Founded in 1955, with nearly 200 books in print, City Lights publishes cutting-edge fiction, poetry, memoirs, literary translations and books on vital social and political issues.

Scroll down for a selection of our new and notable titles, and take a look at our recent releases and our forthcoming titles!

ONLINE-ONLY DISCOUNT: City Lights Publications are always 30% off the retail price when you order from our website.

Imprints & series include:

Pocket Poets Series
Classics such as Howl and Other Poems and Lunch Poems, as well as books by Jack Kerouac, Anne Waldman, David Meltzer, Julio Cortázar, Philip Lamantia, Jacques Prevert, Pier Paolo Passolini, Tongo Eisen-Martinand many more.

Open Media Series
Committed to solidarity with social movements promoting greater freedom, justice, and democracy by publishing the most outspoken scholars, advocates, and dissidents of our time. Authors in the series include Howard Zinn, Angela Y. Davis, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Tim Wise, Henry A. Giroux, and John Gibler.

City Lights Foundation
The Foundation's role is to advance deep literacy, which is not only the ability to read and write but fluency in the knowledge and skills that enable us to consciously shape our lives and the life of our community. Our San Francisco Poet Laureate Series is published by the Foundation, as well as memoirs, anthologies, and other nonfiction.

City Lights/Sister Spit
Queer-centric, feminist, irreverent books from artists across the U.S. Includes our New York Times bestselling book for kids, Rad American Women A-Z, and critically acclaimed books by Thomas Page McBee, Chinaka Hodge, Lenelle Moïse, Beth Lisick, Dia Felix, and Ali Liebegott.

Spotlight Series
In the tradition of the press's storied poetic origins, City Lights Spotlight hopes to shine a light on the wealth of innovative American poetry being written today using the cultural visibility of City Lights to bring their work to a wider audience. Authors include Norma Cole, Anselm Berrigan, Lisa Jarnot, Catherine Wagner, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Julien Poirier, and Will Alexander.

Featured Titles from City Lights Publishers

Impeaching the President
Past, Present, and Future

Alan Hirsch

NOW AVAILABLE: An historical look at the practice of impeachment, how it impacted the terms of Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton, and how it may affect Donald Trump.

"Lucid, balanced, and deeply informed. Anyone in search of a reasoned guide to the unreason of our current situation should read it."--Elizabeth Kolbert

Retablos
Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border

Octavio Solis

Octavio Solis's memoir about growing up at the U.S./Mexico border. Recommended by the NY Times and NBC News, and called one of 2018's Best Books by Buzzfeed.

Violence
Humans in Dark Times

Brad Evans, Natasha Lennard

Interviews with leading thinkers on the crisis of violence in contemporary politics, history, media, and culture.

Poso Wells

Gabriela Alemán

Celebrated Ecuadorian author Gabriela Alemán's first work to appear in English: a noir, feminist eco-thriller in which venally corrupt politicians and greedy land speculators finally get their just comeuppance!

Torn from the World
A Guerrilla's Escape from a Secret Prison in Mexico

John Gibler

The real-life story of a political insurgent who was disappeared and tortured by the Mexican Army and miraculously escaped to tell the tale.

Loaded
A Disarming History of the Second Amendment

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

"If . . . anyone at all really wants to 'get to the root causes of gun violence in America,' they will need to start by coming to terms with even a fraction of what Loaded proposes."—Los Angeles Review of Books

venture of the infinite man

Pablo Neruda

Neruda's long-overlooked third book of poetry, critical in his poetic evolution, now translated into English for the very first time!

The Mathematics of the Breath and the Way
On Writers and Writing

Charles Bukowski, David Stephen Calonne

A collection of columns, reviews, introductions, interviews, and previously uncollected stories revealing the method behind the madness and critical acumen of Charles Bukowski.

I Couldn't Even Imagine That They Would Kill Us
An Oral History of the Attacks Against the Students of Ayotzinapa

John Gibler

Chosen as a Best Book of 2017 by Publishers Weekly!

Harrowing personal narratives describing how Mexican authorities disappeared, killed, and injured scores of students and others in a still-unsolved crime.

Storming the Wall
Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security

Todd Miller

Fast-paced frontline reportage chronicling how climate change is accelerating migration, border build-up, and militarization in the U.S. and beyond.

A Good Day for Seppuku
Short Stories

Kate Braverman

Haunting new stories about girls on the brink of adulthood, women on the verge of breakdowns, and families undone by past deceptions.

Cruel Futures
City Lights Spotlight Series No. 17

Carmen Giménez Smith

A Latina feminist State of the Union address at the intersection of pop culture and interiority.

Heaven Is All Goodbyes
Pocket Poets Series No. 61

Tongo Eisen-Martin

"This is resistance as sound."—Claudia Rankine

The Stone Building and Other Places

Aslı Erdoğan

Vivid stories from one of Turkey's most admired contemporary female authors, whose political activism has made her the target of state persecution.

Invocation to Daughters
City Lights Spotlight Series No. 16

Barbara Jane Reyes

Volume 16 in the City Lights Spotlight Series: Feminist experimental poetry in the tradition of Audre Lorde and Theresa Kyung Cha from a prominent Filipina American poet.

Have Black Lives Ever Mattered?

Mumia Abu-Jamal

"A must-read for anyone interested in social justice and inequalities, social movements, the criminal justice system, and African American history. An excellent companion to Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and Ava DuVernay's documentary '13th'."—Library Journal, Starred Review

Rad American Women A-Z
Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries Who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future!

Kate Schatz, Miriam Klein Stahl

New York Times Bestseller! A book for children—and their parents, teachers, and cool grown-up friends—documenting America's famous and unsung heroines.