Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrizeAPress for the 2020 Perugia Press Prize winner Per

Dear Friends of Perugia Press,

 

Now in its 29th year, Perugia Press continues to publish one outstanding poetry book by a woman each year. We also maintain an enduring commitment to diversity, inclusion, and outreach.

Here are some highlights:

• We continue to offer free submissions to our annual contest to poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color. Our 2026 contest closed on November 15, and we received a record number of submissions overall. We’re thrilled that submissions from BIWOC poets have increased every year since we have offered the fee-free option.

 

• Our monthly Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight in which we highlight poets of color has been running for over five years now. Our December spotlight poet Carissa Natalia Baconguis (see below) was the sixty-fourth consecutive poet we’ve celebrated with this feature. 

 

• We partner with organizations such as The Care Center. On November 6, our poet Holli Carrell visited with the center’s HISET students, who are young mothers who have dropped out of public school. Sharing an erasure poem from her book, Holli led students to create their own, then read from and signed copies of her book Apostasies.

Donations are an integral part of how we fulfill our mission. Please help us celebrate our vibrant community with a donation this year.

• We have an ambitious fundraising goal of $10,000, to bolster our nonprofit in these challenging times for grant funding in the literary arts, especially poetry.

 

• Many hands make light work, and a gift in any amount is deeply appreciated. You can give securely on our website.

 

• For donations of $100 or more, or for recurring monthly donations of any amount, we’ll send you a copy of Holli Carrell’s Apostasies, winner of the 2025 Perugia Press Prize.

Thank you for considering a year-end gift to Perugia Press.

 

With gratitude,

 

Jean Blakeman, President of the Board

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrizeAPress for the 2020 Perugia Press Prize winner Per

* Perugia Press Holiday Book Sale *

 

Looking for a great book to gift this season? Perugia Press

has a bookshop full of award-winning collections that are beautiful inside and out. Our holiday sale runs through 12/31 - 25% off any and all titles with the code WINTERREADS. Support small press poetry publishing by choosing our

books to give to yourself or someone else you love!

 

Also, we donate a portion of our book sales at the end of each year. In 2025, our selected organizations are The Care Center, Torch Literary Arts, and We Are Not Numbers. So, when you purchase Perugia books, the impact ripples beyond our nonprofit press. Thank you!

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize

Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight

 

December 2025 Poet: Carissa Natalia Baconguis

 

The Barangay Reacts to Carlos's Corpse, 2017

 

The barangay is watching,
saying to themselves

the death of a beautiful morena woman
is the most poetic image in the third world

yet none of them 
know of her name

and how Dian pronounces it 
with her sharpest r's.

 

 

from Sacred and Perishable (Nine Syllables Press, 2025)

 

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

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize

* Poet News *

 

Holli Carrell’s Apostasies just received an incredible review

by Pella Felton. Read the review in The Literary Underground.

 

 

*

Thanks to CLMP for showcasing the work independent

literary publishers do in their year-end roundups, including “Poetry of 2025,” featuring Holli Carrell’s Apostasies. 

 

 

*

Thank you to Two Sylvias Press and the Weekly Muse team for featuring an interview with Joan Kwon Glass about her Perugia book Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms in the latest issue. 

 

*

Abby E. Murray's poem “The Problem with Gratitude”

was published in Rattle. Listen to Abby read their poem, 

 and check out the whole text, here.

 

 

*

Catherine Anderson's poem "Diana's Arrow" was featured in Vox Populi (& Rachel Hadas also chose the poem & brief essay for Classical Outlook last year). An "Author's Note" excerpt:

"I am always startled by how long it takes us to realize a hard truth about our own culture. Reading the myths is one way to experience, however late, those hidden arrows of consciousness."

 

 

*

A beautiful picture from the Poetry on the Wharf event on December 19 in Santa Cruz, CA, featuring Lynne Thompson

and Patricia Smith sharing poetry and conversation, curated by Santa Cruz Poet Laureate Nancy Miller Gomez: