Foglifter Press

Your support means 10+ years of powerful, intergenerational queer and trans literary archive, and every contribution counts. Donate today!

Now celebrating our 10 year anniversary, Foglifter was founded as a response to the overwhelming need for a publication of, by, and for 2SLGBTQIA+ writers. We are San Francisco’s only queer and trans press and one of the few surviving 2SLGBTQIA+ presses in the United States. 

Across our 21 journal issues, we’ve published and platformed nearly 700 LGBTQ+ literary artists and engage over 13,500 readers, writers, and audience members annually. We’ve also awarded, published, and promoted five Bay Area-based QTBIPOC literary artists in partnership with Still Here San Francisco through our Start A Riot! Chapbook prize. We’ve produced four anthologies of LGBTQ+ writing with local community organizations showcasing queer writing across generations. 

Foglifter has been twice named Lambda Literary Award Best Anthology finalist, a Firecracker Award finalist in Magazines / General Excellence in 2020 and 2026, and winning a Whiting Literary Magazine Award. The work of Foglifter Journal contributors has been honored with the 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, honorable mention in Best American Essays, and multiple Pushcart Prizes. 

Our belief in involving, amplifying, and expanding networks for our queer and trans literary artists is baked into our practices. Starting in 2019, we’ve paid every Contributor, Event Reader, and Host, and offered stipends to Staff and Guest Editors. Our submissions are always free, and our events are free and open to the public. Foglifter readings try to always feature ASL interpretation, livestreaming, and event captioning. And at this moment a Foglifter journal may be making its way to a school or public library near you! 

Our practices are particularly timely. Currently, queer and trans archival materials are continuing to disappear due to institutional defunding fueled by homophobic and transphobic legislation nationwide. Foglifter is the literary arts response to these attacks against our communities.

We ask you to join us in keeping queer and trans literary arts archival alive. At $10 or $1,000, you will help us continue showcasing transformational queer and trans literature. You will help us expand our reach into the communities we represent, all while providing a bigger platform for even more queer and trans writers to shine.