The latest story from Red Hen Press features natural disasters, an audacious heist and a devastating series of setbacks.
This isn’t a book the nonprofit is publishing. These are challenges that the 32-year-old organization faces as a new fiscal year approaches without many of its regular sources of support.
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With the situation growing dire this week for the continuation of its planned programming, Red Hen decided to take a chance and seek funding elsewhere: On a crowdsourcing site.
“Life as a nonprofit in the last year, since the beginning of 2025, has become much more difficult,” says Tobi Harper Petrie, deputy and marketing director for the Pasadena-based nonprofit publisher, via phone this week. “The NEA canceled all of its funding, and the economy is struggling, so donations overall across the country are down.”
“We’ve been figuring this out as we go,” Harper Petrie says, “just having one thing kick us after another.”
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Red Hen, which has long published the poetry of Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett, recently had success with Luke Goebel’s “Kill Dick.” Other Red Hen titles include Steve Almond’s “Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country,” Jennifer Risher’s “We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth,” Elissa Washuta’s “My Body Is a Book of Rules,” David Mason’s “Ludlow,” and Erica Jong’s last book of poetry, “The World Began with Yes.”
But since last year, Red Hen has taken some hits.
While grateful that Red Hen’s building didn’t burn during the Eaton fire and expressing compassion for those who lost homes and businesses, Harper Petrie says the associated high winds tore off part of the Red Hen roof, which needed to be repaired. Later in the year, the building flooded.
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And more recently, the air conditioning units on the roof stopped working.
Kate Gale, publisher and executive director of Red Hen, who was also on the call, explained what happened.
“We had someone get on the building to see what was happening, thinking maybe we just needed freon or something,” says Gale. “Thieves had gotten on the building and cut all the copper out of these four huge air conditioning units … It’s estimated that they probably got $200 for the copper, but this is $60,000 worth of air conditioning units [that were ruined].”
“It’s a lot,” says Gale, who estimates that after all these setbacks, Red Hen is facing a major funding gap. If they can’t come up with the shortfall, Red Hen will have to make critical changes to its programs.
Things came to a head when the nonprofit learned it would not be receiving a grant from the Literary Arts Fund, which announced its 2026 honorees on June 4. Some California publishers were among those who did, including Los Angeles’ Kaya Press, Berkeley’s Transit Press and San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation, publishers of Two Lines Press.
So that’s when Red Hen decided to crowdsource the shortfall; otherwise, both Harper Petrie and Gale said the 12-person operation would have to start making cuts to the programming and publishing schedule.
“We’re launching a $500,000 GoFundMe to fill this funding gap,” says Harper Petrie, “Having so much funding stripped and lost within this last fiscal year has just been devastating, and so now we’re really hoping that our community of authors, readers, and friends will come together and help us fill this funding gap and move forward.”
Cofounder Gale sees this effort as keeping with the original plan for Red Hen Press — to provide the West Coast with a voice in the publishing world.
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“When we founded Red Hen, it was with this idea that we would find these big smashing West Coast stories where people got to write something different and get published,” she says. “I want everyone who jumps into this campaign with us to remember that Red Hen isn’t the main character in this story; You, who jumped in with us, are.”
“I have faith,” says Harper Petrie, “that everyone’s going to come together … and help save Red Hen.”
For more information about the crowdfunding effort, go to the GoFundMe site.