Special LIVE edition—Bobby Byrd, poet and publisher

published by Cinco Puntos Press

We were lucky enough to speak with Bobby Byrd, who along with Lee Byrd, founded Cinco Puntos Press in 1985 in El Paso, Texas. Cinco Puntos’ distinguished list of authors includes Joe Hayes, Christine Engla Eber, Daniel Bowles, and Beto O’Rourke. Since those early years, Cinco Puntos has gone on to win several distinctions from various arts organizations, among them a Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation and five publishing grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in recognition of their commitment to giving voice to their region and the literature born of it. We love how they describe their relationship to the work they publish:

“Because we are so deeply involved with the books we publish, they are BOOKS to us, not products, not items. They’re more like children, and when people love them, we are very proud and very pleased. And even when people don’t love them, we still have that sense that they are very good and they give us a great deal of satisfaction.”

You can check out more about Cinco Puntos Press on their website and @5puntosbooks.