aunt lute is a multicultural women’s press. Their priority is to publish work by women, both transgender and cisgender, particularly women of color. They publish both fiction and nonfiction. They also publish poetry but only as part of an anthology or a larger prose work. They were founded in 1982.
They do not accept the following: We do NOT accept the following submissions:
- Uncompleted manuscripts or book proposals
- Single author poetry manuscripts
- Young Adult manuscripts
- Children’s Books
- Self Help manuscripts
- Manuscripts with AI generated text
- Manuscripts of translations without established permission contracts with the original author (excluding public domain titles)
Their mission statement is as follows:
“Aunt Lute Books is an intersectional, feminist press dedicated to publishing literature by those who have been traditionally underrepresented in or excluded by the literary canon. Core to Aunt Lute’s mission is the belief that the written word is critical to understanding and relating to each other as humans. Through the sharing of stories, we strengthen ties across cultures and experiences, and at the same time honor the hurt, loss, and harm incurred through structural power imbalances, prejudiced and gendered systems, and ancestral trauma. We uplift these voices in order to build a more just future.”
They are distributed by Consortium. I’ve seen some of the work they’ve published in local bookshops. They have published a number of well-known authors including Audre Lorde and Alice Walker.
aunt lute is based out of San Francisco. Their website is well organized and easy to navigate. Their book cover design varies widely. To get a feel for what they have previously published, you can browse their catalog here.
They do not accept submissions via email. All submissions must be mailed to them or submitted via a form on their site. They ask that you include a cover letter, synopsis, a table of contents and two sample chapters of your work (or approximately 50 pages). Don’t staple pages together and make sure your name and the page number are on top.
To learn more or visit their submission guidelines, go here.
