.png)
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 Alan Chazaro, Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Gail Wronsky (with renowned Chicano artist Gronk), K'iche Mayan Humberto Ak'abal of Guatemala, and a poetry collection 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. appeared in 2017 called "The Wandering Song," edited by Leticia Hernandez Linares, Ruben Martinez, and Hector Tobar. TCP in 2016 created the largest anthology of L.A. area poets, "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, we published our 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
.jpg)
Tia Chucha Press in close to 40 years has become one of this country's leading small literary presses, publishing emerging as well as renowned writers whose works have 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.
Our founding editor is Luis J. Rodriguez, co-founder with his wife Trini of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore. Our book designer is Jane Brunette of Menominee/French/German descent. Associate editors are Bronx-raised Puerto Rican Luivette Resto and Salvadoran-born William Archila, both acclaimed U.S. poets. Our copy editor is Ruben J. Rodriguez, a UCLA graduate, tutor, and YouTube video caster.
Since 2025 we’ve partnered with Red Hen Press for distribution through Publishers Group West. Every two years we will present a book selected by Letras Latinas, administered by the respected professor and writer Francisco Aragon of the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies.
Many poets published by TCP have gone on to greater achievement: Patricia Smith won the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry, Kingsley Tufts Book Award, Ruthy Lilly Poetry Prize, and is a four-time National Poetry Slam Champion. Terrance Hayes won a National Book Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Afaa Michael Weaver won a Kingsley Tufts Book Award. Elizabeth Alexander became President Barack Obama's inaugural poet in 2009. Other TCP poets have won recognition such as PEN Josephine Miles Literary Awards, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers Award, a Carl Sandburg Book Award, a Paterson Poetry Prizes, a Lannan Fellowship in Poetry, Jackson Poetry Prizes, and finalists for the Pulitzer and National Book Critics Circle Award.
In addition, TCP poets have become poet laureates: Claudia Castro Luna of Seattle and Washington state, Mayda Del Valle of Chicago, Patricia Spears Jones of New York, Luis J. Rodriguez of Los Angeles, Melinda Palacio of Santa Barbara, and Peter J. Harris of Altadena.
TCP began in 1989 with the publication of Luis J. Rodriguez's first book, "Poems Across the Pavement." The press then published the best of the thriving Chicago poetry scene, home of the Poetry Slam. From there we expanded to poets from around the country and U.S. territories. In 1991, 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 served as our distributor around that time. In 2005 TCP became the publishing wing of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore.
about Tia Chuchas Press
past author events
Tia Chucha Press is a multi-genre publishing house, with emphasis on poetry. We publish all kinds of literary expression and are not bound by literary styles, schools, or eras. We only publish books that “knock us off our feet.” Please submit your best work — no fillers please: all poems or other writing must work. Our writers reside in the U.S. and its territories with backgrounds from Mexico, Black America, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ireland, Italy, England, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Cuba, Puerto Rican, Virgin Islands, and more. Any accomplished or aspiring writer—all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and spiritual persuasion—are welcome. 1.) Send a full manuscript—hard copy and email are accepted. Please make sure the manuscript is in Roman type and in Word Doc. No design elements please. For poetry manuscripts, poems should be flush left, one poem per page (although poems can go on for more than one page), 12-point font, 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 email us your complete manuscript in PDF format 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 allow the editors more than six months to respond. 6.) We only publish two to three books a year and have had up to 100 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 are 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
_edited.jpg)
William Archila
Poetry Reader
Ruben J. Rodriguez
Copy Editor
where art & minds meet for a change
