Atmosphere Press is the only publisher
that puts Rewarding and Meaningful
author experiences above all else.
Atmosphere Press is the only publisher
that puts Meaningful
author experiences above all else.
About Atmosphere Press
Founded in 2015 by Dr. Nick Courtright, an author and PhD in Literature, Atmosphere Press is a hybrid book publisher based in Austin, Texas. As ethical and author-friendly hybrid book publishers, we were built on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. We stay true to that founding mission today. We’ve published nearly 1000 books, our authors have won dozens of awards, and our books have reached the hands of tens of thousands of readers. Here’s our Team, and here is what our authors have said about working with us.
What does this mean for you?
You can trust that you’ll receive the best for your book. Atmosphere Press has an editorial staff of well-credentialed MFAs, PhDs, and published authors. Our award-winning cover design team makes author aesthetics come alive, while staying on point with current trends. And our distribution and publicity teams consistently get glowing reviews for our books and excellent sales for our authors. That means you.
You’ll have other friends on your side.
We’re partners with or members of the International Book Publishers Association, The Authors Guild, Writer’s Digest, Writing Magazine, Ingram Content Group, Kindle Direct Publishing, The Association of Writers and Writing Program, Kirkus, The Writer, Independent Book Review, Winning Writers, and many others. We’re also an A+ Accredited Business with the Better Business Bureau. And while we operate remotely, our team of book publishers has strong connections throughout Austin and the state of Texas for authors based in the area. Your book is in good hands.
Your publisher contributes to the greater good.
We’re also proud to sponsor the Playa Flamingo Writing Residency in Costa Rica, which annually awards one free residency to a talented author to work on their creative project in beautiful Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica. We donate to the World Literacy Foundation and to the Inside Books Project to help the disadvantaged and incarcerated learn and improve through the power of reading.
A word from Dr. Nick Courtright, the Founder of Atmosphere Press
Our leadership team, making sure your book is awesome

Dr. Nick Courtright
Founder & CEO
With a PhD in Literature, and as the author of the books The Forgotten World, Let There Be Light, and Punchline, Nick has years of experience as a writer, editor, educator, scholar, and publisher. In 2015 he founded Atmosphere Press as an alternative approach to seeing good books into print.
Nick's prose and poetry has appeared in such places as The Harvard Review, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Boston Review, The Huffington Post, The Best American Poetry, and SPIN Magazine, among dozens of others. With a Doctorate from the University of Texas, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Texas State University, and a Bachelor of Specialized Studies in Written Expression from Ohio University, Nick has been a professor of English at the University of Texas and St. Edward’s, Southwestern, and Concordia Universities. Learn more about him at nickcourtright.com.

Cameron Finch
Book Publicity Director
Cameron Finch has worked with the editorial and marketing teams of various presses and literary journals, including Dzanc Books, Rizzoli New York, Archipelago Books, Hunger Mountain, and Midwestern Gothic, and she actively works with authors on their novels, memoirs, poetry collections, and children's books from early developmental editing to getting the final product stocked on bookshelves and in readers' hands.
Cameron holds an MFA in Writing & Publishing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Additionally, she is a cross-genre writer whose prose, poetry, and interviews with authors have appeared in The Adroit Journal, CRAFT, Electric Literature, Entropy, Glass, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

Dr. Kyle McCord
Acquisitions Director
Dr. Kyle McCord is the author of seven books including National Poetry Series Finalist Magpies in the Valley of Oleanders and the novel Reunion of the Good Weather Suicide Cult. He has work featured or forthcoming in AGNI, Blackbird, Boston Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. He's received grants or awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Baltic Writing Residency.
Kyle holds an M.F.A. from University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas. He served as associate poetry editor of The Nation and currently serves as Executive Editor of Gold Wake Press and Acquisitions Director for Atmosphere Press. He is married to the visual artist Lydia McCord and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

Ronaldo Alves
Art Director
Ronaldo is an award-winning multi-disciplinary Graphic Designer born and raised in beautiful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Despite his auspicious homeland, he's terrible at soccer!
Working with a team of dedicated cover designers whose diverse skillsets enliven Atmosphere's books, Ronaldo has been creating visual experiences for nearly twenty years. Passionate about helping a book achieve its potential, not just in text but as an artifact, not surprisingly, Ronaldo does believe a book can be judged by its cover.

Alex Kale
Managing Editor
As Managing Editor for Atmosphere Press, Alex guides every author from early editorial all the way through to the printed finish line. Alex holds an MFA in Creative Writing Fiction from Texas State University, and a BFA in English Literature from Concordia University Texas. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in Coe Review, Wussy Mag, and Porter House Review, and she is currently at work writing a novel about motherhood.
When she isn’t helping authors as part of our team of book publishers, she can be found spending time with her son and her partner in Austin, Texas.

Lisa Mottolo
Assistant Editor
Lisa is a life-long writer with experience in editing poetry collections and lyrical prose, and now she helps Atmosphere operations run smoothly. After years working in insurance and for a Fortune 500 company, she's glad to be back in the art world. She's studied poetry at UC Berkeley and Kenyon College, and is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection How to Monetize Despair.
Lisa is from upstate New York and currently lives in Austin, Texas. She loves birds and has four adopted parrots at home.

Dr. Nick Courtright
Founder & CEO
With a PhD in Literature, and as the author of the books The Forgotten World, Let There Be Light, and Punchline, Nick has years of experience as a writer, editor, educator, scholar, and publisher. In 2015 he founded Atmosphere Press as an alternative approach to seeing good books into print.
Nick's prose and poetry has appeared in such places as The Harvard Review, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Boston Review, The Huffington Post, The Best American Poetry, and SPIN Magazine, among dozens of others. With a Doctorate from the University of Texas, a Master of Fine Arts degree from Texas State University, and a Bachelor of Specialized Studies in Written Expression from Ohio University, Nick has been a professor of English at the University of Texas and St. Edward’s, Southwestern, and Concordia Universities. Learn more about him at nickcourtright.com.

Cameron Finch
Book Publicity Director
Cameron Finch has worked with the editorial and marketing teams of various presses and literary journals, including Dzanc Books, Rizzoli New York, Archipelago Books, Hunger Mountain, and Midwestern Gothic, and she actively works with authors on their novels, memoirs, poetry collections, and children's books from early developmental editing to getting the final product stocked on bookshelves and in readers' hands.
Cameron holds an MFA in Writing & Publishing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Additionally, she is a cross-genre writer whose prose, poetry, and interviews with authors have appeared in The Adroit Journal, CRAFT, Electric Literature, Entropy, Glass, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

Dr. Kyle McCord
Acquisitions Director
Dr. Kyle McCord is the author of seven books including National Poetry Series Finalist Magpies in the Valley of Oleanders and the novel Reunion of the Good Weather Suicide Cult. He has work featured or forthcoming in AGNI, Blackbird, Boston Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. He's received grants or awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Baltic Writing Residency.
Kyle holds an M.F.A. from University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas. He served as associate poetry editor of The Nation and currently serves as Executive Editor of Gold Wake Press and Acquisitions Director for Atmosphere Press. He is married to the visual artist Lydia McCord and lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

Ronaldo Alves
Art Director
Ronaldo is an award-winning multi-disciplinary Graphic Designer born and raised in beautiful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Despite his auspicious homeland, he's terrible at soccer!
Working with a team of dedicated cover designers whose diverse skillsets enliven Atmosphere's books, Ronaldo has been creating visual experiences for nearly twenty years. Passionate about helping a book achieve its potential, not just in text but as an artifact, not surprisingly, Ronaldo does believe a book can be judged by its cover.

Alex Kale
Managing Editor
As Managing Editor for Atmosphere Press, Alex guides every author from early editorial all the way through to the printed finish line. Alex holds an MFA in Creative Writing Fiction from Texas State University, and a BFA in English Literature from Concordia University Texas. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published in Coe Review, Wussy Mag, and Porter House Review, and she is currently at work writing a novel about motherhood.
When she isn’t helping authors for Atmosphere Press, she can be found spending time with her son and her partner in Austin, Texas.