Parent company | Cleveland State University |
---|---|
Founded | 1962 |
Founder | Lewis Turco |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Cleveland, Ohio |
Distribution | Small Press Distribution |
Publication types | books |
Fiction genres | poetry |
Official website | www |
The Cleveland State University Poetry Center is a literary small press and poetry outreach organization in Cleveland, Ohio, operated under the auspices of the English Department at Cleveland State University. It publishes original works of poetry by contemporary writers, though it also publishes novellas, essay collections, and occasional works of criticism or translated poetry collections. [1] It was founded in 1962 by poet Lewis Turco [2] at what was then Fenn College, attained its present name two years later when Fenn College was absorbed into the newly founded Cleveland State University, and began publishing books in 1971. [2] From 2007 to 2012 its director and series editor was poet and professor Michael Dumanis. [3] From 2014, its director and Series Editor is the poet and professor Caryl Pagel.
In its history, the poetry center has published more than 150 titles, [4] including works by David Baker, Scott Cairns, Jared Carter, Chrystos, Martha Collins, Emily Kendal Frey, David Graham, Richard Hague, Mark Jarman, Claudia Keelan, David Kirby, Thomas Lux, Thylias Moss, Amy Newman, Mwatabu S. Okantah, Carol Potter, Claudia Rankine, Tim Seibles, Larry R. Smith, Judith Vollmer, Jeanne Murray Walker, Sam Witt, and Franz Wright. [5]
In recent years, the poetry center has acquired the majority of its books through two annual poetry contests, the First Book Competition for new poets and the Open Competition for poets who already have published books. Recent judges for the First Book Competition have included the poets Rae Armantrout, Nick Flynn, Matthea Harvey, and D. A. Powell. From 2008 to 2013, the Open Competition has been juried by a panel consisting of poets Kazim Ali, Mary Biddinger, Michael Dumanis, and Sarah Gridley. [3] In 2015, the Poetry Center will run its first Essay Collection Competition, judged by Wayne Koestenbaum.
Recent and forthcoming publications include books by [6] Samuel Amadon, Oliver Baez Bendorf, John Bradley, Lily Brown, Elyse Fenton, Emily Kendal Frey, Lizzie Harris, Rebecca Hazelton, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Chloe Honum, Dora Malech, Shane McCrae, Helena Mesa, Philip Metres, Zach Savich, Sandra Simonds, S.E. Smith, Mathias Svalina, Allison Titus, Liz Waldner, William Waltz, Allison Benis White, Jon Woodward, Chloe Honum, and Wendy Xu.
The authors it publishes frequently go on to win major literary prizes. Poetry Center author Elyse Fenton won the 2010 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize for her collection Clamor. [7] [8] A Whiting Writers' Award was awarded to Poetry Center author Shane McCrae for his collection Mule. [9]
The Cleveland State University Poetry Center was selected by the Huffington Post as one of the 15 independent, small-press publishers that exemplifies "the best qualities of this publishing tradition." [10]
The poetry center also hosts a Visiting Writers/Reading Series for the university community. It is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, and its recent titles are distributed by Small Press Distribution.
Lewis Putnam Turco was an American poet, teacher, and writer of fiction and non-fiction. Turco was an advocate for Formalist poetry in the United States.
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Jared Carter is an American poet and editor.
Thomas Sayers Ellis is an American poet, photographer and bandleader. He previously taught as an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Bennington College in Vermont, and also at Sarah Lawrence College until 2012.
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Sam Witt is an American poet and tenured English professor who currently lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Pleiades: Literature in Context is a biannual literary journal that publishes contemporary poetry, fiction, essays, and book reviews. It was founded by undergraduate students at the University of Central Missouri in 1981. The non-profit journal is published by the University of Central Missouri's Department of English and Philosophy. Pleiades publishes work from both established and emerging authors, and dedicates half of each issue to detailed book reviews of recent small-press poetry and fiction. Pleiades is funded by the University of Central Missouri and grants from the Missouri Arts Council. Its headquarters is in Warrensburg, Missouri.
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Tupelo Press is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1999. It produced its first titles in 2001, publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Originally located in Dorset, Vermont, the press has since moved to North Adams, Massachusetts.
Fenton Johnson was an American poet, essayist, author of short stories, editor, and educator. Johnson came from a middle-class African-American family in Chicago, where he spent most of his career. His work is often included in anthologies of 20th-century poetry, and he is noted for early prose poetry. Author James Weldon Johnson called Fenton, "one of the first Negro revolutionary poets”. He is also considered a forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance.
Michael Dumanis is an American poet, professor, and editor of poetry.
Shane McCrae is an American poet, and is currently Poetry Editor of Image.
Emily Kendal Frey is an American poet.
Elyse Fenton is an American poet.
Eduardo C. Corral is an American poet and MFA Assistant Professor in the Department of English at NC State University. His first collection, Slow Lightning, published by Yale University Press, was the winner of the 2011 Yale Younger Series Poets award, making him the first Latino recipient of this prize. His 2020 work, guillotine, was awarded the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for gay poetry and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
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