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

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press PrTwo Updates Related to Book Sales:

Two Updates Related to Book Sales:

 

First, we've created a new offering for members of one of our community partners, Straw Dog Writers Guild here in Western Massachusetts. If you are a member of Straw Dog Writers Guild, a new member perk is that you'll receive 20% off of your purchases from Perugia's online bookshop. Add the code "StrawDogMember" in your cart to receive a discount. Read more on this offering here.

 

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Perugia Press donates 5% of our book sales at year-end to organizations which support literary arts and community for writers who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color, inclusive of gender-expansive identities. In 2026-2027, buying our books supports us as well as these selected orgs: Center for New Americans, Interlink Foundation, and Indigenous Nations Poets.

 

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize

Holli Carrell's Apostasies Events

 

Holli Carrell's continuing book tour for Apostasies takes

her next to the University of Louisville this Friday for

the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture:

 

 

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Thank you to the Grolier Poetry Book Shop and James Fraser

for hosting a reading with Holli Carrell (Apostasies), our editor/director Rebecca Olander (Singing from the Deep End, CavanKerry Press), and Christopher Jane Corkery (Love Took the Words, Slant Books). And thank you to Carla Panciera

(One Trail of Longing, Another of String, Bordighera Press)

for the generous, beautifully written introduction.

 

Carla Panciera, Holli Carrell, Rebecca Hart Olander,

& Christopher Jane Corkery at Grolier Poetry Book Shop

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize

Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight

 

February 2026 Poet: Asa Drake

 

Dreamscape Dressed in My Younger Self

 

First, you have a dress of gold, but

you can’t wear it. The gold dress cannot

be washed or dry-cleaned. Hell, the tag

says no spot-cleaning. So you have a dress

of gold, just in case. Then a field of red sorrel

in rows like someone loves it. Then a pine

forest with a dogwood floor. Next the Perseids

behind sheet lightning. Next-year fruit

from your own cuttings. Slice me fruit

from the year I have yet to grow. I couldn’t slice

a pomegranate with less than six cuts.

Once you learn, there’s only one way to prepare

the pip-star in each soft pear. I have seen illustrations,

and I have been scolded by so many women

for making indefensible halves at their pie table. Now,

remember that dress we’re saving. You try it on.

 

 

from Maybe the Body (Tin House, 2026)

“Dreamscape Dressed in My Younger Self” from MAYBE THE BODY by ASA DRAKE © COPYRIGHT 2026. Used with permission from the author.

 

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

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize

Perugia Press January Intern:

Lola Stacy

 

Read Board President Jean Blakeman's interview with 

intern Lola Stacy about her experiences at Perugia Press

and with poetry. Gratitude to Jean, to Smith College,

and to Lola - it was a joy to work with you! 

 

One project of note Lola created was a poetry film for our

series "Flux and Flow," inspired by Nancy K. Pearson's

poem "At the Colorado State Psychiatric Hospital" from

her collection Two Minutes of Light. Watch the film on our

YouTube page, and please subscribe while you are there!

 

Winner of the 2020 Perugia Press Prize

* Poet News *

 

Our poets are generous literary citizens! One example is writing reviews of others' work. A couple of recent reviews:

• L. I. Henley has a beautiful visual review of Sue William Silverman’s essay collection Selected Misdemeanors in the latest Sugar House Review.
• Jackie Balderrama’s brilliant book review of the anthology Bodies Found in Various Places: The Selected Poems of Elvira Hernández translated by Daniel Borzutzky and Alec Schumacher was published in Full Stop. 

 

Another example of literary citizenship is serving as a judge

for a poetry contest. Joan Kwon Glass is doing that in spades:

• Poetry of Courage Award for the North Carolina Poetry Society (subs closed 2/1)
• West Chester University Center for Creative Writing and Poetry's annual Spencer Poetry Awards for undergraduates (deadline 2/20) 
• Sarah Lawrence College Poetry Festival's Student Reader Contest (deadline 2/28)
• Inaugural edition of Odd Pocket Press magazine is looking for submissions to its first poetry contest (deadline 4/1)

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Congrats to Joan Kwon Glass for earning a Silver Medal

in the 2025 IPNE Book Awards for Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms! Cheers to all the honorees, and thanks to the Independent Publishers of New England for this honor.

 

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Joan Kwon Glass’s poem “Going Home” was featured on

The Slowdown, hosted by Maggie Smith! Take a listen here. 

Joan also has a new poem, “Mascot,” in the latest

Split Lip Magazine. Check it out here.

 

 

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Corrie Williamson has four new poems in Outskirts Literary Journal, and you can hear their expansive plain songs, grasslands, and prairieness as the poet reads them at the link.

 

 

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After reading together in Santa Cruz, CA in December,

Lynne Thompson and Patricia Smith sat down for a convo

with Dion O’Reilly of the Hive Collective, which was

recently posted as a podcast episode.

Lynne also had three new poems published in

The Georgia Review. Check out the whole issue here. 

 

 

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Lisbeth White has a poem “What do we tell the water now?”

up at Terrain in their “Letter to America” series.

Here’s an excerpt, and you can read the whole here.

 

 

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Abby E. Murray has a poem in the final issue of Pedestal Magazine, Issue 97. Here’s an excerpt of “My Daughter

Explains the New World,” and you can read the whole here.

 

 

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Gratitude to CLMP for this stellar reading list for

Black History Month 2026, including Lynne Thompson’s

Beg No Pardon and Lisbeth White’s American Sycamore.

Check out all the fantastic titles in the full list in the link.

 

 

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Jennifer K. Sweeney and L. I. Henley engaged in making

an illustrated interview about their collaborative chapbook

Dear Question: A Conversation for West Trestle Review’s series

“Cross-Ties.” Check out the whole beautiful convo here. 

 

 

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Thank you to Dayna Patterson for these gorgeous matches for Carolina Hotchandani's The Book Eaters and Joan Kwon Glass's Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms for Poetry + Fungus!

Follow Dayna's project over on Instagram here.