Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »

“They wrote to the University of Chicago to get to use the name Chicago Review,” says Cynthia Sherry, Chicago Review’s current publisher. “They thought it would give it extra cachet. The name implies that all we do is Chicago-based books. But we do lots of national-interest titles, too.”

“Everything is a little quirky, a little edgy, smart,” says Sherry. “We’re looking for the passionate niche audience.”

In the future, Sherry hopes the company will continue to grow: next year, she plans to release 75 new titles, ten more than this year. “We want to market directly to the consumers,” she said, “and get the books into the community.” (Roadside Picnic, for instance, a reprint of a classic Soviet science fiction title, was featured on Gawker’s science blog iO9, which increased its sales considerably.)