Cleis Press

Cleis Press is an American publishing brand established in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1980 by Frédérique Delacoste, Felice Newman, and Mary Winfrey Trautmann. The founders financed, wrote, and published the press’s first book, Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence, which appeared in 1981. From its early years, the company developed a list centered on subjects that were often underserved by mainstream publishing, including feminist politics, sexuality, sex work, lesbian and gay writing, transgender issues, gender studies, human rights, and erotic fiction. The press subsequently moved to San Francisco and operated for many years from Berkeley, California. Its publishing program combined practical sex and relationship guides, literary and popular erotica, anthologies, political and cultural nonfiction, memoir, fiction, and reissues of historically important works. Cleis became particularly associated with themed erotic anthologies and guides addressing sexual practices and sexual communities, while also maintaining a broader literary and activist identity. Its authors and contributors have included Susie Bright, Annie Sprinkle, Edmund White, Essex Hemphill, Gore Vidal, Christine Jorgensen, Patrick Califia, Violet Blue, Tristan Taormino, Radclyffe, Richard Labonté, Mitzi Szereto, and many other writers and editors. Among its notable books are The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio, The Whole Lesbian Sex Book, and The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex. Its anthology program has covered gay, lesbian, bisexual, women’s, bondage, erotic-romance, voyeurism, submission, and other specialized themes. Cleis also published fiction and literary work, including writing by Achy Obejas and Stephen Elliott, the Nancy Clue books by Mabel Maney, Ann Bannon’s Beebo Brinker series, Virginia Woolf’s early novel Melymbrosia, and Jia by Hyejin Kim. In 2000, Cleis introduced Midnight Editions, an imprint devoted to fiction, nonfiction, and photojournalism connected with human rights and creative expression under political repression or censorship. The imprint’s books included Alicia Partnoy’s The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival in Argentina and Jasmina Tešanović’s The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade. Cleis also developed a significant list on transgender and gender-nonconforming subjects, including Patrick Califia’s Sex Changes: Transgender Politics, Loren Cameron’s Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits, and Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper’s The Transgender Child. The press received independent-publishing recognition, including Firecracker Alternative Book Awards for Outstanding Independent Press in 1997 and 1999, and several Lambda Literary Awards in 2010. In 2014, Cleis Press was acquired by Start Publishing, the book-publishing division of Start Media, together with the Viva Editions and Tempted Romance imprints. Cleis’s staff left shortly after the ownership transition, and the brand has since been operated by Start Publishing from Jersey City, New Jersey. Public information indicates that the imprint’s visible release activity had become limited by 2025, although the brand remained associated with its backlist and parent-company publishing operations.

Cleis Press began in Minneapolis in 1980, founded by Frédérique Delacoste, Felice Newman, and Mary Winfrey Trautmann. The founders’ first publication was Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence, issued in 1981. This origin established the press’s early connection to feminist activism, independent publishing, and subjects that mainstream houses often treated as controversial or commercially risky. During the 1980s, Cleis expanded its list in the areas of sexuality, feminism, sex work, and lesbian and gay writing. In 1987, it published Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry, edited by Frédérique Delacoste with Priscilla Alexander. The press later relocated to San Francisco and operated from Berkeley, becoming associated with the Bay Area’s feminist, LGBTQ, sex-positive, and alternative-publishing communities. Cleis’s catalog developed along several parallel tracks. One was practical sexuality publishing, including sex guides and books intended to provide accessible information about sexual practices, relationships, and sexual health. A second was erotic literature, particularly annual or recurring anthologies organized around sexual identity, gender, practices, and genre. A third was literary and cultural publishing, including fiction, memoir, gender studies, LGBTQ writing, and reissues of works important to lesbian and gay literary history. The company published authors such as Susie Bright, Annie Sprinkle, Edmund White, Essex Hemphill, Gore Vidal, Christine Jorgensen, Patrick Califia, Violet Blue, and Tristan Taormino. Its fiction list included writers such as Achy Obejas, Stephen Elliott, Erastes, Hyejin Kim, Radclyffe, James Lear, and Richard Labonté, as well as reprints and adaptations of historically notable lesbian and queer works. The press’s erotic anthology program became one of its most recognizable features. It issued collections such as Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Women's Erotica, Best Gay Asian Erotica, Best Bisexual Women's Erotica, and Best Lesbian Bondage Erotica. Other collections addressed male submission, voyeurism and exhibitionism, sudden sexual encounters, erotic romance, and genre-based erotic fiction. In 2010, the press began an annual bondage-erotica series with Best Bondage Erotica 2011. These books gave Cleis a recognizable niche while also providing publication opportunities to a wide range of established and emerging erotic writers. In 2000, Cleis established Midnight Editions as a human-rights imprint. Its purpose was to publish fiction, nonfiction, and photojournalism from places where censorship, imprisonment, political violence, or repression threatened creative expression. Titles included Alicia Partnoy’s memoir The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival in Argentina and Jasmina Tešanović’s The Diary of a Political Idiot: Normal Life in Belgrade. The imprint extended Cleis’s mission beyond sexuality publishing into international human-rights testimony and politically engaged literature. Cleis also became a publisher of books about transgender life, politics, and family support. Its list included Patrick Califia’s Sex Changes: Transgender Politics, Loren Cameron’s photographic and autobiographical work Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits, and Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper’s The Transgender Child, a guide for families and professionals addressing social, legal, and medical questions affecting transgender and gender-nonconforming children. The company received independent-publishing recognition through Firecracker Alternative Book Awards in 1997 and 1999 and several Lambda Literary Awards in 2010. In 2014, Start Publishing, the book division of Start Media, bought Cleis Press along with Viva Editions and Tempted Romance. Cleis’s staff departed soon after the acquisition, and the imprint came to be operated from Start Publishing’s Jersey City, New Jersey base. Publicly visible publishing activity appears to have diminished in the years following the acquisition; reference material indicates that no releases later than 2025 were displayed by the publisher’s online outlets as of May 2026. The brand nevertheless retains a substantial backlist and a distinctive place in independent sexuality, LGBTQ, feminist, and human-rights publishing.

• 2014

  Acquisition by Start Publishing

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Start Publishing acquires Cleis Press along with Viva Editions and Tempted Romance.

• 2010

  Lambda Literary recognition

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Cleis Press receives several Lambda Literary Awards.

• 2000

  Midnight Editions is established

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Cleis launches a human-rights imprint for fiction, nonfiction, and photojournalism connected with repression and censorship.

• 1999

  Second cited Firecracker Alternative Book Award

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  The press receives another Firecracker recognition for Outstanding Independent Press.

• 1997

  First cited Firecracker Alternative Book Award

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Cleis Press receives the Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Outstanding Independent Press.

• 1987

  Sex-work anthology expands the press's feminist list

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Cleis publishes Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry by Frédérique Delacoste with Priscilla Alexander.

• 1981

  First book published

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  The founders collectively finance, write, and publish Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence.

• 1980

  Cleis Press is founded in Minneapolis

  [1]Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org

  Frédérique Delacoste, Felice Newman, and Mary Winfrey Trautmann establish Cleis Press as an independent publisher.

An independent-origin, socially progressive publishing imprint focused on sexuality, erotica, feminism, LGBTQ and transgender subjects, human rights, and related literary and practical nonfiction. Its identity combines sex-positive education, marginalized-voice publishing, literary erotica, and activist or human-rights-oriented books.

• Sexuality nonfiction

  Sexuality and sex-education guides

  Cleis published practical books intended to provide accessible information about sexual practices, sexual communication, relationships, and sexual health. Representative titles include The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio, The Whole Lesbian Sex Book, and The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex. These works reflect the press’s sex-positive and educational orientation.

• Erotic fiction

  Erotic anthologies

  The press developed a substantial anthology program organized around sexual identity, gender, erotic practices, and literary or commercial genres. Series and collections included Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Women's Erotica, Best Gay Asian Erotica, Best Bisexual Women's Erotica, and Best Lesbian Bondage Erotica, along with themed books about submission, voyeurism, exhibitionism, and erotic romance.

• Annual erotic anthology · 2010

  Best Bondage Erotica

  Cleis began a yearly bondage-erotica anthology program in winter 2010, with Best Bondage Erotica 2011 as the initial volume. The series extended the publisher’s established anthology model into a focused collection devoted to bondage-themed fiction.

• Human-rights imprint · 2000

  Midnight Editions

  Founded in 2000, Midnight Editions published fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and photojournalism from or about regions where political repression and censorship endangered creative expression. Its list included testimony about political imprisonment and accounts of life under authoritarian or conflict-affected conditions.

• Gender and LGBTQ nonfiction

  Transgender and gender studies list

  Cleis published books examining transgender politics, transsexual identity, gender expression, and support for transgender children and families. Notable examples include Sex Changes: Transgender Politics, Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits, and The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals.

• Lesbian fiction reissues

  Beebo Brinker series

  Cleis reissued Ann Bannon’s historically significant Beebo Brinker series, helping keep an important body of mid-century lesbian pulp fiction available to later readers and positioning the press as a steward of queer literary history.

• 2014

  Acquisition by Start PublishingM&A

  Background

  Cleis Press was operating as an independent-origin publisher with established sexuality, LGBTQ, and human-rights lists.

  Action taken

  Start Publishing, Start Media's book division, purchased Cleis Press together with Viva Editions and Tempted Romance.

  Aftermath

  Cleis staff members departed shortly after the transaction, and the brand became operated from Start Publishing's Jersey City headquarters.

  Source

• 2010

  Expansion into annual bondage-erotica anthologiesProduct launch

  Background

  Cleis had already established recurring anthology programs organized around erotic identity, gender, and sexual themes.

  Action taken

  The press began an annual bondage-erotica series, starting with Best Bondage Erotica 2011.

  Aftermath

  The series broadened the publisher's specialized erotica catalog and followed its established themed-anthology model.

  Source

• 2000

  Launch of Midnight EditionsStrategy

  Background

  Cleis sought to extend its socially engaged publishing identity beyond sexuality, erotica, and LGBTQ subjects to international human-rights writing and creative work threatened by repression or censorship.

  Action taken

  The company created Midnight Editions to publish fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and photojournalism connected with human-rights issues.

  Aftermath

  The imprint published works including Alicia Partnoy's account of political imprisonment in Argentina and Jasmina Tešanović's writing about life in Belgrade.

  Source

1. 1Cleis Pressen.wikipedia.org