Open book displaying the title page of 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A Note from the Founder, Alma Felix

Green Light Press began with a personal love of books long before working in publishing was ever imaginable to me.

Growing up in a small town, access to literature was limited. I borrowed books from neighborhood kids, fell in love quickly, and cried when it was time to return them. Stories felt scarce then, precious enough that you learned early there was a moment when you had to stop and watch them leave your hands, just beyond full possession, as though loving a story did not guarantee you could remain in control of it.

In my senior year of high school, I read The Great Gatsby for AP English. When the class ended, we were meant to turn in our copies. I couldn’t do it. I held onto mine and quietly accumulated overdue library fines I couldn’t afford. When graduation arrived, I was given a choice: return the book, pay the fines, or forfeit my physical diploma. I chose the book. It still sits on my shelf.

In my yearbook, my English teacher wrote, “May all of your green lights be attainable.”

That line stayed with me. Over time, the green light stopped being just a literary reference and became something closer to an ethic, a way of moving through the world that valued meaning over ease and trusted what could not yet be reached, even when the path forward wasn’t fully lit.

Years later, after working closely with writers and manuscripts from the inside, that belief returned with clarity. I had seen how easily stories can become constrained, rushed, and valued for what they promised rather than for what they already were. I found myself imagining the kind of publishing house that could read more closely, anticipate a writer’s needs, and honor the long arc of a book’s becoming. I wanted to undo the conditions that make stories feel scarce, even in abundance, and to help create a world where books are not guarded or rationed, and where writers do not have to ask whether they are allowed to want what they want.

Green Light Press became real when I chose to build it alongside my partner and co-founder, Willy Rowberry. Together, we share stewardship of this press. We protect its values, practice them daily, and expand what they can hold.

We are not chasing trends. We are chasing meaning. We don’t see ourselves as the destination, but as the signal to go. Our role is to offer writers a green light, then walk beside them as they move toward it.

We publish with attentiveness, discernment, and trust, so that stories are not treated as commodities, but as living things that feel at home in a reader’s hands, are returned to over time, lived with, and never made to feel scarce again.