[4] Since the 1960s, the company has focused on publishing culturally progressive and political books of fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and cross-genre work.
[6] In December 1967, Madhubuti met with poet and activist Carolyn Rodgers[7] and Johari Amini in the basement of his South Side apartment in Chicago to launch Third World Press (TWP) as an outlet for African-American literature.
With $400 earned from poetry readings, a mimeograph machine, and Dudley Randall's home-based Broadside Press as a business model, Madhubuti began operation.
[3] Third World Press has published works by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as by Sonia Sanchez, Sterling Plumpp and Pearl Cleage.
[10] The list of authors published by TWP also includes Amiri Baraka,[11] Margaret Walker, Sam Greenlee, Naomi Long Madgett, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Mari Evans,[12] Kalamu ya Salaam, Gloria Naylor, Gil Scott-Heron, Chancellor Williams,[13] George E. Kent[14] and many others.