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In 2012, TCP published its first non-poetry book, "Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams: How the Arts are Transforming a Community," edited by Denise Sandoval and Luis J. Rodriguez, winner of the Independent Publishers Award. This book has a companion documentary of the same name, written and directed by John F. Cantu. Click here to watch the documentary: http://vimeo.com/72559853
Most recently TCP has published the works of Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Washington stat's Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna, the posthumous poetry of K'iche Mayan Humberto Ak'abal of Guatemala, and a collection of poems by Ed Tick honoring the Vietnamese who recently welcomed U.S. Vietnam War veterans. The first anthology of Central American writers in the U.S. was also published, called "The Wandering Song," edited by Leticia Hernandez Linares, Ruben Martinez, and Hector Tobar. When Luis Rodriguez served as Los Angeles Poet Laureate, TCP created a major anthology of Los Angeles area poet, "Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes & Shifts of Los Angeles," edited by Neelanjana Banarjee, Daniel A. Olivas, and Ruben J. Rodriguez. In 2023, TCP published its first novel, "The Place of the White Heron" by renowned Chicano writer Alejandro Morales.
To send manuscripts and for Reprints or Permissions inquiries, please email: tcpress@tiachucha.org
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Tia Chucha Press in close to 40 years has become of this country's leading small literary presses, publishing emerging as well as renowned writers whose works have personal and social justice, healing, and transformation at its heart. We've published some of the best U.S. Black voices as well as powerful voices among Chicanos, Central Americans, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Indigenous Americans, Korean Americans, Japanese Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, LGBTQ persons, and many more.
We've now partnered with Red Hen Press for distribution through Publishers Group West. And every two years we will present a book selected by Letras Latinas, administered by the respected professor and writer Francisco Aragon of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Many TCP poets have gone on to greater achievement: Patricia Smith became national and international poetry slam champion, a Kingsley Tufts Book Award winner, and later nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Terrance Hayes won the National Book Award for a later collection of poetry; and Elizabeth Alexander became President Barack Obama's inaugural poet in 2009. Other Tcp poets have won recognition such as a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award, a Carl Sandburg Book Award, a Paterson Poetry Prize, a Lannan Fellowship in Poetry, Jackson Memorial Prize, and as a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award.
TCP began in 1989 with the publication of Luis J. Rodriguez's first book, the 19-poem collection "Poems Across the Pavement," designed by Jane Brunette of Menominee/German/French descent, who has remained as TCP designer ever since. With Jane's artistic skills for covers and inside pages, and Luuis as founding editor, the press began publishing the best collections of the thriving Chicago poetry scene - home of the Poetry Slam. In 1191, TCP became the publishing wing of the nonprofit Guild Complex Literary Arts Center in Chicago, run by Michael Warr and co-founded in 1989 by a collective of artists, writers and activists, including Luis J. Rodriguez. Northwestern University Press became our distributor to the trade around that time until 2025. In 2005 TCP became the publishing wing of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore, founded in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley by Luis Rodriguez and his wife Trini in 2001.
about Tia Chuchas Press
past author events
Tia Chucha Press is the publishing wing of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore. We only publish poetry at this time. We do full poetry manuscripts of more than 60 pages. We publish all types of poetic expression and are not bound by poetic style, form, school, or era. We only publish books that “knock us off our feet.” Please submit your best work — no fillers please: all poems must work. We are cross cultural — our poets have been Chicano, African American, Jamaican American, Native American, Irish American, Italian American, Korean American, Japanese American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and more. All ages, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and spiritual persuasions are welcome. 1.) Send a full manuscript – hard copy and email are accepted. Please make sure manuscript is in Roman type (no design elements please), flush left, one poem per page (although poems can go on for more than one page), 12 point font, more or less between 60 and 120 pages. 2.) Mail manuscript submissions to: Luis J. Rodriguez Editor, Tia Chucha Press PO Box 328 San Fernando, CA 91341 Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you’d like the manuscript returned. If not, your manuscript will be destroyed. OR You can e-mail us your complete manuscript, in .PDF format only to: tcpress@tiachucha.org 3.) We accept manuscripts year-round — there are no deadlines. 4.) No agents are necessary. We pull our books from manuscripts submitted, regardless of how they get to us. 5.) Please give the editors up to six months to respond. 6.) We only publish two books a year, and have had up to 200 manuscripts a year sent to us. It’s competitive, but worth it. 7.) Please inform us if your manuscript is being submitted to other publishers at the same time. 8.) Our only criteria is literary merit. It also helps if you’ve had a strong list of previous publications in magazines, newspapers, books, and the Internet.
Submission Guidelines
Our tcp team
Jane Brunette
Designer
Luivette Resto
Associate Editor
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William Archila
Poetry Reader
Ruben J. Rodriguez
Copy Editor
where art & minds meet for a change
