Staff

Nica Carrillo, Marketing and Sales Manager

nica@coffeehousepress.org

Nica Carrillo joined Coffee House Press in 2015. She holds a degree in anthropology and vocal performance from the University of Minnesota, and has worked in disability services and the Minneapolis restaurant industry. Nica can often be found browsing bookstore shelves or learning new banjo tunes.

Lizzie Davis, Associate Editor

lizzie@coffeehousepress.org

Lizzie's translations from the Spanish include works by Ezio Neyra, Pilar Fraile Amador, Daniel Saldaña París, and others, as well as Elena Medel’s My First Bikini (Jai-Alai, 2015) and the prose for Then Come Back: The Lost Poems of Pablo Neruda (Copper Canyon, 2016). Prior to joining Coffee House Press, she studied literary arts and romance languages at Brown University. 

Annemarie Eayrs, Publishing Assistant

annemarie@coffeehousepress.org

Previously an intern, Annemarie joined Coffee House Press as publishing assistant in 2017. She earned a degree in English at Carleton College, where she discovered an affinity for Asian American literature, writing by adoptees, and all things poetry.

Chris Fischbach, Publisher

fish@coffeehousepress.org

Chris became publisher of Coffee House Press in July 2011, after sixteen years in various editorial roles. He has served as co-chair of the Minneapolis Arts Commission and as assistant director of the Twin Cities Book Festival, and currently sits on the board of directors of the Friends of the Hennepin County Library.

Zeena Yasmine Fuleihan, Marketing and Publicity Assistant

zeena@coffeehousepress.org

Zeena joined Coffee House Press in 2018 as the marketing and publicity assistant after an internship and several months of freelancing. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English (Creative Writing) and minors in music and Arabic in 2018 from Macalester College, where she led various literary publications and wrote a fiction novel for her honors thesis. A first generation Lebanese-American with roots in Palestine, Zeena also serves on the journal selection committee at Mizna and plays three types of flute.

Rob Keefe, Bookkeeper

rob@coffeehousepress.org

Robert Keefe arrived at the offices of Coffee House Press via a trajectory that reads like a Proustian phrase: long, complex, all-encompassing—beginning as a computer scientist who picked up accounting while networking small construction developers in Los Angeles, to trade that hat and to ply his hands at publishing and writing, and cinema and radio in the Pacific Northwest, then a skip across the pond to Europe as a DJ until an inevitable return to NYC as an accountant for record labels. He packed up shop again for the long mid-west horizons to settle just south of the source of the Mississippi. He’s rather fond of biking and meeting new folks.

Allan Kornblum, Founder

Allan studied poetry at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project and the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and published poems in a wide variety of little magazines in the 1970s and early 1980s. During that period he served as the editor, designer, printer, and publisher for Toothpaste Press. From 1984 – 2011 he served as editor and publisher at Coffee House Press. In recognition of his work at these two presses, Kornblum received an American Book Award for Special Achievement as an Editor and Publisher in 1997. Allan passed away on November 23, 2014.

Mandy Medley, Publicity Director

mandy@coffeehousepress.org

Mandy spent seven years in the vibrant Chicago book community organizing author events throughout the city. She created and coordinated full event programming for two different bookstores and she worked closely with the Chicago Humanities Festival to secure their fall and spring literary lineups. She orchestrated countless unconventional literary experiences ranging from bookstore bicycle crawls to Chicago Independent Bookstore Day. Originally from Georgia, she is proud to call the Midwest her home.

Timothy Otte, Development Assistant

timothy@coffeehousepress.org

Timothy Otte joined Coffee House Press as Publishing Assistant in 2016 after five years in the tea industry. He studied English and theater at St. Olaf College and was a selected participant in the 2014-15 Loft Literary Center Mentor Series in Poetry. His writing has appeared internationally in a variety of journals and was recently set to music. When not at work, he is probably walking his dogs or reading, often out loud.

Jay Peterson, CHP in the Stacks Project Coordinator

jay@coffeehousepress.org

Jay D. Peterson was the general manager of Magers and Quinn Booksellers for twelve years and a programming consultant for the Twin Cities Book Festival for four. He is currently the project coordinator of the CHP In The Stacks library residency program and Assistant Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Augsburg College. He is also a volunteer tutor and vice chair of the board of directors of Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute, a Twin Cities tutoring and writing center for students ages 6–18.

Janna Rademacher, Sales Analyst

Janna’s career in independent publishing over 25 years encompasses many aspects of the industry, including management, marketing, and financial analysis. She spent 15 years at Graywolf Press, ten of those as managing and marketing director. Janna has also worked with numerous publishers in the US and UK over the past several years.

Erika Stevens, Poetry Editor at Large

erika@coffeehousepress.org

Erika Stevens is poetry editor-at-large at Coffee House Press and runs Quick Bread Editorial, an independent freelance editing business. Erika previously acquired creative writing, scholarly, and trade books for the University of Georgia Press.

Carla Valadez, Managing Editor and Director of Operations

carla@coffeehousepress.org

Carla Valadez joined Coffee House Press in 2015 with a decade of experience in book publishing. She is a​ ​project manager,​ ​copy editor, and ​CHP’s resident​ ​Chicago Manual of Style enthusiast.​ ​Carla is also on the board of directors of the Minnesota Book Publishers’ Roundtable.