Persea Books is an independent book publisher based out of New York that was established in the 1970s. Since then they have gained a reputation for publishing thoughtful books in a variety of literary genres.

They have an extensive catalog and fairly good distribution. You can often find their books in bookstores, libraries, schools, and universities. They are not interested in popular fiction, children’s books, text books, self-help books, genre work, social science or psychology books.

They are currently only accepting queries of the poetry genre.

As of March 1, 2016, due to high volume, they no longer respond to email queries unless they are interested. If you have not heard from them in eight weeks assume they are not interested.

Submissions of poetry queries should be made only via email, and they are generally interested only in poets with a publication history either in terms of literary journals or previously published books or chapbooks. Submit no more than 12 pages for their consideration. They will only contact poets if they are interested in seeing more of the work.

You can simultaneously submit to Persea but please indicate it in your submission to them.

You should make sure to study their backlist before submitting, to get a better understanding of what specifically they are looking for.

To learn more about Persea or to submit, visit their submission guidelines here.