Sarabande Books is a nonprofit literary press founded in March 1994, in Louisville, Kentucky. Their focus is on poetry, short fiction, and essay, genres that in the recent past have received less than generous attention from the mainstream publishing industry. In an effort to mediate that imbalance and to nurture good writing, Sarabande Books works to provide talented authors with a final product and visibility, in short, a real “home” for their work.

First titles appeared June 1996 in beautiful, four-color, simultaneous paperback and cloth-bound editions. They now publish between eight and ten new volumes per year and are convinced that quality book design contributes to a literary work’s value and are committed to keeping our titles in print.

The Sarabande is a gracious, elegant dance with a sensual, wild underside: gracious and elegant thanks to the Germans and French, sensual and wild thanks to its origins as an Aztec mating ritual. Sarabande Books looks for work that is, like the dance, both graceful and provocative.