PUBLISHING NEW WOMEN POETS SINCE 1997
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Update on Sudden Small Press Distribution Closure
and Our New Partner: Asterism Books
Dear Friends of Perugia,
Two weeks ago, Small Press Distribution (SPD) shut down abruptly. Perugia Press was one of the 400+ presses that had books represented by SPD. This was announced with no notice on March 28, when they shuttered their website and replaced it with this message. Publishers got the word at the same time as the public. For more information, some articles on the subject include this one from LitHub, and this one from The Washington Post. The Community of Literary Magazines and Small Presses (CLMP), of which we are a proud member, has been wonderful in providing support during this time.
For Perugia, what this means is mixed. It has caused upheaval in daily operations at our press, as well as lost revenue. We have not been compensated for book sales that took place through SPD in over a year, and we need to pay to get our books shipped back from the warehouse they put them in. Over time, we may be able to fight to recoup some of our losses, but at this time, this change is visiting financial hardship, extra work, and stress upon our micro press.
One thing to know is that Perugia isn't going anywhere! SPD was just part of our operations and one way we tried to widen the audience for our books. This is in no way the end of Perugia or of small press poetry publishing as an industry. As always, our books are available for sale through our website, which is the best way to support our press.
A silver lining is that we will now also be distributed through Asterism Books, where you will find many of our titles already listed. We're happy to share with you this partnership with Asterism, a relatively new organization with a refreshing model. They handle both individual and bulk orders, and Asterism is an especially great place to order our books for stock at indie bookstores, since they offer discounts to the trade and an additional discount for prepayment. For library orders, they also offer a discount and the ability to place standing orders on our titles. We are thrilled to have found a distributor who is doing things differently, one we can feel proud to collaborate with and to recommend to our friends.
In addition to supporting our press through book sales at either Perugia or Asterism (and, as always, we sell on Amazon, to keep it convenient for folks), a great way to support our press is through donations. As a nonprofit, we rely on generous support from our community to fulfill our mission, including in times of transition. Please consider a donation this Poetry Month to help us weather this current storm and stay strong in our ongoing work to publish and support new women poets. This is an especially great time to become a recurring donor, an option through our safe Donorbox site. One-time gifts of $100 or more, or recurring monthly donations of any size, receive a thank-you gift of a copy of our new book each year when it is published. Thank you for supporting Perugia Press and small press poetry publishing, always.
With gratitude,
Rebecca Olander, Editor/Director
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* Perugia at Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival *
Perugia Press will be at the Small Press Fair at the Nossrat Yassini
Poetry Festival in New Hampshire TOMORROW, April 13, 10-5. This festival at UNH was created to “celebrate the power of poetry to unify, bring people together, and build a better community.” Check out the
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"Poetry Bulletin" Spotlights Perugia Press
Thanks to Emily Stoddard for her “Poetry Bulletin” always, and for the recent issue on submitting first books. We so appreciate the shout-outs to Perugia and other presses working to be more equitable, transparent, and accessible. Emily is a treasure - check out her good work for the literary community on Substack.
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* Perugia Poet News *
coming up this month and next supporting The Book Eaters,
including a reading Perugia Press is co-sponsoring with
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a contributing writer to a new volume on writing studies:
"Pivotal Strategies features a spectrum of voices across racial, gender, class, and age categories. This collection not only
makes the discipline more visible but also helps map the contemporary state of writing studies."
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in The Adroit Journal about putting together her new collection, Blue on a Blue Palette, released next week by BOA Editions!
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MAYDAY. This poem will appear in her forthcoming Perugia book, Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms, out this fall.
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PERUGIA PRESS
PO Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062
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