Agate Publishing is a small press located in Evanston Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. They started in 2002 with their Bolden imprint and initially published only African American authors before expanding from there.
They have good distribution within the United States. They are only open to queries, which means that you can only send your query letter and not a partial manuscript. They accept all submissions via email and they ask that you do not phone them to follow up on your manuscript.
Their covers are generally well designed and attention catching and their books authors have become more established over time.
To get a feel for what they publish, visit their website here.
Agate is open to queries in select areas. Their Surrey imprint is open to nonfiction submissions about food, cooking, and nutrition. Their B2 imprint is open to business related nonfiction. Their initial imprint Bolden is open to fiction and nonfiction, including memoirs, by African American writers. Their Midway imprint is open to books on Midwestern topics or by Midwestern authors.
You can learn a little more about submissions here.
Bio: Emily Harstone is the pen name of an author whose work has been published internationally by a number of respected journals. She is a professional submissions adviser. She occasionally teaches a course on manuscript publishing. You can follow her on Facebook here.