Bookmark: Meet Coffee House Press new publisher Anitra Budd

Big news from Minneapolis publisher Coffee House Press: Anitra Budd — writer, editor, mentor, teacher — has been named the new publisher. We caught up with her for a few questions.

Q: You spent five years (2009-14) at Coffee House as an acquisitions editor. What made you want to return?

A: Over the last 18 months, I've realized I want to have a bigger impact on the world. I've experienced the publishing business from a lot of different angles but I've never had a role where I could put all those perspectives to use at once. And getting a chance to lead this particular staff — which has acquired National Book Award winners, been shortlisted for translation prizes, and much more — was an irresistible draw.

Q: You will be the third publisher in Coffee House's 50-year history and the first woman, as well as the first person of color, to run the show. How do you see this affecting Coffee House's work?

A: I'm very fortunate in that women on staff are already changing how CHP acquires books. Executive Editor Erika Stevens and Managing Director Carla Valadez have instituted formal acquisitions meetings, which is a much more collaborative model than the one we had before.

Increased collaboration is likely one change you'll see — I'm a big believer in the power of teams and collective genius. But overall, I'm not so much thinking about making changes right now as "How can I build on, and then broadcast, what Coffee House already does well?"

Q: The slogan on the Coffee House T-shirts is "Experimental Books About Death." That is sort of the reputation — difficult, somber novels and collections of essays and poetry. Is that how you view Coffee House books?

Q: You have a bachelor's degree in Latin. Tell us about that.

A: I started taking Latin in eighth grade mainly because my friends were taking French and Spanish, and heaven forbid I go along with the crowd. But I enjoyed it — its visual nature, the puzzle of declensions and cases and moods. By the time I transferred to the University of Minnesota from Carleton College, I'd taken so many Latin classes I'd nearly completed the major requirements.

At that point my girlfriend-now-wife and I were shouldering my tuition with loans and credit cards, so paying to start a more career-focused major didn't make sense. The choice made itself: I was getting a B.A. in Latin.

Q: What do you hope for the future of Coffee House Press? (And is anyone still doing those lovely hand-set broadsides that Allan Kornblum used to do?)

A: I hope someday all of our stakeholders — staff, board, authors, donors, readers — see Coffee House as a place where everyone can take part in that raucous experimentation and transformation I talked about before.