Coffee House began with
Toothpaste, a
mimeograph magazine founded by
Allan Kornblum in Iowa in 1970. After taking a University of Iowa typography course with the acclaimed
Harry Duncan, Kornblum was inspired to turn
Toothpaste into Toothpaste Press, a small publishing company dedicated to producing poetry pamphlets and
letterpress books. After 10 years of publishing letterpress books, Kornblum closed the press in December 1983; the following year, he moved to
Minneapolis, reopened the press as a nonprofit organization, and began printing trade books. The press soon began to receive national acclaim. In the early 1990s, books like
Donald Duk by
Frank Chin and
Through the Arc of the Rainforest by
Karen Tei Yamashita (a 1991
American Book Award winner) drew national attention and also helped to cement the press's continuing reputation for publishing exceptional works by writers of color. As Kornblum once described it, "Coffee House Press has actively published writers of color as writers, as representatives of the best in contemporary literature, first and foremost—then, only secondly, as representatives of minority communities. That might be one of our most important contributions [to American literature]." In July 2011, after a two-year leadership transition process, Kornblum stepped down to become the press’s senior editor. Chris Fischbach, who began at the press as an intern in 1994, succeeded him as publisher. In 2015, Coffee House partnered with
Emily Gould and Ruth Curry on the Emily Books imprint. Anitra Budd succeeded Fischbach as publisher and executive director in August 2021. Coffee House has published more than 300 books, with over 250 still in print, and releases 15–20 new titles each year. The press is currently located in the historic
Grain Belt Bottling House in
Northeast Minneapolis. ==Books and authors==