David Poindexter
MacAdam/Cage Publishing

After twenty years in the commercial printing industry, David Poindexter, inspired by his lifelong love of reading, decided to start an independent trade publishing house. In 1998, he founded MacAdam/Cage in order to bring new voices to the literary marketplace.

A year later, Poindexter acquired MacMurray & Beck, a Denver-based independent press, well known in the industry for launching authors such as Patricia Henley (Hummingbird House), William Gay (The Long Home), and Susan Vreeland (Girl in Hyacinth Blue).

Now, with twelve employees and offices in San Francisco and Denver, MacAdam/Cage remains committed to publishing quality books with the personal attention offered at a small company, and the marketing and distribution strengths often associated with larger houses. MacAdam/Cage currently publishes between 25 and 35 new titles each year, primarily hardcover fiction. They have found both commercial and literary success with a number of works including The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, How To Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward, A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart, Pinkerton’s Sister by Peter Rushforth, The Contortionist’s Handbook by Craig Clevenger, and Rose of No Man’s Land by Michelle Tea.

MacAdam/Cage has been recognized both for the quality of its list and for its somewhat old-fashioned approach to publishing. Poets & Writers noted “they recreate the culture that thrived in publishing houses during the early part of the last century,” and former Harcourt Brace publisher, André Bernard, called the house a “genuine publishing success story.”

But perhaps more than anything, MacAdam/Cage is known for its dedicated publisher, David Poindexter, who is in turn known in the book world for “going to great lengths to find and serve authors,” as noted in a 2002 Publishers Weekly profile.