that their audience can choose which genres they’d like to read from. Some of their well-known authors include Tracy K. Smith, a critically-acclaimed poet who wrote Wade in the Water and The Body’s Question, as well as Percival Everett known for works like Dr. No and Telephone.

Donika Kelly's collection of poems published on October 7th, 2025.

Three publications that are representative of Graywolf Press as a whole include: The Natural Order of Things by Donika Kelly, Dysphoria Mundi: A Diary of Planetary Transition by Paul B. Preciado, and We’re Alone by Edwidge Danticat. In The Natural Order of Things, Kelly uses poetry to confront trauma through themes rooted in nature and myth. This collection of poems represents Graywolf as it explores the complexity of love while simultaneously highlighting our connections to our lineage and the places and people we call home. In Dysphoria Mundi, Preciado challenges the common idea that dysphoria is a mental illness. Preciado sees dysphoria as “an abyss that separates a patriarchal, colonial, and capitalist order hurtling toward its end from a new way of being”. In challenging this common definition of dysphoria, Preciado forces readers to rethink the ways in which they think and interact with the world around them, aligning with Graywolf’s mission to transform common culture through literature. Finally, Danticat’s collection of essays highlights the isolation many felt during the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously using events in Haiti and tributes to literary mentors such as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, to explore themes of “environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience”. Danticat “remind[s] us of the possibilities of community” which mirrors Graywolf’s accessibility mission.

Fostering Community Through Readership

This is the logo for Graywolf's online Lab that artists and writers can use to create with one another.

Graywolf fosters a sense of community not just through their press, but through Graywolf Lab where readers can access a variety of games, podcasts, essays, stories, poems, and even interactive storytelling [https://graywolflab.org/]. They are also active on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, allowing them to reach people from around the world, and to extend their influence beyond the U.S. which directly aligns with their goal of publishing diverse voices and allowing them to improve the English translations of different languages within the publishing industry. Giménez is incredibly dedicated to building more communities from Graywolf Press both in the digital world and in real life. Graywolf Press continues to do author tour events and their website allows their audience to subscribe in order to receive news from the press about upcoming events they’ll be attending. They also hold Literary Salons with readings, book signings, and other literary programs. Outside of the company itself, Graywolf Press has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from readers, writers, and people who work within the publishing industry, and their books and writers have received numerous prizes and awards in recent years.

Recent News

In November, 2024, Publisher’s Weekly came out with an article titled: “Fifty Years Later, Graywolf Press and the Loft Continue to Thrive”. While Graywolf is still a smaller company as it was many years ago when it was first founded, it has still emerged as “one of the nation’s most acclaimed and daring literary publishers”. Giménez attributes their success to the “‘editorial risk’” they are not afraid to take as they continue to publish diverse voices while simultaneously “‘increasing [their] focus on translation from languages and regions that haven’t been well represented in English-language publishing in the U.S.’” (Kirch). Many writers and books published by Graywolf Press have received national and international awards in recent years including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the Nobel Prize for Literature, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, and the Man Booker Prize. Since 2009, their archives have also been housed in the Elmer L. Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota.

The Future Of Graywolf

Overall, Graywolf Press has emerged as a trailblazer in the smaller publishing world as they’ve continued to compete with the Big 5 while still staying true to their mission of publishing diverse voices that challenge cultural norms within society. Oftentimes, the future of the publishing world can seem bleak, especially for those looking to write their own story rather than something that can be “marketable”. While the book industry is a business and readers oftentimes forget that there is always a price to pay for capitalist ventures, Graywolf Press has continued to fight towards adding diversity to the world of books by publishing unique works that defy the norms rather than following them. Graywolf Press is not just a prime example, rather, the definition of what it means to be small yet mighty.