Curbstone Books is an innovative and award-winning line of books in fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry that promote human rights, social justice, and intercultural understanding. Founded in 1975 by Judith Doyle and Alexander “Sandy” Taylor, the original Curbstone Press operated for thirty years and garnered numerous national and regional accolades, including the New England Booksellers Association for Publishing Excellence, the National Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences for Achievement in Publishing, the ALTA Award for Dedication to Translation, the PEN New England “Friends to Writers” Award, and the PEN Gregory Kolovakos Award for commitment to Hispanic Literature. In 2008, Curbstone Press joined Northwestern University Press and become the Curbstone Books imprint. Northwestern University Press continues the mission of Curbstone Press by publishing two to four books per year that support social uplift and equity across cultures and continents.
Curbstone’s author roster includes Luis Rodríguez, Martín Espada, Claribel Alegria, Salah Al Hamdani, Ana Castillo, Wayne Karlin, E. Ethelbert Miller and Sergio Ramírez as well as Le Clézio. Among the many honors their titles have earned are the ALTA Outstanding Translation of the Year Award, the American Book Award, the Critics Choice Award, Foreword’s Book of the Year Award, Independent Publishers Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the PEN/Oakland Award, the PEN/Revson Award, Premio Atzlán, and the Pushcart Prize.
Quiet Armor, the third full-length collection from poet Stevie Edwards, examines how capitalism and patriarchy impact romantic relationships and, more broadly, intimacy.
In his debut collection, Portrait of Us Burning, Sebastián H. Páramo explores how his Texan, working-class, Mexican American identity shapes his relationship to his stepbrother and to his family’s burning desire to become American.
Acclaimed fiction writer Ali Hosseini’s debut short-story collection in English explores Iran’s landscape, its culture, and the undercurrent of change affecting its people—both in Iran and the United States.
Quinn Carver Johnson’s debut collection, The Perfect Bastard, follows its titular protagonist, a nonbinary and queer professional wrestler, as they try to balance staying true to their identity and achieving their dream.
As If She Had a Say, the second story collection from Jennifer Fliss, uses an absurdist lens to showcase characters—predominantly women—plumbing their resources in the face of misogyny, abuse, and grief.
Each One Teach One chronicles Ron Casanova’s struggle out of poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction. Through his own dramatic awakening, this Black Puerto Rican activist ultimately finds his salvation in helping other people.
In her third poetry collection, Loner Forensics, Thea Brown dreams up and dissects a city beset by unexplained disappearances, roving silences, and climate collapse.
A vital breath of life arrives in American poetry with Synthetic Jungle, the latest from award-winning poet Michael Chang. At once hilarious and scathing, Synthetic Jungle effortlessly bashes convention while rebuilding the language we use to communicate our fears and joys.
In award-winning legal scholar and novelist Yxta Maya Murray’s new novel, federal agent Reyna Rodriguez reports on a real-life nuclear reactor meltdown and accidents that occurred in 1959, 1964, and 1968 at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
Contributions by Coral Bracho, Akiko Busch, Ashley Dawson, Forrest Gander, Kulvinder Kaur Dhew, Brenda Hillman, Maya Khosla, Lenore Manderson, Will McGrath, José-Luis Moctezuma, Zoe Nyssa, Ailsa Piper, Elizabeth Rush, Cole Swensen, Arthur Sze, Wendy Woodson, Atul Bhalla, Samuel Gregoire and Colin Channer
An anthology of creative nonfiction and poetry, Water’s Edge includes selections from a diverse international group of writers, artists, biologists, geologists, critics, actors, and anthropologists.
Curbstone Books is an innovative and award-winning line of books in fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry that promote human rights, social justice, and intercultural understanding. Founded in 1975 by Judith Doyle and Alexander “Sandy” Taylor, the original Curbstone Press operated for thirty years and garnered numerous national and regional accolades, including the New England Booksellers Association for Publishing Excellence, the National Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences for Achievement in Publishing, the ALTA Award for Dedication to Translation, the PEN New England “Friends to Writers” Award, and the PEN Gregory Kolovakos Award for commitment to Hispanic Literature. In 2008, Curbstone Press joined Northwestern University Press and become the Curbstone Books imprint. Northwestern University Press continues the mission of Curbstone Press by publishing two to four books per year that support social uplift and equity across cultures and continents.
Curbstone’s author roster includes Luis Rodríguez, Martín Espada, Claribel Alegria, Salah Al Hamdani, Ana Castillo, Wayne Karlin, E. Ethelbert Miller and Sergio Ramírez as well as Le Clézio. Among the many honors their titles have earned are the ALTA Outstanding Translation of the Year Award, the American Book Award, the Critics Choice Award, Foreword’s Book of the Year Award, Independent Publishers Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the PEN/Oakland Award, the PEN/Revson Award, Premio Atzlán, and the Pushcart Prize. 
