Coffee House Press is moving quickly to recover from losing approximately 30% of its staff this past month by making three key hires in editorial, operations, and publicity. Interim director Linda Ewing informed authors about the new hires in a letter sent June 6, which was followed by a June 8 video conference call among CHP board, staff, and authors.
The press’s most essential new hire is Jeremy Davies as executive editor. Davies, who will assume his new responsibilities on June 20, will be working remotely from his home outside of New York City. Describing Davies as “a highly respected and well-known editor and author,” Ewing cited his previous experience working for indie presses, most recently as executive editor at McNally Editions since January 2021; the boutique publisher is affiliated with McNally Jackson Bookstore. He also has served as a senor editor at U.K. publisher And Other Stories for the past three years. Previously, Davies worked as an editor at Farrar, Strauss & Giroux for four years. He began his publishing career in 2005 as an editorial assistant at Dalkey Archive Press, where he worked his way up to senior editor before leaving there in 2015. Davies is the author of three novels and a collection of short fiction, all published by indie presses.
“Coffee House Press is so important to the American literary ecosystem,” Davies said Monday in a telephone interview, “It’s also been one of my favorite presses for a long time. This was a wonderful opportunity to work for a press I already admired.”
As for Coffee House’s other most recent hires, the press continues to draw on booksellers from Brazos Bookstore in Houston. Ulrika Moats, the store’s general manager, events director, and sideline buyer, became CHP’s operations director May 30; and Laura Graveline, Brazos marketing director, and children’s and French specialist, was named CHP’s publicity director as of June 5. Earlier this spring, CHP lured away from Brazos its operations manager Mark Haber, who in March moved to Minneapolis and became CHP’s marketing manager. Haber is married to Moats. In her letter, Ewing thanked Haber for being “instrumental in attracting and recruiting the newest CHP staffers.”
Ewing stated in the letter that CHP is still searching for an associate editor. Asked whether or not that associate editor would have expertise in poetry, Ewing said that the board and staff are “still talking about that piece of our work.”
Ewing also disclosed that the board placed the search for a permanent director of the press on hiatus earlier this year, and that the authors were informed that the board feels that other matters relating to the press' sustainability take precedence over hiring a new permanent director. “I know our authors would like the board to initiate a search,” Ewing said, “"Timing is everything. The consensus on the board is that they need to pay attention to the operations of the organization before initiating a search for a publisher."
