Africa World Press (AWP) is a publishing company founded in 1983 by Kassahun Checole in Trenton, New Jersey, United States, with a mission to publish books on the history, culture and politics of Africa and the African diaspora. Two years later, The Red Sea Press was added as an imprint of AWP, with a primary focus on the Horn of Africa and taking on the role of distributor for books on and about Africa and people of African descent in the continent as well as the diaspora
Kassahun Checole, president and publisher of Africa World Press and The Red Sea Press, formerly taught at Rutgers University and El Colegio de Mexico. Checole is the recipient of many academic honors and equally numerous recognitions for his activist work. In January 2000, he served as one of the organizers of the first international conference in independent Eritrea, “Against All Odds: African Languages and Literatures in the 21st Century, as a Visiting Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, Checole contributed to academic research and mentored students. and he is the 2023 receipient of the PEN Eritrea’s Freedom of Expression Award.