Books Published in 2024, So Far

In spite of election horrors, The Poet's Press has published 18 new, expanded or revised books so far this year, including new versions of our books in PDF and epub/Kindle editions. The year so far:

Emilie Glen. The Writings of Emilie Glen 3: Poems from Magazines. Second expanded edition. 310 pages. Paperback, 6 x 9 inches.

Brett Rutherford. September Sarabande. Paperback, 6 x 9 inches, 490 pages.

Brett Rutherford. September Sarabande. PDF e-book. 490 pages.

Brett Rutherford. From Hecla to Jacob's Creek. EPUB and Kindle e-book.

Denise LaNeve. Half-Lives of the Radium Girls. Paperback, 6 x 9 inches, 112 pages.

Denise LaNeve. Half-Lives of the Radium Girls. EPUB and Kindle Ebook.

Mikhail Artsybashev and Leonid Andreyev. Two Russian Exiles: Selected Fiction. Edited/adapted and introduced by Brett Rutherford. Revised and corrected edition. Paperback, 6 x 9 inches, 266 pages.

Mikhail Artsybashev and Leonid Andreyev. Two Russian Exiles: Selected Fiction. Edited/adapted and introduced by Brett Rutherford. Revised and corrected edition. EPUB edition.

J. Rutherford Moss. The Hand You're Dealt. Kindle epub edition.

Suzanne Gili Post. Venus of Malta. Kindle epub edition.

Brett Rutherford. An Expectation of Presences. EPUB Kindle edition.

Brett Rutherford. Midnight on Benefit Street. Poetry, fiction, and journal entries for 2012-2014. Paperback, 6 x 9 inches, 276 pages.

Brett Rutherford. Midnight on Benefit Street. Poetry, fiction, and journal entries for 2012-2014. PDF ebook, 276 pages.

Li Yu. Emperor Li Yu, A Life in Poems. Poem cycle by Brett Rutherford, adapted and expanded from poems by Li Yu. 6 x 9 inches, paperback, 174 pages. Illustrated with 24 paintings from the Tang and Song Dynasties. [Previously issued only in hardcover.]

Michael Frachioni. Bus Poems. Paperback, 6 x 9 inches, 128 pages.

Callimachus. Callimachus in Alexandria: A Poem Cycle. A poem cycle by Brett Rutherford, adapted and expanded from poems by Callimachus. Second, expanded edition. 100 pages, paperback.

Callimachus. Callimachus in Alexandria: A Poem Cycle. A poem cycle by Brett Rutherford, adapted and expanded from poems by Callimachus. Second, expanded edition. 100 pages, PDF ebook.

Callimachus. Callimachus in Alexandria: A Poem Cycle. A poem cycle by Brett Rutherford, adapted and expanded from poems by Callimachus. Second, expanded edition. Kindle epub edition.

The Poet's Press History and Mission

The Poet’s Press was founded in New York City in 1971, as part of the last great Bohemia of Greenwich Village, with the mission of publishing neglected or lesser-known poets. In those days a number of deserving poets, despite having many magazine publications, had no book publications. Brett Rutherford sought to publish affordable chapbooks and books for poets, and The Poet’s Press quickly emerged as an important part of the New York poetry scene. Working out of a loft in the "cast-iron" district of Chelsea, The Poet’s Press printed and bound its own books with a small offset press and a variety of binding equipment. The press hosted readings at the loft, and Rutherford and the circle of poets he published were a vital part of the West Village poetry scene. Distinct from the more avant-garde East Side poets, the poets chosen by the press, although almost all wrote in free verse, were more traditional in centering on coherent narrative and connections to historical content or classic literature. With the publication of the 1975 anthology May Eve: A Festival of Supernatural Poetry, the press started a second imprint, Grim Reaper Books, later used for a number of Gothic and supernatural titles. The writings of Brett Rutherford, Barbara A. Holland, Shirley Powell, and some other contemporaries indeed constituted an informal "New York Gothic" movement.

In the 1980s and 1990s, The Poet’s Press continued to produce poetry books in what might be called "medieval high tech," combining the emerging desktop publishing technology with hand-bound books printed by various methods on acid-free paper. The books sometimes had custom-designed typefaces and employed a combination of gluing and stitching as the press sought new ways to produce handsome books that were still affordable. It would have been easy to go the route of the letterpress fine presses, but the productions of those high-end hobbyist printers were costly, and not the kinds of books that a poet could carry around to readings or bookstores.

Short-run book printing came to the rescue in the 1990s, and then the new technology of print-on-demand, which made it possible to publish and distribute books-wide without the expense of warehousing many cartons of unsold books. The press continued in this vein in paperback, hardcover, and PDF ebooks, focusing on design and typography to make books that embodied many of the classic aspects of book design.

As it became more and more apparent that poets could easily produce their own chapbooks, Rutherford turned the press to different projects, such as the landmark five volume historical series on Gothic and supernatural poetry, (two annotated volumes of Tales of Wonder, followed by three volumes of Tales of Terror.) The collected writings of departed poets from the Greenwich Village scene also came to pass: three volumes of the writings of Emilie Glen, and nine volumes of the poetry of Barbara A. Holland, known as "the Sibyl of Greenwich Village." Anthologies of writers from Rhode Island, and others from the Palisades Poetry movement of New Jersey, brought many new authors under the press’s umbrella. A collaboration with David Messineo and Sensations Magazine yielded the two-volume collected poems of Irish-American poet Moira Bailis. New poets adopted by the press often stayed for multiple titles, such as Annette Hayn, Joel Allegretti and Jacqueline DeWeever.

In the last several years, press founder Rutherford has turned his attention to a wider swath of world literature, producing, by his own and others’ hands, studies, translations and adaptations involving Ovid, the Chinese Emperor Li Yu, Greek poets Callimachus and Meleager, Rilke, Boston slave-poet Phillis Wheatley, World War I literature, and Heine’s satirical poems. Forays into essays, fiction and memoir have included volumes of Continental horror stories, a banned anti-war novel from World War I, the literary essays of Sarah Helen Whitman, a collection of Silver Age Russian fiction, and Boria Sax’s memoir of atomic espionage. The press has passed its 50th anniversary, having published poems and writings by more than 450 authors.

Opus 300 - The Poet's Press Anthology

 

The 50th Anniversary Anthology — FREE DOWNLOAD. The Poet's Press celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. This 406-page oversize anthology contains the best and representative selections spanning the whole history of the press -- from long out-of-print chapbooks up to the present day. Brett Rutherford has chosen work from 146 poets and writers, including 363 poems, two play excerpts, and five prose works. Works are selected not only from single-author chapbooks and books, but also from the numerous anthologies published by the press.

This volume is full of surprises. Some of the best poems of Poet's Press principal authors like Barbara A. Holland and Emilie Glen are collected here along with works from poets as diverse as Hugo, Longfellow, Goethe, Scott, and Shelley. The Greenwich Village poets of the last Bohemia of the 1960s and 1970s are joined by their successors across the Hudson from the "Poets of the Palisades" poetry community. What all the poems share is that they are a delight to read.

This book also includes a year-by-year chronology of the publications of the press, a bibliography of authors and titles, and a list of all poets published in books from The Poet's Press and its imprints.

The Poet's Press. This is the 300th publication of The Poet’s Press. Published November, 2022. PDF ebook, 406 pages, 8-1/2 x 11 inches. CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD. Readers are encouraged to download and share this book. A print edition will be made available by special order for libraries and archives, but this book will NOT be sold on Amazon and will NOT be sold in bookstores.