About Us

Who We Are

The Puddin’head Press was founded in 1985 to publish a book of poetry since then we have evolved into a larger literary entity. We run poetry events in the Chicago area. In past years we have published 1-3 books per year. We also try to archive and organize some historical information about the Chicago poetry scene.

Events

We run numerous events throughout the year. We are currently running a show the second and forth Tuesdays of each month at The Gallery Cabaret in Chicago. (2020 N. Oakley) The Puddin’head Press also sponsors a popular “Bloomsday” reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses in Chicago usually at The Galway Arms on June 16th.

We try to add value to the Chicago Literary scene by listing other literary events in the area. Although we do not have a calendar per se, you can find many events by clicking on the “Event” tab at the top of this page.

Our Books

We publish primarily books of poetry although we have published fiction, drama, and memoirs. Books sell at poetry events, book fairs, bookstores, Amazon, and here directly via Paypal on our website.

You can find our books by clicking the general catalog link.

Other Books

We work with numerous other publishers and authors to sell their books also. Publishers of Chicago area poetry are encouraged to contact us to see if we can work together. We do some distribution to bookstores. Howver, we do not handle Amazon sales for other publishers. The goal is to make this website a one stop shop for anyone who wants to buy a poetry book by a Chicago poet.

Submission Guidelines

We are currently busy doing some reorganization and other business related activities and are not accepting submissions at this time. Publishing is a business and we are very behind on bookkeeping and inventory at the moment and will not accept submissions until we catch up.

We have published up to three books in one year. However because we do intensive marketing of titles we will only be publishing one or two books a year. It is difficult to support too many new titles at one time.

When we accept submissions again, please note it is very competitive and because we work very closely with our authors we are very particular about our authors. We also like authors who not only have interesting work but interesting lives. But we do not publish political, sexual, or esoteric work. Marketability is just as important as literary merit. Books of haiku, about classical art or music, or with an overt political or social agenda will not be published. We want books that a general audience will appreciate.

Other Resources

You can also visit us on Facebook on numerous pages including on facebook at The Puddin’head Press, Chicago Poetry Book Review, History of Chicago Poetry and Puddin’head Books – Used Books