Autumn House Press

Autumn House Press is an independent, non-profit literary publishing company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette poetry feature, Bob Hoover writes that "Simms says he started the operation after he noticed that the 'large traditional commercial presses, had either been bought up or merged and were emphasizing literary titles less. I saw a need for a high-quality poetry press to fill that vacuum.' " Launched in 1998, the press publishes books of poetry and fiction by such authors as Ruth L. Schwartz, Gerald Stern, Chana Bloch, Ed Ochester, Sue Ellen Thompson, Robert Strong, Anne Marie Macari, Andrea Hollander Budy, and Raza Ali Hasan, as well as a number of comprehensive anthologies including When She Named Fire: an Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women.

Autumn House also publishes Coal Hill Review, an online poetry and nonfiction magazine; sponsors three national literary contests; and collaborates with Pittsburgh community venues to present The Autumn House Master Authors Reading Series. The press has been honored by annual grants from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, and others. In describing the press's success, Abby Mendelson wrote "Kudos for their efforts abound, as do national awards, prestigious prizes from North Carolina and Philadelphia, an NEA grant for one writer. Autumn House work has been anthologized, blessed by radio ace Garrison Keillor, garnered national press." Autumn House Press titles have been reviewed in such venues as Publishers Weekly, Booklist, The Georgia Review, and The Hollins Critic, and Autumn House authors featured on Prosody (WYEP radio).

Michael Simms is founder of the press and serves as President and Editor-in-Chief. He is a poet who has taught at the University of Iowa, Southern Methodist University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Duquesne University; he presently teaches in the Chatham University Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing. Richard (Rick) St. John, a poet, is Executive Director of the press. He received degrees in English from Princeton University and the University of Virginia. In 2002, he completed a mid-career Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University.