Our Story
Literati Press is Oklahoma’s first community-owned bookshop and publishing company located in the historic Paseo Arts District in Oklahoma City. Founded in 2010 to herald innovative storytelling throughout the state, Literati Press steadily expanded through the years, opening a brick and mortar bookshop in 2016.
In 2024, The Writers Co-op was founded as a legal cooperative and, in 2025, began the process of taking on ownership of Literati Press.
By advocating for storytellers through bookselling, publishing, and mentorship, our goal is to foster community, intersectionality, and literary citizenship to help each other become better readers, better writers, and better storytellers by serving as each other’s champions and collaborators.
If you're interested in being a Co-op member to work on your own craft or to help guide the future of Literati Press, learn more and sign up below.
AI Usage Policy
The mission of Literati Press and The Writers Co-op is to strengthen our city's literary community. As such, we will not accept work using generative AI in any part of the creative process, including:
Outlining and Drafting
Composition and Editing
Art and Design
This mandate extends to our writing workshops, the work we publish, and the titles we curate for our retail bookshop.
At its core, storytelling exists to inspire human connection and self-discovery. The human element cannot be replaced in the creative process without corrupting the relationship storytellers have with their fellow humans and with themselves. Because we are also practicing writers and artists, we understand how lonely and difficult the creative life can be. Yet, the harrowing journey we take from outline to final draft helps us know more about ourselves and the story we are trying to tell. Only through that struggle can we find illumination.
Generative AI Definition
The Co-op defines Generative AI as artificial intelligence that creates text, images, or other outputs (including and especially artistic outputs) using collections of human data. Predictive and Assistive AI are not included in this definition and are not against the Co-op AI Usage Policy.
Meet the Team
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Charles J. Martin
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Charles J. Martin founded Literati Press Comics & Novels in 2010 to give a platform to progressive storytelling in Oklahoma. In 2016, he took over as the gallery manager for the Paseo Plunge, later building out the Literati Press Bookshop which started with two modest bookcases by the front door and has since sprawled deeper and deeper into the building with no end in sight.
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Melissa Coast
BOOK BUYER
After embarking on a 3 year adventure across the United States in their trusty RV, (and a brief hiatus thanks to Covid) Melissa, her husband, and their three kids found their haven in OKC, a place where they have forged wonderful connections and gained a true sense of home.
Melissa pinged on the Literati Press radar with her fantastic Instagram series, @stickynote_bookrecs as well as her frequent trips to our shop. Eventually, we roped her into the crew to help with spare hours. We soon realized she was a voracious reader and loved talking, selling, and curating books. Her role expanded into lead book buyer in 2023.
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Zachary Scalzo
EVENTS COORDINATOR
Zachary Scalzo (he/they) is a queer theatremaker, writer, and translator whose theatrical work has been developed and performed both in the United States and in Canada. They can be found at azachofalltrades.com, on Instagram at @zjscalzo, and on most major podcasting platforms with his co-host Derek on Two-Player Theory. Their poetry has appeared in journals including Dear Poetry, Ghost City Review, and & Change, and he is one of the founding members of the theatrical collaboration Whatever Works.
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Kristen Grace
EDITOR AND BOOK CONCIERGE
Kristen Grace is a journalist for 405 Magazine and Art Focus and a graduate from Oklahoma City University’s Red Earth MFA program. She has authored a picture book, The Stepmother Who Believed in Feathers, as well as Wings, a collection of feminist fairy tales, through Literati Press. She has recently published poems in Focus Magazine, Mid/South, Freezeray, Behind the Rain Anthology and other literary journals.
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Greta Stromberg
BOOK CONCIERGE
I’ve wanted to work in a bookshop for as long as I can remember but took a detour into the medical field. After healing bodies as a nurse for 26 years now I’m healing minds with good books. One of my greatest joys is to recommend a book that becomes someone’s newest favorite.
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Mary Ann Livingood
PROJECT MANAGER
Mary Ann Livingood is a copy editor and project manager seeking to help steer writers' work through the editing and printing processes. She is the copy chief of literary magazine Okie Modern and has worked with World Literature Today, Latin American Literature Today, and the Journal of Women's History. She has a background in linguistics and journalism, having spent three years as copy chief of the OU Daily.
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John Eric Osborn
ART DIRECTOR
John Eric Osborn is an Oklahoma-based artist/designer/teacher who has artwork in comic shops, schools, newspapers and stores throughout the country. He is the creator of the sci-fi graphic novel "Enigma Machine," the story of an ex-soldier and a robotic little girl and “Hiro Doggie: Space Corgi,” a canine/alien space adventure. He now works as the Art Director of Literati Comics.
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Jerry Bennett
ART DIRECTOR
WRITER/ILLUSTRATOR/TEACHERThe co-creator of Glamorella’s Daughter and beloved mainstay of Oklahoma comics has become an important mentor for the state’s growing comic book community.
He’s created work for Stan Lee, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Disney, and Dreamworks. Jerry is now focused on writing his own graphic novels focused on the middle grade audience. -
Nick Hermes
WRITER/ILLUSTRATOR
The creator of The Black-Jack Demon is among the most accomplished artists working with Literati Press. He’s long career as an oil painter with a whimsical and humanist take on the Western mythos dove-tailed perfectly into his genre-busting and celebrated revenge tale releasing through Literati Press.
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E. Blaze Stark
WRITER
Blaze Stark is Zoning Analyst and aspiring writer / comic book creator from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. No, that is not a nickname. In between his day job and his creative ventures, Blaze enjoys playing pinball (and currently owns four machines). Having started writing at the age of fourteen, he has written short stories, screenplays, and has most recently settled into writing and partially coloring comic books and graphic novels.
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David Woods
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Fellow Paseo Arts District merchant and gifted graphic designer, David Woods, has worked as a creative professional for over 20 years. His client roster boasts clients from around the globe and includes companies such as Polydor Records, CVS Health, The Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie Centers, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and many more. As patient as he is intuitive and innovative, David consistently creates standout design focused on his clients' needs. “My goal is to make graphic design the easiest part of your day.
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Greg White
ILLUSTRATOR/GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Co-Creator of Aliengaged, Greg White has been a favorite artist of the store from our very beginnings. His OKC district designs fly off the shelves in poster, sticker, and coaster form; yet many don’t realize Greg also created one of the funniest sci-fi comedies on the market in Aliengaged with his best friend, Colin Ingersol.
”I'm passionate about the power of art to communicate new ideas, to foster empathy, and to bring about a greater sense of humor, beauty, and understanding among society.
I bring my ten plus years of experience to create illustrative work for clients, as well as gallery work and commercial prints. My work includes illustrations for the New York Times Best Seller "It Starts with Food," multiple children's books, movie posters, comic books, corporate art, and murals. “