LKE grows out of a longstanding partnership between writers incarcerated in Minnesota prisons and non-incarcerated writers affiliated with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW). Since 2011, we have collaborated to publish the work of incarcerated writers in both internal mediums and public venues of national reach. In 2023, MPWW worked with Coffee House Press to publish American Precariat: Voices of Exclusion, a first-of-its kind anthology of essays curated by incarcerated editors, which featured such notable writers as Kiese Laymon, Kao Kalia Yang, and Lacy M. Johnson, and Valeria Luiselli. 

In 2026, Lost Kite Editions launched as a national independent press. LKE's unique editorial process integrates editors whose lives have been directly impacted by the carceral system and editors whose lives have not. The books we publish are similarly integrative: we welcome submissions from writers with a variety of experiences whose work expands the way we see and understand the world. 

In prison, a “kite” is a message, often a note handwritten on a piece of paper then folded and passed between people. It’s a way to communicate a need, a question, a plan, or a matter of urgency. Lost Kite Editions seeks to elevate messages and the messengers that have yet to find their readers.