Perception Box
Our books embrace writers and audiences who fearlessly shake up our assumptions and biases; and who believe in the power of storytelling. We celebrate stories that explore the space between the lines of our lives, that raise questions rather than give answers, and that rattle the walls of our Perception Box—expanding the boundaries of who we think we are, and what we think we know.
Through our award-winning book publishing house, Catapult strives to nurture and support writers and expand the horizons of our readers. It is our privilege to collaborate in the development and publication of writing that explores the areas where human identities intersect, while providing a welcoming space for both writers and readers to better understand themselves and the world. As an independent publisher, we strongly believe that access and imagination are power, and it is our commitment and great joy to share that power with the readers, writers, and artists who make up our community.
At its best, reading is a consciousness-expanding activity. It can push us beyond the thresholds of our own experience and teach us about all experience, even when that experience seems difficult to relate to or understand. When we learn about one another’s stories, histories, cultures, traditions, journeys, roots, and landscapes, we can come to a better understanding of ourselves, our perspectives, and the world around us. By publishing literature that values self-investigation, encourages compassion for oneself and others, and draws from a diverse range of identities, we foster curiosity, empathy, and openness. In that sense, we are engaging with our own Perception Box.
What is our Perception Box? We all hold beliefs that determine how we view our lives and the world we inhabit—beliefs that shape our notion of reality and of what’s possible and that affect our sense of self-worth. We tell ourselves what we can hope for, how others see us, and how we see them. We can think of this collection of beliefs as a Perception Box, a powerful metaphor built from the material of our lived experience, one that was created by our founder, Elizabeth R. Koch.
The Perception Box defines the structure and boundaries of how we see others in their full humanity and invites new ways of seeing and being seen. We seek to publish writing that challenges and expands our Perception Box: fiction that allows us to imagine other lives with nuance, nonfiction that interrogates and learns from the world around us, autobiography and personal narrative that engage in self-interrogation.
We work with a diverse list of writers who have been historically underrepresented, broadening the literary landscape in the United States and beyond. We honor the craft of writing and are committed to publishing with care, intention, and respect for our authors. We embrace writing that requires an effort on the part of both writer and reader to reach beyond our assumptions and biases to see the humanity, struggle, and truth in every human being.