For more than thirty years, Jim Sitter has been one of the most prolific and effective arts leaders in the state. He embodies the spirit of the Kay Sexton Award with an extraordinary array of accomplishments, helping to make the literary and book arts community in Minnesota what it is today. As David Unowksy, founder of Hungry Mind Bookstore and fellow Kay Sexton Award recipient says, “Jim’s work has benefitted every aspect of our literary culture: writers, publishers, booksellers and other non-profits.”
After attending Macalester College and working at the Hungry Mind Bookstore (where he initiated the Hungry Mind Reading Series), Sitter acquired Truck Distribution in 1979 and renamed it Bookslinger. He refocused the company and turned it into a national distribution service aimed at providing more visibility to books from independent literary presses, thereby beginning the process of fostering a national audience and appreciation for Minnesota’s great presses.
During this time, Sitter developed an appreciation for the craft of bookmaking and conceived a vision for creating the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA). He assembled a board of highly influential arts and civic leaders, including former Governor Elmer L. Andersen, and served as the founding executive director of MCBA until 1989. Early in his tenure, Sitter invited Allan Kornblum – then head of Toothpaste Press – to move to Minnesota and become the organization’s first press-in-residence. In addition to motivating Kornblum’s move and the creation of Coffee House Press, Sitter played a crucial role in the press’ development as a nonprofit organization and influenced the decision to begin publishing full-length trade editions. He was also responsible for persuading Scott Walker, founder and Executive Director of Graywolf Press, to relocate from Washington State, further cementing his integral role in the creation of what has become a vital literary community.
Sitter’s expertise led him to New York, where he became the executive director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), expanding the funding opportunities for small presses across the country. He advocated for support from national foundations, raising $9 million dollars in grants to nonprofit literary presses – of which Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, and Milkweed Press were three major beneficiaries.
He also helped to form LitNet, a coalition of nonprofit literary organizations from throughout the United States that supports freedom of expression and promotes funding for the literary arts. As its chief lobbyist, Sitter was instrumental in saving the National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for writers and helping to ensure that agency’s survival in the 1990s. Longtime friends, Page and Jay Cowles call Sitter “a natural entrepreneur, committed to the highest standards of literary publishing as well as the book arts.” They laud his leadership, his knowledge of the field, and his deep empathy for the artists and supporters with whom he has worked, adding, “It generated confidence and sophistication in the literary and book arts fields.”