After five years of dormancy, the Bilingual Press has relaunched with a mission to translate and celebrate the multilingual past, present and future of U.S. literature.
Gary Keller, the founder of the Bilingual Press, died in 2020. He left no clear plan of succession for the organization, Anita Huizar-Hernandez, publisher and managing editor of the Bilingual Press, said.
She advocated to rebuild and resume operations of the Bilingual Press so it could continue advancing Chicano, Latino and U.S. literature.
With ASU's support, Huizar-Hernandez helped to relaunch the program in 2025 with a clear plan to make every piece of media the press puts out completely bilingual — including its emails and social media platforms.
She said the organization has always been called Bilingual Press, but only a subset of the works published were translated into both English and Spanish.
Now, the press is completely focused on providing a more inclusive literary space where a deeper meaning can be found through every piece of translated literature, she said.
"I don't like to think of things getting lost in translation. I like to think of them as being found in translation," Huizar-Hernandez said. "You can see how a story multiplies and speaks out in multiple ways through traveling into different languages."
She said the Bilingual Press focuses on publishing contemporary Chicano and Latino fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. The press is also working on publishing bilingual children's books.
Huizar-Hernandez sees the press's goal as providing more outlets for Chicano and Latino stories. She said although big-name publishers have some Latino stories, the Bilingual Press knows that there are more Latino voices to be heard.
"The Latino population is very heterogeneous," Huizar-Hernandez said. "In order to understand it, you can't rely on one, or two, or even five or 10 voices."
Administrative associate Fran Umstadter, who has worked with the Bilingual Press for 18 years, said that the press did not want to go out of business as many smaller presses have in the past.
Since the relaunch, it has worked to take on a more active role in the community than ever before, she said.
Umstadter said the press is working to give younger audiences free online access to historical and contemporary Chicano and Latino literature through a publishing site called Open Access Network.
"It's important for young people to understand the history," Umstadter said. "It's an advantage to young people to be able to look at the history and then look forward to the future."
The press is on a "new path" with many projects planned over the next five years, exposing a larger audience to the contributions of Chicano and Latino authors, Umstadter said.
Since the relaunch, the press has already published one art-related librito, or Spanish for a little book, with the Phoenix Art Museum and the ASU Art Museum. They are planning on publishing two others to create a book trilogy, Associate Editor Ofelia Montelongo Valencia said.
The Bilingual Press holds writing contests, offering the winners translation and publication of their work. The press is currently partnered with CantoMundo, a national Latino poetry organization housed at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU, to host a contest for small poetry books, Montelongo Valencia said.
To get more student involvement in the Bilingual Press, they have campus events planned, including a book sale event on Sept. 15-16.
Montelongo Valencia said they will be selling discounted books from the Bilingual Press along with free books to kick off National Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Hispanic Research Center at the University.
Other planned events include writing groups, a poetry picnic, a Hispanic Heritage Month block party and an anniversary dinner celebration for the Hispanic Research Center.
With a fresh start and an exciting year ahead, the Bilingual Press is working to preserve the legacy of Latino and Chicano stories while reshaping the way bilingual literature is accessed and understood.
"We just want people to get to know the Bilingual Press, the Hispanic Research Center, and we just want to welcome as many students as we can," Montelongo Valencia said.
Edited by Dhemi Bell, Carsten Oyer, Grace Lawrence and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at akbrow36@asu.edu.
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Alyssa Brown is a Community/Culture Reporter at The State Press. This is her first semester with The State Press.
