The mission of Red Hen Press is to discover, publish, and promote works of literary excellence that have been overlooked by mainstream presses, and to build audiences for literature in two ways: by fostering the literacy of youth and by bringing distinguished and emerging writers to the public stage. Our purpose is first to create and promote good writing. We wish to create a place in the world for good writers, whose work is ignored by the conglomerate publishers, but whose voices deserve to be heard, particularly writers whose work has been marginalized. We seek a diversity of voices that speak to what it means to be human and speak it well. We will endeavor toward the promotion of cultural literacy in the community. We will share books; readings, poetry, literature and ideas. Our goal is to allow good work to swim to the surface and then to share that work so that literature can create a common language space for global, community and individual transformation.