I stole this from Tara Betts' MySpace blog, and she got it from Barbara Jane Reyes ...

A Decade of Poetry
Dear Friends of Perugia Press:

The two questions I'm asked most often are:
* Why do you only publish women? and
* Would you ever consider publishing more than one book a year?

Last week, the National Book Award finalists were announced, and I noticed that only 4 out of the 20 finalists are women, 1 out of the 5 poetry finalists is a woman. Because of this imbalance, I did some more research. For the National Book Award in poetry, since 2000, only 12 out of 35 finalists were women. The Nobel Prize in Literature has gone to a man 9 out of the last 10 years. The $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award also went to only 1 woman since Perugia Press has been publishing poetry. The prestigious Kingsley Tufts Award has gone to a man 8 out of the last 10 years.

So, one reason we publish only women is to help balance the scales. And Perugia poets are succeeding. We just received the terrific news that, LAMB, by Frannie Lindsay, is the runner-up for the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. (TARA'S BLOG NOTE-Tracy K. Smith, a young African American woman, won the 2006 James Laughlin Award for her collection "Duende.") This award is for the best second book published this year.

Earlier this fall, Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher, was listed on Poetry Foundation's contemporary poetry bestseller list. She shared that honor with several major book award winners, past poets laureate, and poets well into their publishing careers. Perugia Press publishes poets who are traditionally left out of mainstream commercial publishing, first and second books by women. We choose collections that appeal to long-time poetry
readers as well as those new to poetry to insure that the cultural discussion of poetry remains inclusive.

As for the second question about publishing more than one book a year, we would love to, but we simply don¹t have the resources. Fortunately, we find that partly because we publish only one book a year, our books create a lot of buzz: Who will win the Perugia Press Prize this year? If you have a manuscript ready to publish, please consider entering our contest. The annual contest deadline is fast approaching: November 15, 2006. For
guidelines, go to http://www.perugiapress.com/contest.html .

This year, we are celebrating 10 years of publishing. We hope you can come to our reunion reading and party on Saturday, June 9, 2007, in Northampton, MA (save the date!). Even if you can't, please consider contributing to Perugia Press, a press devoted to expanding the audience for poetry. Donors of $100 or more will receive our anniversary audio anthology CD as a thank-you gift. To give right now, go to
http://www.perugiapress.com/support.html .

I love this work making beautiful books by women starting their publishing careers and as you know, the achievements of any independent literary press depend on donations. Thank you for helping to keep small press poetry publishing alive! Feel free to email me with any questions.

Many thanks,
Susan Kan, Director