The Raven Chronicles Press

is a nonprofit independent publishing press and literary organization, established in Seattle in 1991.

We strive to publish and showcase work that embodies the cultural diversity of writers and artists; work that expresses family and forebears; work that connects with the soil, water, and air of place and home. To this end, Raven Chronicles Press will publish the work of traditional storytellers, along with experimental work in emerging forms of art and literature.

Raven endeavors to reach as many readers and writers as possible in Washington State and other regions, including especially those in underserved audiences and communities. We do this by producing finely designed, relevant books, and by donating books and services: hosting free readings and community events. Through these activities we seek to produce and disseminate literature that can make a difference in our lives and in the lives of future generations. To this end, Raven Chronicles Press will publish the work of traditional storytellers, along with experimental work in emerging forms of art and literature.

Our programs and publications have been supported by The Seattle Foundation, Cultural Development Authority/King County Arts Commission (Sustained Grant Support), Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs/Seattle Arts Commission, Tacoma Arts Commission, Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA), NEA, Allied Arts Foundation, Seattle Center Foundation, Bainbridge Arts & Humanities Fund, Breneman-Jaech Foundation, North Seattle Community College, Richard Hugo House, the Jack Straw Foundation, and our individual supporters.

Please help support Raven’s efforts to present the diverse voices and viewpoints that make our culture richer.

History

The Raven Chronicles, a Seattle-based literary magazine and organization, began in 1991, when Kathleen Alcalá and Philip H. Red Eagle guest-edited several King County Arts Commission Newsletters. They recognized the lack of diverse, multicultural writing being published in Seattle and the Northwest region in general. Phil knew Phoebe Bosché through Red Sky Poetry Theatre, where she edited SkyViews and other Red Sky Press Publications, and asked her to join in this new endeavor. She has served as Managing Editor ever since. The result of this collaboration has been a magazine that strives to reflect several sides of each topic, like a many-faceted bauble held up to the light by Raven

We chose the name Raven because—as we learned from Upper Skagit storyteller Vi Hilbert (now deceased)—in northern Northwest Coast mythology, Raven is a powerful figure who transforms the world, by accident or on purpose. He is also a trickster, a shape-shifter who is mischievous, often selfish, but brings light to the world. We added Chronicles because the magazine is a record of time and events passing and changing, chronos, and us with it.

Like many small press publications, we published Raven from our office jobs and dining room tables for the first few years. In 1997, we joined Richard Hugo House in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and spent ten wonderful years as part of a vibrant literary community. Those first couple of years RHH co-founder Frances McCue, her husband Gary Greaves, and their young daughter Madeline (Maddy) lived in the building—a former mortuary, complete with a child’s coffin in the basement. 

Raven expanded as a community-based magazine in those ten years, and we hosted a long-running reading series there, “City Chronicles, Raven Chronicles Live!” In 2007, we moved to the Jack Straw Cultural Center in the University District when RHH remodeled. For ten years we shared an open office space with Floating Bridge Press, 2007-2017. The hard-working and tireless folks at Jack Straw, Joan Rabinowitz, Levi Fuller, et al, were incredibly supportive. Raven Chronicles Press is now located in Shoreline and in the Greenwood neighborhood in Seattle.

We published forty-eight issues of Raven, from Vol. 1, No. 1, Summer/Fall 1991 to Vol. 26, Last Call, Summer 2018. Up to and including Vol. 22, Celebration, Summer 2016, we published in regular magazine (saddle-stitched) format, 8-1/2 x 11 inches. Starting with Vol. 23, Jack Straw Writers Program, 1997-2016, we switched to a book (perfect-bound) format. From 1998-2000, we published the South Sound Edition of Raven annually from Tacoma, Washington, edited by Philip H. Red Eagle and Tacoma-based editors. 

In 2016, Raven Chronicles Press was born with Words From the Café, An Anthology, edited by Anna Bálint. This is a collection of work by writers from the Safe Place Writing Circle, founded by Bálint, at Seattle’s Recovery Café. Our first anthology followed in 2018, Stealing Light: A Raven Chronicles Anthology, edited by Kathleen Alcalá, Phoebe Bosché, Paul Hunter and Stephanie Lawyer, featuring selected work from our first six years, 1991-1996. In March 2020, we published Take a Stand, Art Against Hate, A Raven Chronicles Anthology—edited by Anna Bálint, Phoebe Bosché and Thomas Hubbard— poems, stories and images from 117 writers, 53 artists, with 69 illustrations, divided into five fluid and intersecting sections: Legacies, We Are Here, Why?, Evidence, and Resistance.

Since 1991, we have had numerous (too numerous to name here) editors, interns, and volunteer staff. Past editors include Jeannine Hall Gailey, Paul Hunter, Elizabeth Myhr, Anna Bálint, Stephanie Lawyer, Donna Miscolta, Matt Briggs, Priscilla Long, Amy Pence, Gary Copeland Lilley, Allison Green, Dana Dickerson, Anna Odessa Linzer, Stephan Magcosta, Tiffany Midge, John Olson, Lourdes Orive, Mayumi Tsutakawa, and from Tacoma, South Sound region Allen Braden, Karen Havnaer, Ian Lamberton, Jean Musser, et al.

From 1991 to 2020 we published the work of approximately 549 artists and 2,188 writers in print, and many others on our website. Most issues of our magazine combined art and poetry on the cover. The premiere issue, Vol 1, Summer/Fall 1991, featured art by Alfredo Arreguín and a poem by his good friend Tess Gallagher. Our last issue, Last Call, Volume 26, had a photograph of Crows by Alfredo on the front cover. Contributors over the years include Lawrence Revard, Stacey Levine, Duane Niatum, Molly Norris, Gail E. Trembly, Mary Randlett, Elizabeth Woody, Rick Bartow, Patti Warashina, Barbara E. Thomas, Deborah Miranda, Carletta Carrington Wilson, Koon Woon, Belle Randall, Jody Aliesan, Leslie Silko, Vi Hilbert, James Bertolino, Sharon Hashimoto, Lyn Lifshin, Waverly Fitzgerald, Daniel A. Olivas, J.W. Marshall, Sherman Alexie, José Orantes, Juan Alonso, Anita Endrezze, Rafael Jesús González, Kevin Miller, Shankar Narayan—and so many others it has been our honor to publish.