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| Anitra Budd | |
Anitra Budd has been named executive director and publisher of Coffee House Press, effective October 1.
Budd is a communications consultant, educator, freelance editor, public speaker and writer whose past clients include Graywolf Press, New Directions and the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association. She was also managing and acquiring editor at Coffee House Press from 2009 to 2014, where she championed the work of T. Geronimo Johnson, Julie Iromuanya, Christopher Merkner and Lincoln Michel, among others. She published Anne Waldman's The Iovis Trilogy, Karen Tei Yamashita's Anime Wong and Ron Padgett's Collected Poems. She has also been an editor and consultant for the Press, working on such books as Aisha Sabatini Sloan's Borealis, Hilary Leichter's Temporary and Mark Haber's Reinhardt's Garden. She has been a board member of Coffee House Press and is the author of several educational books for children, most recently, co-written with Duchess Harris, Blacks in Paris: African American Culture in Europe (Abdo Publishing, 2018).
Carol Mack, president of the Press, said, "I speak for the entire board when I say that Anitra embodies all the skills we are seeking as well as the values we hold most dear. She is exceptionally well-qualified, steeped in the history and mission of the press, yet poised to lead the organization into the future with creativity and passion for independent publishing."
Budd said, "Since my first day as an intern more than 20 years ago, Coffee House has changed the way I think about words, about art, and about what books can do in the world. I'm deeply honored to have a chance to repay those life-changing experiences and to continue to support the press in its next stage."