Nonprofit Publishing Since 1982
2026 Board of Directors
Working Board
Ladi Youssefi - Chair
Lupe Gallegos-Diaz - Vice Chair
Yael Valencia Aldana
Dr. Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz
Emily Bruce
Isabel Millán
Advisory Board
Jewelle Gomez
Author and Playwright
Former Director of NYC Arts Commission
LeAnne Howe
Eidson Distinguished Professor in American Literature English
Director of the Institute of Native American Studies
Madeleine Lim
Award-winning filmmaker
Executive/Artistic Director for Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP)
ladi youssefi
Ladi Youssefi is Board Chair at Aunt Lute Books, where she supports the organization’s mission to publish literature by underrepresented voices. She began her work with Aunt Lute as an intern and was later hired, taking on roles in editorial, marketing, distribution, and permissions. She has stayed connected to the press for over 20 years. Her broader experience includes managing an independent bookstore and working in various bookselling environments. She founded and directed the non-profit Ali Youssefi Project Artist-in-Residence program, supporting visual artists through community engagement and financial backing. Ladi holds a BA in Creative Writing and Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently pursuing a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at San José State University. Her work demonstrates a longstanding dedication to books, publishing, and the arts.
Lupe Gallegos-Diaz is the Director of the Chicanx Latinx Student Development and Co-Director of the Latinx and the Environment campus initiative at the University of California, Berkeley. She also teaches as a Lecturer in the Chicano Studies Program/Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her teaching areas include - Chicanx Latinx culture and identities; student and leadership development; community engagement and culturally relevant fundraising. Throughout her academic pursuits, she has been committed to advising and advocating for issues that address educational and economic social justice needs for Chicanx Latinx students and communities of color. Read more about her here.
Lupe gallegos-diaz
Yael Valencia Aldana is a Black-Latine poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Black Mestiza and the chapbook Alien(s). She is a Pushcart Prize winner, and her work has appeared in numerous national and international publications. She is the Editor in Chief at Purple Ink Press. She teaches creative writing in Southern California, where she lives between the ocean and the mountains. You can find her online at YaelAldana.com and @yaelwrites.
Yael valencia aldana
dr. rita e. urquijo-ruiz
Dr. Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz is a Mexicana/Chicana fronteriza queer educator, award-winning translator, writer, activist, and performer from Sonora, Mexico and southern California. She is a professor at Trinity University who teaches Mexican, Chicana/o/e/x, and Latina/o/e/x literatures, cultures, gender, sexuality, theater, and performance studies. She authored Wild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Culture and has edited five books related to her fields of study. Her story “First Visit,” about being undocumented as an undergraduate student, is in the anthology: Somewhere We are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, co-edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca. Along with her dear friend and colega Dr. L Heidenreich, she co-authored the book Writing that Matters: A Handbook for Chicanx/Latinx Studies.
emily bruce
Emily Bruce, J.D., M.A. is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Emily was the inaugural Director of Equity and Inclusion at UC Berkeley’s School of Law, where she also holds a Continuing Lecturer position. Emily’s career began in the nonprofit publishing world, at the New Press. Emily is an experienced educator and facilitator who frequently presents on elimination of bias, wellbeing, and mindfulness. She is a former board member of an independent school in the Bay Area. Emily holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton, a law degree from Stanford, and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the Wright Institute.
Isabel Millán
Isabel Millán is a queer Chicana author, illustrator, and educator. She holds a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oregon. Millán is also the author of Coloring into Existence: Queer of Color Worldmaking in Children’s Literature (2023, NYUP) and author/illustrator of the queer bilingual children’s picture book, Chabelita’s Heart/El corazón de Chabelita (2022, Reflection Press). An award-winning
author, Millán has received numerous accolades including gold medals in "Best LGBTQ+ Themed Book" from the International Latino Book Awards (ILBA), the 2025 ChLA Book Award, and the 2025 NACCS Book Award. https://www.isabelmillan.com/
Jewelle Gomez
Jewelle Gomez is an American author, poet, critic and playwright.
She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.
LeAnne Howe is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and writes fiction, poetry, screenplays, creative nonfiction, plays, and scholarship that primarily deal with American Indian experiences. In 2012, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, and received the 2012 USA Ford Fellowship in the Literature category. Her first novel, Shell Shaker (Aunt Lute Books, 2001), received an American Book Award in 2002 from the Before Columbus Foundation. Howe’s second novel, Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story (Aunt Lute Books, 2007), was the Hampton University’s Read-In-Selection for 2009-2010. To read more about Howe’s many accomplishments and accolades in university classrooms, theater stages, and—of course—on the written page, visit LeAnne Howe’s website.
LeAnne Howe
Madeleine Lim
Madeleine Lim is an award-winning filmmaker with over 25 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer and editor. She is the Executive/Artistic Director for Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) which she founded in 2000 with the belief that a community of artist-activist filmmakers could change the face of filmmaking and the social justice movement. For 17 years, she was an Adjunct Professor in the Film/Media Studies Department at the University of San Francisco. Read her full bio at https://qwocmap.org/team/.
