A part of the blossoming Nyorican wave, Tato Laviera's book, La Carreta Made a U-Turn, was the Press' first publication and explores the immigrant experience of Puerto Ricans.

Winner of the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for "Best Lesbian Mystery" and the 2006 Latino Book Award for Best English Language Mystery, Desert Blood, is another example of complex Latina/o narratives touching on the experience of women, non-heterosexual identities, and the violence of the Border.

Tomás Rivera quite possibly has been the most influential voice in Chicano literature. This anthology, published by Arte Público's Press in 1995 includes his masterpiece "...y no se lo tragó la tierra | ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him" and the sum total of his published works, in English and Spanish, as well as many posthumous works. An exemplar of among writer before him, his contemporaries, and his successors, Rivera's writing intimitately focuses on the struggles of Mexican-Americans in defining their identities and pursuing a better life through education.