PUBLISHING NEW WOMEN POETS SINCE 1997
|
|
Just a couple of days remain for year-end giving!
Please read this appeal letter from our Founding Director:
Dear Friends of Perugia Press,
I’ve been reminded lately why it’s important that Perugia Press only publishes a poet’s first or second book of poetry, and not her third or fifth or tenth.
The reason I’ve been thinking about this part of our mission is because I have an ever-growing stack of books published by our amazing prize winners after their Perugia Press books came out.
That means we are achieving our objective of helping women get started with their publishing and literary goals. While we can’t take credit for each poet’s success, we’re thrilled to watch and promote what she does next.
By my count, there are at least 33 books published by our poets subsequent to when their Perugia Press book came out. Out of only
26 poets! (And it’s too soon to expect new books from our most recent winners.) There are too many to list individually, but my stack includes Pennisi, Ortiz, Thomas, Williamson, Martin, Anderson, and many others.
If you like a Perugia Press book, there’s a very good chance the poet has another you’d like—and we’ve listed these in their bios on our website. While there, please consider joining us in celebrating these successes by giving a year-end donation.
Thank you for your ongoing support of our work, which I am witnessing rippling out across the publishing world.
With gratitude,
Susan Kan
Founder and President of the Board
|
|
* American Sycamore News *
We hosted a virtual launch celebration for Lisbeth White's
featuring readings from Lisbeth White, Amber Flora Thomas, and Tamiko Beyer. Click here for the recording! While there, please consider subscribing to our new YouTube channel!
Thank you to Angela María Spring for her review of
Lisbeth White's American Sycamore in the Washington Independent Review of Books. Spring paired White's Perugia collection with Shelter: A Love Letter to Trees by Ada Limón and The Trees Witness Everything by Victoria Chang in a beautiful reading of these volumes. Of American Sycamore, Spring wrote, "It is a journey toward and from, a letting loose of identity formed without
consent, and the grief of lost family, of the past, of the self.
Woven throughout are trees, holding stories both personal
and collective, the brutal fist of a nation bent on white violence
THROUGH DECEMBER 31, with a signed bookplate!
American Sycamore was featured in the
|
|
Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight
December 2022 Poet: Ama Codjoe
Diamondback
Like an organ coiled
deep inside or a lasso
of lightning and high
noon, the rattlesnake
traveled the length
of my spine, sunning itself
inside me. Then death—some
call it god—drew a diamond
on the snake’s back,
and marked my chest
with feeling. How godly
the two of us were, shaking
what was hollow.
Dirt stained
the front of my blouse.
I felt venom
rise in my ears. I rubbed myself
against a rock,
turning my skin bronze
and flawless. This is how
I became a woman,
sun slithering
across my back,
dust glittering my tongue,
the snake’s tail whirring.
From Bluest Nude by Ama Codjoe (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2022). Copyright © 2022 by Ama Codjoe. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions.
|
|
* PERUGIA POET NEWS *
Read beautiful words by Blanca Varela
and Sara Daniele Rivera, from their co-translated
collection of Varela's work, The Blinding Star.
*
(Leaving Paradise and Trail of Roots) reviewed
by Steve Pfarrer in the "Book Bag" feature
*
a weekly reading of poetry by Los Angeles Poet Laureate
and Janice Mirkitani's poem "For a Daughter Who Leaves."
Thompson shared a list of recent and forthcoming
poetry greats on the LA Public Library's site in the
American Sycamore, among many other excellent suggetions.
Thompson also had a poem in the latest Pedestal,
"When To Bird & When To Be Human,"
and two poems, "Incubus" and "Asterisk,"
|
PERUGIA PRESS
PO Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062
|
|
|
|
|
