Our Mission
The way to get where you need to go isn't always straight ahead.
Switchback Books is a nonprofit feminist press publishing poetry by women. Our definition of "women" is broad and includes transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, and female-identified individuals. Founded in 2006 by a group of students at Columbia College Chicago, Switchback Books publishes two books a year, one of which is the winner of the Gatewood Prize for a first book of poetry by a woman. Switchback Books welcomes women writers who aren't afraid to look for answers in all directions.
Mission Statement
Women poets, for the first time in history, have a deep and wide female literary tradition from which to draw. Switchback Books seeks to advance some of the best writing emerging from our unique cultural moment. As the fortunate inheritors of the social, psychological, and linguistic spaces carved out by the artists and activists who have come before us, we seek to honor those visions and achievements while at the same time celebrating the multiplicity of voices that continue to emerge in women's poetry.