The Butterfly Effect

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Here at Milkweed Editions, we believe great books never really end. Because even after the last page has been read, the wisdom imparted lives on in the minds and hearts of readers. And then something incredible happens—that wisdom begins to shape behavior, and like ripples reverberating outwards, those lessons begin to spread.

This is The Butterfly Effect. A movement that creates movement. And by publishing the most daring, thoughtful, and powerful books we find, we believe we can create the greatest impact.

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Did you know Milkweed is an independent publisher incorporated as a nonprofit organization? We publish and sell books across North America, but the financial support of our community enables us to focus on acquiring projects because we think they are excellent and transformative, to work with their authors to develop these projects to their full potential, and to connect them with readers in increasingly innovative ways. Publishing transformative literature often entails years of investment, and it is your support that makes it possible.

When you become a member, you become part of the circle of interdependency that makes our work possible. Members sustain Milkweed’s mission while enjoying more opportunities to engage with our books and authors.

Featured Books
Nonfiction
Robin Wall Kimmerer

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Robin Wall Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts and lessons.

Nonfiction
Aimee Nezhukumatathil

From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction—a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.

Poetry
Ada Limón

An NPR "Book We Love"
A BookRiot "Best Book of the Year"
An Indie Next Selection for May 2022
A Los Angeles Times Recommended Read for May 2022
A TIME Magazine “Must Read Book of 2022”
...

Fiction
Debra Magpie Earling

From the award-winning author of Perma Red comes a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea.

Poetry
Michael Kleber-Diggs

Winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the poems of Worldly Things offer needed guidance on ways forward—toward radical kindness and a socially responsible poetics.

Nonfiction
Elizabeth Rush

Rising weaves the firsthand accounts of those who are living through sea level rise today with eyewitness reporting from our shoreline’s disappearing places.

Fiction
Diane Wilson

A haunting novel spanning several generations, following a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. 

Nonfiction
Max Ritvo and Sarah Ruhl

Studded with poems and songs, this correspondence is a deeply moving portrait of a friendship, and a shimmering exploration of love, art, mortality, and joy.

Nonfiction
J. Drew Lanham

This memoir is a riveting exploration of the contradictions of Black identity in the rural South, asking what it means to be “the rare bird, the oddity.”

Poetry
Michael Bazzett

By turns poetic and lucid, sinuous and accessible, this verse translation of the Mayan epic—the first of its kind, and the first in the Seedbank series—breathes new life into an essential tale.