Who We Are
Catapult publishes award-winning fiction and nonfiction of the highest literary caliber, offers writing classes taught by acclaimed emerging and established writers, produces an award-winning daily online magazine of narrative nonfiction and fiction, and hosts an open online platform where writers can showcase their own writing, find resources, and get inspired.
We nurture emerging writers by helping them better their craft, and support more established writers by evenly sharing revenues from the classes they teach, and by paying to publish their work online. Catapult strives to be a successful business model for the future of independent publishing.
To read more about our mission and vision, read a letter from our co-founder and CEO, Elizabeth Koch.
Our books: Since our launch in Fall 2015, Catapult’s books and our authors have won numerous major literary awards, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award in Literature, the Maine Literary Award, the Costa Novel Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Our books have been finalists for many other prizes, including the Man Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Goldsmith Prize, the Miles Franklin Award, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the PEN America Open Book Award, the California Book Award for First Fiction, the Stella Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction. Our books are frequently named to the American Booksellers Association Indie Next List, and have been featured as Amazon’s Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year, Belletrist Book Club picks, and as The New York Times Editors' Choice selections. Our titles have been praised in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and many other outlets. To learn more, click here.
The magazine: Catapult is an independent daily digital magazine featuring original essays, fiction, poetry, and art from thousands of contributors and columnists. Catapult won a 2020 National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary. Essays and stories published in the magazine have also been awarded the Pushcart Prize, shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing, nominated for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award, and featured in The Best American Essays and other Best American anthologies, and illustrator Sirin Thada was shortlisted for a Communication Arts Illustration Award in 2021. Catapult Books published the first print anthology of writing drawn from the archives of Catapult magazine, A Map Is Only One Story, in 2020, with future anthologies planned.
Writing classes: Catapult’s creative writing workshops and master classes are led by award-winning and bestselling authors, and industry professionals at the top of their fields. Our students have been admitted into high-ranking MFA programs, gained representation by literary agents, and have gone on to be published in venues including The New York Times, Elle, and Guernica.
Community is an online platform dedicated to our Catapult community: our students, authors, web contributors, and instructors. Check out interviews, job listings, profiles, writing advice, reading roundups, student accomplishments, and more. If you’re a Catapult alum or have been previously published in our magazine, you can also post your own work or work-in-progress at any time. To learn more, please visit this page.
You can read about Catapult in Poets & Writers, The Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up-to-date on Catapult goings-on. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram.
CONTACT US
For general queries: [email protected]
For submissions: visit our Submittable page
For media queries related to our books: contact Megan Fishmann
For permissions queries related to our books: visit our About Us page
THE CATAPULT TEAM
Elizabeth Koch, Co-founder and CEO
Andy Hunter, Co-founder and Publisher
Miriam Vance, Publishing and Administrative Assistant
CATAPULT BOOKS
Jonathan Lee, Editor in Chief, Books
Pat Strachan, Vice President and Executive Editor
Mensah Demary, Editor in Chief, Soft Skull Press
Leigh Newman, Senior Editor
Megha Majumdar, Senior Editor, Books; Editor at Large, Magazine
Kendall Storey, Editor
Sarah Lyn Rogers, Associate Editor, Soft Skull Press; Staff Contributing Editor, Magazine
Alicia Kroell, Assistant Editor, Books
Yuka Igarashi, Editor at Large, Soft Skull Press; Series Editor, PEN America Best Debut Short Stories
Julie Buntin, Editor at Large, Catapult; Director Emeritus, Writing Programs
CATAPULT CLASSES
Atom Atkinson, Director of Writing Programs
Colin Drohan, Writing Programs Manager
Stella Cabot Wilson, Writing Programs Coordinator; Associate Editor, Magazine
Amanda Fatemi-Badi, Writing Programs Assistant
Gabrielle Bellot, Head Instructor; Staff Contributing Editor, Magazine
Natalie Bautista, Operations Intern
Nicole Chung, Editor in Chief, Magazine
Matt Ortile, Managing Editor, Magazine
Allisen Hae Ji Lichtenstein, Editorial Assistant
Leah Johnson, Staff Contributing Editor, Magazine
Tommy Pico, Poetry Editor
Eliza Harris, Digital Publishing Fellow
PUBLICITY AND MARKETING
Megan Fishmann, Vice President / Associate Publisher and Senior Director of Publicity, Counterpoint Press / Soft Skull Press / Catapult
Rachel Fershleiser, Associate Publisher and Executive Director of Marketing
Alyson Forbes, Associate Publisher and Head of Sales
Sarah Grimm, Publicity Manager, Counterpoint Press / Soft Skull Press / Catapult
Lena Moses-Schmitt, Publicity Manager, Counterpoint Press / Soft Skull Press / Catapult
Alisha Gorder, Publicist, Counterpoint Press / Soft Skull Press / Catapult
Selihah White, Publicist, Counterpoint Press / Soft Skull Press / Catapult
Dustin Kurtz, Social Media Editor
Katie Boland, Events and Programming Manager
Arriel Vinson, Marketing Coordinator; Staff Contributing Editor, Magazine
Laura Gonzalez, Marketing Assistant
Samm Saxby, Events and Marketing Assistant
Katie Mantele, Sales Assistant
DESIGN
Nicole Caputo, Creative Director
Lexi Earle, Designer
Dana Li, Designer
PRODUCTION
Wah-Ming Chang, Managing Editor, Books
Jordan Koluch, Copy Chief, Books
Olenka Burgess, Production Manager
Tracy Danes, Production Assistant
