About Us

FLF Press: A Brief History

FLF Press was founded in the late 1980s by Pat Powers, who at that time, relinquished a successful career in business to pursue his passion for literature, authorship and publishing.

• To broaden the audience for serious intellectual work, especially by reaching out to audiences intellectually red-lined by commercial publishers
• To bring out the work of traditionally underrepresented voices
• To address the problems of a society in transition, highlighting attempts at reform and innovation in a wide range of fields

Editorial and Publishing Focus

Editorially, FLF focuses on number of key program areas, including: contemporary social issues, with an emphasis on race relations, gay and lesbian lifestlyes/commentary, women's issues, immigration, human rights, labor and popular economics, and the media; cultural criticism; art and art education; and international literature.

In all of these areas, FLF has worked with cultural organizations, including historical societies, museums, archives, media watch groups, and educational associations to bring the most exciting work produced at a local level to a broad, national audience.

FLF is very much an activist press; with the help of a dynamic editorial advisory staff, it seeks to identify areas in which new books and materials are most needed, and to commission books to fill those needs. Our commission program is in the form of subsidies, grants, "co-op" publishing, and consulting services for new authors

FLF is also deeply involved with innovative formats and designs of our books including: book-and-tape sets, E-Books, art portfolios, postcard books, posterbooks, and Print on Demand (POD) technologies.

How does FLF work?

While FLF is guided by its public-interest mission and not by the bottom line, it functions in many ways like a commercial trade publisher: it identifies new authors, generally pays standard advances and royalties, and distributes its books nationwide. The difference is that at FLF, any profit earned on a particular title does not go to owners, but back into the production of other books. Indeed, many commercially successful authors have chosen to publish their books with FLF to support the public-interest publishing principle.

A wide range of foundations have recognized the need for the kind of broad publishing program FLF has undertaken, and since its inception FLF has received support from many individuals, foundations, and organizations.