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PUBLISHING NEW WOMEN POETS SINCE 1997 |
Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize
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Dear Perugia Press Friends,
Perugia Press was founded in 1997, and we have published one beautiful, award-winning book each year since then. Our 2026 collection, Everything Has Been Moved, Even the Dead, was published in September and is the 30th book in our catalog. Our year-end fundraising campaign supports our nonprofit press as we turn the page into our fourth decade and celebrate our milestone 30th anniversary.
With joy and gratitude,
All of us at Perugia Press
* 30th Anniversary Readings *
Celebrate Perugia Press and our poets with two virtual milestone readings featuring our poets from over the years, and work from all 30 Perugia collections. The first, held on Sunday, 10/4, was beautiful. Here's the link to that reading, if you missed it (and please support our YouTube channel while there by subscribing).
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Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrizeAPress for the 2020 Perugia Press Prize winner Per
Please nominate Perugia Press
for an AWP award by 10/31:
Submissions are open for AWP’s Small Press Publisher Award! This prize recognizes the important role nonprofit presses play in publishing creative works and introducing new authors to the reading public, acknowledging contributions to the literary landscape through the publication of consistently excellent work. Letters of nomination are accepted September 1–October 31 via the online submission portal at AWP. This award would provide vital support, and we'd be honored if you'd consider writing a letter to nominate Perugia Press!
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Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrizeAPress for the 2020 Perugia Press Prize winner Per
The 2027 Perugia Press Prize
is OPEN, through 11/15
about the prize, including the support we offer to our poets, eligibility, and guidelines. We hope to read your work!
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We’re so honored to have received the shout-out below from poet Jia-Rui Cook, whose debut Soft Beasts will be published by Black Lawrence Press in 2027 (and was a semifinalist with Perugia before winning the 2025 Philip Levine Prize). The excerpt is from the Poets & Writers newsletter feature “Winners on Winning,” in which Cook “shares some of the lessons she’s learned from submitting to contests, including how to find community in the process.” It means the world to us when poets feel seen and supported when submitting their work to Perugia. Thank you, Jia-Rui!
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A Look Inside Perugia Press's Prize
Editor/Director Rebecca Olander has been doing lots of press this year to show what goes on behind the scenes at Perugia, from what makes us tick as a press, to what you can expect if you submit to, or publish with, Perugia. Check out our recent blog with resources to help you get to know Perugia Press.
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Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrizeAPress for the 2020 Perugia Press Prize winner Per
The Story of My Book:
Gail Martin on Begin Empty-Handed
Our series “The Story of My Book,” chronicles Perugia
Press’s collections through the words of their authors.
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Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrizeAPress for the 2020 Perugia Press Prize winner Per
Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight
October 2026 Poet: Hera Naguib
Self-Portrait as Mary/Maryam
I never raised a garland for being chosen
or snapped the spine of a lamb
and fried a feast on its hot blood.
I could be slunk by the river's sleeve
at night or fed to the scarab beetles
under the piling desert sand without a spit
on my father's sky. I knew where I came from
meant I must run, desolation &
the wild conviction of infant vowels
suturing through my unsaved belly,
rumoring each of my apocryphal names—
Sayyidatuna, Siddiqah, Qānita.
It does not behoove the scriptures to tell you I think
I have wasted my time, moored
o the moon winding up my blood,
fattened with dates, the holy stream &
my body. Nothing usurps you
as suddenly as the feeling of being lost.
It was not enough to be chosen,
nobody ever tells you. It was enough
from Rupture Anthem (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2026) initially published in Southeast Review
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Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize
Jen Siraganian's Everything Has Been Moved, Even the Dead
Ray Fowler & Jen Siraganian at Los Gatos Library on 9/28
Jen Siraganian reading at Litquake in Berkeley on 10/9
 From the Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry (Haymarket Books) anthology reading at Litquake in San Francisco on 10/16. L to R: Aahmad Diab, Jen Siraganian, Tehmina Khan, Zeina Hasham Beck, Priscilla Wathington & Deema K. Shehabi (whom we featured in our BIWOC Spotlight in 1/2024 & 11/2023)
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Upcoming October events for Jen Siraganian:
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Many thanks to Kayla Torres - publicist, literary citizen,
reader, writer, all-around generous human - for this post
on Instagram (@the.bookish.mama):
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Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize
* Poet News & Connections *
It makes us so happy whenever we see Perugia poets building on their community with each other. Here are two recent examples:
shared state of WA.
in OH with Noemi Press authors Asa Drake (Beauty Talk), who we featured in our BIWOC Spotlight in 2/2026 & Felicia Zamora (Murmuration Archives), who was also Holli's mentor!
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And here's another example of how our community overlaps and interacts: Perugia Press is representing at the 2026 WriteAngles Conference (organized by our friends at Straw Dog Writers Guild) at Baypath University in Longmeadow, MA on Saturday, October 24 from 8am-6pm! We’ll have a book table for the press, and the day's offerings feature poet Gail Thomas, board member Arya Samuelson, and Editor/Director Rebecca Olander.
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Perugia relies on collaboration with our community to continue our work. Your donations help us to provide
greater access to our contest for emerging poets, to create beautiful, important books, and to support our poets as
their work gains a wider audience. Thank you for joining
our mission to bring new women poets, inclusive of
gender-expansive identities, to print.
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PERUGIA PRESS
PO Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062
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