Here’s a rare opportunity to lead one of America's most distinctive independent literary presses into its next era

Tupelo Press is looking the person who will become the first Publisher of Tupelo's next generation: an accomplished, imaginative, intellectually serious leader who understands books and writers, knows how organizations work, understands how books reach readers and how literary markets are made, can inspire talented people, can earn the confidence of authors, booksellers, sales representatives, donors, partners, staff, and a Board—and has both the ambition and judgment to inherit a successful literary institution without being constrained by its past.

This is an unusual position, and we expect the successful candidate to be unusual too.

Founded in 1999, Tupelo Press has become an internationally respected independent literary press with a catalog of 400+ books and a community of more than 550+ authors, editors, and translators. Tupelo publishes ambitious poetry, literary prose, translation, and work that enlarges our understanding of what literature can do. Through Tupelo Quarterly, our conferences, workshops, residencies, fellowships, and other programs, we have built something larger than a publishing list: a literary community organized around discovery, artistic seriousness, generosity, and risk.

Our books are distributed and marketed by the University of Chicago Press, giving Tupelo the reach and infrastructure of one of the country's major university-press distribution systems. Making the fullest possible use of that relationship requires active, imaginative publishing leadership, and it will be an important part of the next Publisher's work.

Now we are preparing deliberately for Tupelo's second generation of leadership.

The opportunity

Our founder and Publisher, Jeffrey Levine, intends to transition out of executive leadership through a carefully planned one- to two-year succession period.

We are therefore seeking a senior publishing professional who will initially join Tupelo in a transitional leadership capacity, learn the institution deeply, assume substantial authority from the beginning, and progressively take responsibility for staff leadership, publishing strategy, sales and distribution, finances, fundraising, Board relations, partnerships, and the overall direction of the Press.

At the successful conclusion of that transition, this person is expected to become Publisher & Executive Director of Tupelo Press, with full responsibility and authority for the organization.

This is not a two-year apprenticeship followed by permission to lead. Leadership begins on arrival.

The transition period exists because Tupelo possesses nearly three decades of relationships, institutional knowledge, editorial history, commercial knowledge, and accumulated trust worth transferring carefully. During that period, authority will move deliberately and visibly from founder to successor.

The successful candidate will increasingly lead staff, represent Tupelo to the Board and outside world, participate in shaping the publishing program, develop relationships with writers and funders, assume financial and strategic responsibility, and become Tupelo's principal relationship with key publishing and distribution partners.

We are looking for someone who wants not merely to inherit Tupelo, but eventually to make Tupelo fully theirs to lead.

Books have to find their readers

At Tupelo, publishing does not end when an extraordinary manuscript becomes an extraordinary book.

The Publisher must understand what happens next.

Tupelo's books are distributed and marketed by the University of Chicago Press. Twice each year, Tupelo presents its forthcoming list to Chicago's sales and marketing teams. These meetings matter.

Our staff does excellent work preparing metadata, catalogs, descriptive copy, schedules, and the other materials on which effective publishing depends. But a sales representative who already has those materials does not need a Publisher to read them aloud.

The Publisher's job is to make the books memorable.

A typical season may contain seven or eight very different books. The Publisher must be able to walk into a room of experienced sales professionals and give them a reason to remember each one: the story behind the author, the urgency behind the book, the unexpected connection, the sentence that makes a bookseller lean forward, the audience that may not yet know it wants this book.

That requires a particular combination of editorial understanding, commercial instinct, preparation, storytelling, and presence.

It also begins months before a sales meeting.

Authors need help learning how to tell the story of their work without simply repeating their biographies. They need encouragement—and sometimes pressure—to develop readings, appearances, partnerships, conversations, and other opportunities well before publication. Tupelo's staff helps them do that. The Publisher helps create the expectation that they will.

The next Publisher will therefore be expected to become an active and persuasive steward of Tupelo's relationship with the University of Chicago Press: preparing and delivering seasonal list presentations; working closely with Chicago's sales, marketing, and promotions teams; helping ensure that each book enters the marketplace with a compelling narrative and meaningful author activity behind it; and continually asking what Tupelo and its distribution partner can do better together.

This is not simply distributor management. It’s publishing advocacy.

The commercial side of literary publishing matters here

Tupelo is a nonprofit literary press, but we do not believe artistic seriousness excuses commercial incuriosity.

The Publisher must care about the numbers.

That means studying title-by-title and seasonal sales reports; understanding returns, discounts, distribution expenses, inventory implications, and net revenue; recognizing when a book is outperforming expectations and asking why; recognizing when another is underperforming and asking what can still be done; comparing results across seasons; and using what we learn to improve acquisitions, print decisions, marketing, author preparation, and future publishing strategy.

The successful candidate does not need to be an accountant. 

They do need to be the kind of publisher who wants to know:

What sold? Where did it sell? Why did it sell? What did it cost us to sell it? What didn't happen that we expected to happen? What can we learn before the next list goes out?

Numbers are not an intrusion upon literary judgment; they’re another form of information.

We want a Publisher capable of moving comfortably between the imaginative life of a book and the economic life of a book—and understanding that responsible publishing requires attention to both.

Who might be extraordinary in this role?

There is no single résumé that qualifies someone to lead Tupelo.

You might currently be a publisher, associate publisher, editorial director, executive director, press director, senior editor, sales or marketing leader with broad publishing responsibilities, or another senior leader within independent, university, nonprofit, or trade publishing.

Whatever your present title, you should already have substantial responsibility behind you.

You should know what it means to lead talented people rather than merely supervise tasks. You should have made consequential decisions with imperfect information. You should have managed budgets or significant financial responsibilities. You should understand authors and the sometimes complicated ecology surrounding the making and selling of books.

Ideally, you have sat in sales conferences. You know what happens when a publishing team has only five minutes to make somebody care about a book. You understand what sales representatives need from a publisher, what marketing professionals need from authors, and what authors often need from a press before they can become effective advocates for their own books. You understand that distribution relationships require cultivation rather than mere administration.

You should have experienced conflict, deadlines, scarcity, competing priorities, difficult choices, disappointing sales, surprising successes, and the necessity of saying both yes and no.

And you should still find all of this exciting.

We are especially interested in someone who possesses the following qualities:

Literary intelligence. You read seriously and widely. You possess developed editorial judgment and genuine curiosity about writing unlike your own. You understand that a great literary press requires an aesthetic identity without becoming imprisoned by one.

Executive authority. People trust your judgment. You can listen carefully, invite disagreement, make a decision, explain it, and move an organization forward. You neither need to dominate a room nor disappear inside one.

Publishing fluency. You understand the complete life cycle of a book—from acquisition and editing through production, metadata, positioning, sales, marketing, publicity, distribution, events, inventory, and the long life of the backlist. You know enough about each part to lead people who know more.

Sales instinct and storytelling ability. You can find the memorable story inside a publishing proposition. You know the difference between describing a book and making someone want to champion it. You can stand before a sales team with seven or eight titles and leave them remembering why each matters.

Author activation. You can help writers understand that publication is a collaboration extending beyond the manuscript. You can inspire authors to articulate the distinctive story behind their work, build meaningful reading and event schedules, cultivate their communities, and become active partners in bringing their books into the world.

Distribution and partner management. You know how to build productive relationships with sales, marketing, publicity, and distribution professionals. You prepare thoroughly, communicate candidly, follow up, study results, ask difficult questions when necessary, and make important partners want to do their best work for the Press.

Commercial and financial intelligence. You can read a budget and a sales report. You understand the relationship among units sold, discounts, returns, expenses, inventory, and net revenue. You look for patterns rather than merely receiving reports. You can allocate scarce resources and distinguish an exciting idea from an affordable one.

Fundraising capacity. You can sit across from someone who cares about literature and make a persuasive case for why Tupelo matters. You understand that fundraising is not begging for money; it is creating relationships around shared purpose.

Charisma without theater. You are someone writers, staff members, sales representatives, booksellers, donors, trustees, partners, and readers want to engage with. Your authority comes from intelligence, curiosity, conviction, generosity, preparation, and presence rather than performance.

Entrepreneurial appetite. When you encounter possibility, your instinct is not merely to ask who has done it before. You can build, experiment, improvise, and take intelligent risks.

Managerial maturity. You can hire excellent people, develop them, give them room, hold them accountable, address conflict directly, and make difficult personnel decisions when necessary.

Confidence without defensiveness. You are interested in learning from a founder without becoming the founder's disciple. You can inherit practices without assuming they are sacred. Eventually, you will make decisions the founder would not have made. We expect that.

What you would inherit

You would inherit an established and respected literary press.

Tupelo has an extensive backlist; an accomplished staff; hundreds of authors and translators; established national and international literary relationships; a major literary journal in Tupelo Quarterly; longstanding competitions and educational programs; an expanding residency program; an engaged Board; important donor relationships; and established national sales, marketing, and distribution through the University of Chicago Press.

You would also inherit the complexities characteristic of an ambitious independent nonprofit literary organization: limited resources, competing opportunities, a changing publishing marketplace, the continuing need to increase both earned and contributed revenue, and the challenge of deciding what Tupelo should become next.

We are not searching for someone to preserve Tupelo in amber.

We are searching for someone capable of understanding what must be preserved, what should be strengthened, what can be relinquished, and what has not yet been imagined.

What you would be expected to accomplish

During the transition, you would progressively assume responsibility for:

• leading and developing Tupelo's staff and organizational culture;

• helping shape and ultimately leading publishing strategy and the architecture of the list;

• becoming Tupelo's senior relationship with the University of Chicago Press and other key publishing partners;

• preparing and delivering persuasive semiannual presentations of forthcoming lists to sales and marketing teams;

• working with staff and authors well in advance of publication to develop memorable positioning, author narratives, readings, events, partnerships, and other opportunities for each book;

• analyzing title, seasonal, and backlist sales performance and associated expenses and using that information to improve publishing decisions;

• overseeing budgets, cash planning, resource allocation, and organizational sustainability;

• building relationships with Tupelo's authors and literary community;

• becoming the principal executive partner to the Board of Directors;

• cultivating donors, foundations, and institutional partners and materially expanding Tupelo's contributed revenue;

• representing Tupelo publicly within the literary, bookselling, publishing, and philanthropic worlds;

• strengthening organizational systems so that knowledge and authority reside throughout the institution rather than in any single person;

• evaluating existing programs and opportunities with both imagination and financial discipline;

• and, ultimately, articulating and leading Tupelo's next strategic chapter.

One measure of a successful transition will be straightforward:

Tupelo must become genuinely independent of its founder.

The successful candidate must want that too.

We are looking for the rare publishing executive who can hold literary ambition, organizational leadership, commercial intelligence, financial discipline, and persuasive advocacy in the same mind.

Qualifications

We expect competitive candidates generally to bring at least 8–10 years of progressively responsible experience in book publishing or a closely related literary organization, including meaningful senior-level responsibility.

Direct experience in book publishing will be strongly preferred because of the importance of Tupelo's sales, distribution, marketing, author, and list-management relationships.

Particularly strong candidates will demonstrate substantial experience in several of the following:

• independent, university, nonprofit, or trade book publishing;

• editorial or publishing-list development;

• sales conferences, seasonal list presentations, or comparable book-sales work;

• distributor relationships and publishing partnerships;

• book marketing, publicity, positioning, and audience development;

• interpreting title-level and seasonal sales data, returns, expenses, and net performance;

• author development, author events, and prepublication planning;

• staff leadership and organizational management;

• budgeting and financial decision-making;

• fundraising, donor cultivation, or institutional development;

• nonprofit governance and Board relations;

• strategic planning and organizational growth.

Graduate credentials are welcome but irrelevant without demonstrated ability. We care much more about what you have led, built, sold, changed, solved, learned, and made possible.

The person we hope to meet

We hope to meet someone who reads this description and recognizes both the difficulty and the pleasure of the work. Someone ambitious enough to want genuine authority but secure enough to spend time learning before exercising all of it. Someone who loves literature but also likes organizations.

Someone who can spend the morning talking intensely about a manuscript, the afternoon studying why one title sold 2,500 copies while another sold 400, and the evening persuading a roomful of people that an unknown poet's first book is something they need to remember.

Someone who can talk about a poem, a P&L, a difficult personnel decision, an author's event strategy, and Tupelo's future with a prospective donor—and regard all five conversations as part of the same vocation.

Someone who understands that a sales representative cannot sell what they cannot remember. Someone who understands that the best marketing often begins long before publication. Someone who knows that numbers tell stories too. Someone who believes small institutions can have outsized cultural importance.

Someone who understands that literary publishing is changing and wants to help determine how an independent press can remain artistically fearless, financially durable, commercially intelligent, and indispensable to writers and readers.

Compensation, location, and transition

This is a senior executive position, and compensation will be commensurate with the experience, responsibility, and leadership expected of the successful candidate. Salary range $73,000 - $80,000.

Benefits include employer-funded health coverage; four weeks of paid vacation; paid; paid sick leave; Massachusetts paid family and medical leave where applicable; flexible remote work; employer-paid professional development and required travel; and participation in Tupelo's retirement savings plan with an employer contribution. 

The anticipated transition period is approximately one- to two years, although authority will be transferred progressively rather than deferred until its conclusion. The precise structure will be developed with the successful candidate, the founder, and the Board.

How to apply

In an email with attachments to publisher@tupelopress.org, please send a résumé or CV and a letter that tells us something we cannot learn from your résumé.

We are particularly interested in hearing: Why Tupelo? Why now? And what in your experience makes you believe you are ready not simply to work for a distinguished literary press, but eventually to lead one?

Please also address two questions:

Tell us about a book, list, project, or idea you had to make other people care about. What did you understand about it that allowed you to make it memorable to them?

And:

What is something you believe a successful second-generation leader sometimes needs to change—even when the founder would prefer that it remain unchanged?

We are not looking for predetermined answers. We are interested in how you think.

Finalists should expect substantive conversations with members of Tupelo's staff and Board. They will also be asked to engage with several real-world situations characteristic of the position—including a publishing list that needs to be presented, a set of sales results that needs to be interpreted, and an organizational problem that does not have an obvious answer.

Tupelo Press is committed to building a literary culture in which writers and publishing professionals from historically underrepresented communities can exercise genuine artistic and institutional authority. We welcome candidates whose backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives would broaden and deepen the leadership of the Press.

The next Publisher of Tupelo Press will inherit nearly thirty years of history. What interests us most is what they will do with the next thirty.