Saturday, February 05, 2005

New Poetry Press

According to The Seattle Times, a benefactor named Charlie Wright is planning to start a new "for-profit" (or at least not not-for-profit) poetry press in Seattle. Joshua Beckman has been hired as the editor. And they hope to publish 10 books of poetry a year! Read all about it here.

2 comments:

Chaty said...

Interesting news, Peter. I’m sure many are already taking measurements for the coffin, but hope must be at the heart of new ideas and ventures. Can such a business succeed? Well that’s not a good question. At least some poets will benefit—not enough, never enough—but some is simply good enough. Of course, the day will come (and this is a small obsession of mine) when less and less money will be needed to let pots be known. The Internet will (should) be the vehicle. But we’ll have to take it seriously first.

Un abrazo,
Alberto

Peter said...

Hi Alberto:
The idea of poetry becoming "for-profit," or seeking out a bigger audience than it naturally has, reminds me of a thing James Merrill said in an interview:

Q: Wouldn’t you like a larger audience?

JM: When I search my heart, no, not really. So why invite it, even supposing that I could? Think what one has to do to get a mass audience. I’d rather have one perfect reader. Why dynamite the pond in order to catch that single silver carp?