Next time you're browsing in the poetry section of
your favorite bookstore, check out the publishers'
names. For every Knopf, Random House, or Norton,
you'll see a dozen with names such as Copper Canyon,
Graywolf, Invisible Cities, and Wings. Of the thousand
or so new poetry titles each year, the vast majority
come from publishers whose names would sound like
wineries if they didn't mostly end with the word
"Press."
These are the independent presses – usually
small, sometimes nonprofit, all working within slender
economic margins – that are the mainstay of the
poetry world. Considering their size and resources,
their authors win more than their share of the annual
prizes, but the value of the independent presses is
measured by more than Pulitzers and National Book
Awards.
Taking Wings
Consider Wings Press in San Antonio. Wings'
publisher, Bryce Milligan, is justifiably proud of a
book list that includes the lyrics of Townes Van Zandt,
the Christmas poems of Donald Hall, and works by
established and emerging Latino and Latina poets.
Ironically, it is the smaller presses that can
afford to bring out books by new voices, and at Wings,
"diversity" is about the preservation and
propagation of distinctive literature from Texas and
the Southwest.
In addition to the small presses' up-front
commitment to bring out a book, Mr. Milligan says they
are able to support a title by keeping it in print for
a far longer time, and with far fewer sales, than the
big publishing houses.
To the list of Wings titles that I have featured in
past columns, let me add small-press pioneer Chip
Dameron's masterly Hook and Bloodline ($14
paperback).
Mr. Dameron's poetry reimagines the physical world
and places us squarely in it, through his images and
stories and a sure feel for technique. From the
softball field to the habitat of exotic Texas
waterfowl to his grandmother's ICU bed, we are
grateful for the trip.
Books and covers
Another small press – Invisible Cities Press in
Montpelier, Vt. – has recently brought out four
handsome volumes in its Contemporary Classics Poetry
Series, including a collection of new and selected
poems by SMU's Jack Myers, The Glowing River ($22).
Covering nearly a quarter century of Mr. Myers'
work, the topics and styles here have a satisfying
variety, but there is also a consistent quality –
not so much a sense of calm as a centeredness – that
runs through poems that confront the unsettled and
unsettling aspects of life in contemporary America.
And did I mention the physical beauty of the books
in this series? Invisible Cities editor Roger
Weingarten emphasizes the publisher's commitment to
bringing out books whose design does justice to the
writing inside.
The independent presses accomplish this by working
closely with authors, according to J. Robbins of
Graywolf Press in St. Paul, Minn.
Graywolf's recent titles include Interrogations
at Noon ($14 paperback) by Dana Gioia,
nurse-midwife to the New Formalist tradition in
American poetry. Many of the poems here are
translations and others are inspired by translations,
yet Mr. Gioia has a poetic voice that is entirely his
own. The truth is, he has several poetic voices, and
he uses them all to splendid effect. With poems that
are sometimes heavily metered and rhymed or written in
free verse, the joy in the craft of poetry is evident
throughout Interrogations.
Good poets take risks that thrill, and Mr. Gioia is
no exception, as in his epigrammatic six-line wonder,
"Curriculum Vitae." He is also a storyteller
on both a grand and intimate scale.
BOA Editions Limited in Rochester, N.Y., is an
independent press begun (in the words of founder Al
Poulin) "with all the confidence of
inexperience." BOA's editor and development
director, poet Thom Ward, is proud of the catholicity
(actually, the "quirky mixed genres") of
BOA's offerings – from Kim Addonizio's much-honored Tell
Me ($12.50 paperback) to Naomi Shihab Nye's rich
and generous Fuel ($12.50 paperback) and the
brand-new Book of My Nights ($12.95 paperback)
by Li-Young Lee.
Mr. Lee's spare, evocative poems draw us into the
spaces between the words, forcing an active
partnership between poet and reader, between his words
and our world. In "Praise Them," the poet
could as well be describing his art as the birds that
are the subject of his poem: "The birds don't
alter space./They reveal it. The sky/never fills with
any/leftover flying./They leave nothing to trace . . .
," but if "one of them/found it safe
inside/our finally untroubled and untroubling
gaze,/who wouldn't hear/what singing completes
us?"
Thanks be to the independents who, as BOA's Mr.
Ward puts it, are empowered by the freedom and the
challenge of publishing poetry with passion.
Tom Mayo, an associate professor of law at
Southern Methodist University, teaches "Law,
Literature & Medicine" at the law school and
at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
at Dallas.
