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, Assistant Director of Writing Programs

Stella Cabot Wilson, Writing Programs Coordinator - Classes; Associate Editor, Magazine

Amanda Fatemi-Badi, Writing Programs Coordinator - Outreach and Special Programs

Gabrielle Bellot, Head Instructor; Staff Contributing Editor, Magazine

Natalie Bautista, Operations Intern

CATAPULT MAGAZINE & DON’T WRITE ALONE 

Nicole Chung, Editorial Director

Matt Ortile, Managing Editor

Tajja Isen, Editor

Stella Cabot Wilson, Associate Editor

Allisen Hae Ji Lichtenstein, Editorial Assistant, Catapult

Leah Johnson, Staff Contributing Editor, Catapult

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