Wolverine Farm Publishing is a 501(c)3 non-profit literary and arts organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado. We publish books and newspapers, house Perelandra Books, sell wares from local makers, and provide space for community events and projects related to our mission. Stop in and enjoy a local beverage or snack, shop our local makers retail space, or attend one of our many events. We also offer space rental for meetings and parties and work with local nonprofits. Please email publickhouse@wolverinefarm.org with questions.
Our Story
In early 2002, Todd Simmons moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, with few plans other than to write and hopefully make a difference. He began meeting other writers, artists, and activists who felt the same way about the world that he did, and had the same basic question—how do you live most fully and still make the world a better place? They brimmed with stories and ideas and art, and soon Todd started a publishing company to capture this energy and send it out into the world. He named it after the small, run-down farm he’d just left in Idaho—Wolverine Farm. In starting the publishing company, he was searching for, in his words, a “wilder world, and the wolverine was wild in a tenacious and relentless manner that I could only dream about.” In March of 2003, Todd and a few friends launched Wolverine Farm’s first publication—Matterzine, a chaotic newspaper tabloid featuring poetry, fiction, visual art, and activism. In early 2004 Wolverine Farm transitioned Matterzine the newspaper into Matter Journal the paperback book and continued to grow slowly and steadily.
Wolverine Farm’s move to a nonprofit organization followed closely behind in late 2005, as did the opening of a volunteer-run bookstore inside The Bean Cycle Coffeehouse. We continue to publish Matter Journal and another serial, Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac, and we’ve published books like Goat Trees: Tales from the Other Side of the World and Logodaedaly, or, Sleight-of-Words, as well as our community newspaper, The Courier.
Though a wild world was the original impetus, in retrospect it is the tension between the civil and the wild that Wolverine Farm appreciates most. As we yearn for a wilder world, our actions—publishing and reading books, teaching workshops, farming and gardening, or, perhaps most accurately, riding a bicycle—are civil. In the eyes of the status quo, our actions could be taken as civil disobedience, but we strive to practice what we publish. We are the most common of revolutionaries.
Wolverine Farm Publishing is honored to publish and work with a community of people seeking to make a difference. Ask better questions. Refuse to be tamed. Cultivate the world you want to live in.
Our Mission
To publish quality literature and art that mindfully engages humans with the world.
Our Vision
A community of creative, informed, and engaged citizens living in a diverse, healthy, and beautiful world.
Our Core Values and Beliefs
Our work will…
1. Provide meaningful context for social and environmental issues to be discussed, deepened, and resolved.
2. Promote literary culture and the enjoyment and support of writers, journalists, and artists.
3. Be created in a culturally relevant, environmentally sound, and personally satisfying manner.
4. Stay mindful of the community in which we live.
And we strive to…
5. Practice what we publish
6. Keep our work fluid and responsive to change
7. Teach what we know to others
8. Grow responsibly
9. Educate people to protect our rivers, save our mountains, love our forests, and widen humanity, as well as love the garden, champion the small farm, utilize the bicycle, and be kind to animals.
Support Us
Staff
Todd Simmons Founder, Director & Publisher
Evan P. Schneider Boneshaker Editor
Chelsea Gilmore Arts and Events Coordinator
Board of Directors
Heather Manier
Bryan Simpson
Kathleen Willard
Nate Turner