Wave Books

Last updated
Wave Books
Founded2005
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location Seattle, Washington
Distribution Consortium Book Sales and Distribution
Publication types books
Fiction genres poetry
Official website www.wavepoetry.com

Wave Books (established 2005) is an American independent press focusing on the publication of poetry, with a focus on innovative, contemporary poetry and poetry in translation. Books published by Wave have been finalists for and winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, [1] [2] the Griffin Poetry Prize, [3] and the National Book Award for Poetry. [4] [5] Writers published by Wave Books include CAConrad, Don Mee Choi, Timothy Donnelly, Kate Durbin, Renee Gladman, Terrance Hayes, Tyehimba Jess, Douglas Kearney, Dorothea Lasky, Ben Lerner, Chelsey Minnis, Eileen Myles, Maggie Nelson, Hoa Nguyen, Mary Ruefle, Rachel Zucker, and others.

Contents

Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour 2006

Poetry Bus Tour was a literary event sponsored by Wave Books in 2006. It featured a tour of contemporary poets, traveling by a forty-foot Biodiesel bus, who stopped to perform in fifty North American cities over the course of fifty days. [6]

Wave's Annual Poetry Festival 2011: Poetry in Translation

Every two years from 2009-2013 Wave Books presented three days of poetry. It held three days of poetry in translation November 4–6, 2011, with the help of the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington. The event featured film screenings, art exhibitions, lectures, discussions and readings with featured poets and translators.

Book design

Wave books are published with simple covers, lacking the marketing blurbs common in the publishing world. [7] Its translations avoid the use of facing pages of original and translated text, and the translation of Olio includes foldout, detachable pages. [8]


In 2021 Wave began producing its first audiobooks that are recorded as read by the author in a live audience setting. [7]

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 "2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Poetry; Finalist: Dunce, by Mary Ruefle (Wave Books)". The Pulitzer Prizes. The Pulitzer Prizes. May 4, 2020. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  2. 1 2 "The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry - Olio, by Tyehimba Jess (Wave Books)". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Sho: 2022 International Winner, Wave Books, USA". The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "DMZ Colony - Winner, National Book Awards 2020 for Poetry". National Book Foundation. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  5. 1 2 "A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure - Finalist, National Book Awards 2021 for Poetry". National Book foundation. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  6. Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour 2006
  7. 1 2 Segal, Corinne. "Interview with an Indie Press: Wave Books On Taking a New Audiovisual Approach to Poetry". Literary Hub. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
  8. Maye, Steven (2023). "The Book and the Press in Recent North American Poetry". Chicago Review. 66/67(3–1): 23–32.