Year-End Gifts * BIWOC Poet Spotlight * Community Foundation Grant * Book Eaters & Poet News

PUBLISHING NEW WOMEN POETS SINCE 1997

* Please consider a year-end gift to Perugia *

(and abundant thanks to those who have already donated)

Dear Friends of Perugia Press,

Building community is at the heart of Perugia Press. When so much of our country and the world seems fractured, the value of community rises. By “community,” we mean strong connections both within the organization and between our press and other organizations. We also mean friends of the press, like you, who help sustain our mission by reading our books, submitting to our contests, attending our events, and making donations that support Perugia’s work. Here are some examples:

In dozens of events and readings over the years, poets we published 25 years ago meet and read with our newest poets. This is a cornerstone of how we build community within Perugia.

For instance, our 2000 prize winner, Catherine Anderson, our 2010 winner, Melody S. Gee, and our 2023 winner, Carolina Hotchandani, have a reading planned at the St. Louis Poetry Center.

This year, we collaborated with Black Writers Read to host readings and conversations with poets Lisbeth White and Lynne Thompson. Other recent partnerships were forged with the Emily Dickinson Museum’s Phosphorescence series and the Straw Dog Writers “Celebrating Voices of Resistance” initiative.

Our monthly Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight continues to highlight the work of women poets of color (December’s spotlight is on Pakistani-American poet Saba Husain). Plus, we donate 5% of our book sales to support organizations that promote the work of women of color.

What does it take to create a welcoming, ongoing, healthy community like ours? It takes hard work, care, dedicated poets, staff, and volunteers, and, of course, financial resources.

Donations are an integral part of how we fulfill our mission to celebrate and support the work of women poets. As part of our community, please consider a year-end gift to our press.

With gratitude,

Rebecca Olander, Editor/Director and the Perugia Press Board

P. S. All gifts to the press are tax-deductible. You can give securely on our website. For donations of $100 or more, or for donors who sign up to give monthly at any amount, we’ll send you a signed copy of The Book Eaters by Carolina Hotchandani.

Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight

December 2023 Poet: Saba Husain

When December Runs into a Tree of Gold

the earth smacks of decay

though the sun is blinding,

rendering the leaves

a shade of ginger-lemon.

Save for the glitter of a cobweb

in the branches, or the buzz

of an inadvertent fly,

wood chimes mimic eons.

This is how it must feel to die.

Feet blanketed by yesterdays,

face to the sky, I am my four-year-

old granddaughter in ponytails

crunching leaves under my bike.

Summers move through me,

spring clings to flimsy branches,

I am my gray-haired mother

murmuring, I am here, I am here.

From Elegy for My Tongue, Terrapin Books, 2023

To read more about this poet and her work, check out our blog.

Note: December's edition of our Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight is our 40th consecutive monthly publication of this feature. Saba Husain was a finalist for this year's Perugia Press Prize. The other two 2023 finalists were also acquired this year: Monique Adelle's Rupture (Codhill Press, 2023) and Michelle Whittaker's Spoke the Dark Matter (slated for publication in 2024 by Sundress Publications). We're so happy for these poets that their books are in, or are soon to be in, the world!

* Carolina Hotchandani's The Book Eaters *

We are thrilled to announce that Carolina Hotchandani and her collection The Book Eaters are being celebrated in Poets & Writers magazine in "Performing the Future: Our Nineteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets," a special section by India Lena González featured online and in the January/February 2024 print issue.

Perugia received a Flexible Funding Grant from

the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts!

We are so grateful to be among the 96 Pioneer Valley nonprofits awarded Flexible Funding grants this year by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. These grants are awarded

"to build capacity and strengthen operations and programming."

Thank you, Community Foundation, for all the good work you

do to support the local creative nonprofit community!

* Perugia Poet News *

Perugia poet Janet. E. Aalfs had several recent poem

publications: "Appalachian Grit" and "All Through Their

Bodies, Hands and Eyes" in Emulate Magazine; "To Speak These Petals Deeper" in Voices of the Earth Notable Works anthology; and "Queer Maps" in Yellow Arrow Journal's "Emblazon" issue.

*

Perugia poet Abby E. Murray had three poems published

this month in ONE ART: a journal of poetry. She was also

nominated for a Pushcart Prize by ONE ART for

"What It's Like to Wonder Whose Country It Was First"

as well as receiving a nomination from a Pushcart editor.

*

Perugia poet Gail Thomas's poem "Cento for Women

Who Are Not Believed" was up at Verse Daily this month.

She is also teaching a 4-week course "Revising and Polishing

your Poems" with Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop

starting January 7.

*

Perugia poet Rebecca Pelky's poem

"When I Asked ChatGPT What It Didn't Know,

and It Told Me:" was published in Barstow & Grand.

*

Perugia poet Lynne Thompson's poem "Ode to Bones"

was featured by Major Jackson on the podcast

The Slowdown. Take a listen here.

*

Perugia poet Corrie Williamson's latest book,

Your Mother's Bear Gun, was chosen for publication

by River River Books for 2025! And, here's a recording

of the reading & conversation Corrie had with Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray at the Missoula Public Library.

PERUGIA PRESS

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