Chris Fischbach
@fishmpls.bsky.social
Literary agent @ Fischbach Creative; former publisher at Coffee House Press (25 year tenure); board member, MN Prison Writing Workshop, etc. Mr. Nobody from Nowhere.
Pinned
Chris Fischbach
@fishmpls.bsky.social
· Dec 12
What if there were no more hot takes
"Maggie's Farm" would make an excellent rallying song for the movement.
August 9, 2026 at 1:46 AM
"Maggie's Farm" would make an excellent rallying song for the movement.
I am once again bummed that I was talked out of publishing Gwendoline Riley.
July 28, 2026 at 5:47 PM
I am once again bummed that I was talked out of publishing Gwendoline Riley.
How does AI understand time? How can it understand time if we don’t?
June 21, 2026 at 11:22 PM
How does AI understand time? How can it understand time if we don’t?
Stop with the dystopian novels please.
June 19, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Stop with the dystopian novels please.
Currently advocating for the emergence of worker- and author- owned publishing collectives. No corporations, no private equity.
June 18, 2026 at 4:38 PM
Currently advocating for the emergence of worker- and author- owned publishing collectives. No corporations, no private equity.
Reposted by Chris Fischbach
Very excited to share today's conversation with Lisa Robertson. We look back across her writing life—in poetry, fiction & nonfiction—using her latest novel RIVERWORK as the frame & portal for it all.
Audio🔉🔥: milkweed.org/between-the-...
@coachhousebooks.bsky.social
Audio🔉🔥: milkweed.org/between-the-...
@coachhousebooks.bsky.social
Lisa Robertson : Riverwork | Milkweed Editions
Lisa Robertson’s Riverwork twins the mysterious disappearance of the great aunt of our protagonist, Lucy Frost, and that same aunt’s interest in a long-disappeared river, buried under the streets of P...
milkweed.org
June 8, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Very excited to share today's conversation with Lisa Robertson. We look back across her writing life—in poetry, fiction & nonfiction—using her latest novel RIVERWORK as the frame & portal for it all.
Audio🔉🔥: milkweed.org/between-the-...
@coachhousebooks.bsky.social
Audio🔉🔥: milkweed.org/between-the-...
@coachhousebooks.bsky.social
B & N carrying AI books seemed inevitable. Publishers with profit-driven owners, especially private equity will undoubtedly be next, or are already there. But Olga? That's depressing.
May 19, 2026 at 8:54 PM
B & N carrying AI books seemed inevitable. Publishers with profit-driven owners, especially private equity will undoubtedly be next, or are already there. But Olga? That's depressing.
Re the state of publishing, reviews, and so on. How about fewer complaints and more solutions? We all know there are problems, so what are we / you going to do about it?
May 2, 2026 at 12:55 AM
Re the state of publishing, reviews, and so on. How about fewer complaints and more solutions? We all know there are problems, so what are we / you going to do about it?
Well, I certainly regret letting myself to be dissuaded from publishing Gwendoline Riley years ago.
April 20, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Well, I certainly regret letting myself to be dissuaded from publishing Gwendoline Riley years ago.
Don't think about books as objects or as units, or as products or by-products or results. Start by thinking about creation as performance and reading as experience.
April 20, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Don't think about books as objects or as units, or as products or by-products or results. Start by thinking about creation as performance and reading as experience.
I absolutely did not see Sean McDonald getting let go coming.
April 9, 2026 at 3:02 PM
I absolutely did not see Sean McDonald getting let go coming.
Btw if you’re angry and want to let off steam, I recommend writing and sending an angry letter to Target corp.
February 26, 2026 at 2:11 AM
Btw if you’re angry and want to let off steam, I recommend writing and sending an angry letter to Target corp.
If I had my druthers, every arts org would have a vip position where someone acts as a AI skeptic whenever it comes up.
February 26, 2026 at 2:07 AM
If I had my druthers, every arts org would have a vip position where someone acts as a AI skeptic whenever it comes up.
As corporate publishing embraces AI …
Coffee House Press’s founder, Allan Kornblum, before he died, was writing a book about how, contrary to popular belief, and with only a few exceptions, the publishing industry is almost always aligned with power and capital.
February 26, 2026 at 1:00 AM
As corporate publishing embraces AI …
How about just let people enjoy Geese if they want to. Why crap on something someone else enjoys?
February 25, 2026 at 11:41 PM
How about just let people enjoy Geese if they want to. Why crap on something someone else enjoys?
Coffee House Press’s founder, Allan Kornblum, before he died, was writing a book about how, contrary to popular belief, and with only a few exceptions, the publishing industry is almost always aligned with power and capital.
January 27, 2026 at 7:38 PM
Coffee House Press’s founder, Allan Kornblum, before he died, was writing a book about how, contrary to popular belief, and with only a few exceptions, the publishing industry is almost always aligned with power and capital.
Reposted by Chris Fischbach
This is really getting on my nerves. THERE WAS NO PROTEST. Pretti was hanging out on a street corner watching over the neighborhood, where muggers could come pick him off or go after the women he was with. Then ICE showed up and things went nuts. There was no protest. Just none.
Sean Duffy: "If you come to a protest with a 9mm firearm, that's fine believing in the Second Amendment, but you stand on the sidewalk and you hold your sign. You take that 9mm and you start to engage with ICE officers, and then you resist arrest -- listen, I don't want anyone to die, but ... "
January 26, 2026 at 4:47 PM
This is really getting on my nerves. THERE WAS NO PROTEST. Pretti was hanging out on a street corner watching over the neighborhood, where muggers could come pick him off or go after the women he was with. Then ICE showed up and things went nuts. There was no protest. Just none.
Tell Me How It Ends
January 15, 2026 at 12:51 AM
Tell Me How It Ends
This is a new sale!
December 19, 2025 at 7:20 PM
This is a new sale!
Efficiency is the enemy of art.
October 30, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Efficiency is the enemy of art.
Thinking that to me, literature is much more akin to prayer than it is to the NYT best-seller list.
October 10, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Thinking that to me, literature is much more akin to prayer than it is to the NYT best-seller list.
People who make fun of "lit bros" are really only talking about like 25 people. Also, you're making fun of anyone who decides to read literary fiction? Of whatever gender?
October 10, 2025 at 3:54 PM
People who make fun of "lit bros" are really only talking about like 25 people. Also, you're making fun of anyone who decides to read literary fiction? Of whatever gender?
This is a great post. I like to think that I ticked all these boxes during my time at Coffee House Press:
substack.com/@blakebutler...
substack.com/@blakebutler...
What I Want In an Ideal Publisher
What traits make a book publisher an ally of the artist rather than a corporate warden holding you back?
substack.com
October 6, 2025 at 4:49 PM
This is a great post. I like to think that I ticked all these boxes during my time at Coffee House Press:
substack.com/@blakebutler...
substack.com/@blakebutler...
From a review of Murderland:
"Her fury blazes beyond balance sheets and into curated spaces of elites. She singles out Roger W. Straus Jr., tony Manhattan publisher, patron of the arts and grandson of Daniel Guggenheim, whose Tacoma smelter may have scrambled Bundy’s brain.
1/4
"Her fury blazes beyond balance sheets and into curated spaces of elites. She singles out Roger W. Straus Jr., tony Manhattan publisher, patron of the arts and grandson of Daniel Guggenheim, whose Tacoma smelter may have scrambled Bundy’s brain.
1/4
August 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
From a review of Murderland:
"Her fury blazes beyond balance sheets and into curated spaces of elites. She singles out Roger W. Straus Jr., tony Manhattan publisher, patron of the arts and grandson of Daniel Guggenheim, whose Tacoma smelter may have scrambled Bundy’s brain.
1/4
"Her fury blazes beyond balance sheets and into curated spaces of elites. She singles out Roger W. Straus Jr., tony Manhattan publisher, patron of the arts and grandson of Daniel Guggenheim, whose Tacoma smelter may have scrambled Bundy’s brain.
1/4
People complaining that literary criticism and serious book reviews are dying and then . . .do absolutely nothing about it.
August 14, 2025 at 9:54 PM
People complaining that literary criticism and serious book reviews are dying and then . . .do absolutely nothing about it.