Copper Canyon Press Programs
Publishing Program
The heart of our mission statement reflects our commitment to simultaneously publishing exceptional poets, and engaging the broadest reading audience for poetry possible. Each year we publish up to 20 new collections of poetry. These include translations of classical and contemporary work from many of the world's cultures, re-issues of out-of-print poetry classics, anthologies, and prose books about poetry. We feature works by revered master poets, mid-career poets and emerging American poets.
Copper Canyon has published over 400 titles including works by Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda, Pulitzer Prize-winners Carolyn Kizer, W.S. Merwin, and Theodore Roethke; National Book Award winners Hayden Carruth, Lucille Clifton, and Ruth Stone; and some of the most original contemporary poets and translators such as Jim Harrison, C.D. Wright, and Washington State poets Red Pine and Lucia Perillo.
Engagement Programs
As an essential element of an engaged society, poetry enhances our quality of life by nourishing the soul, invigorating our language, and enhancing our community involvement. It helps us slow down, pause, and reflect. Poetry readers can enjoy the work of Copper Canyon Press authors and share their experience of poetry through readings and discussions hosted in venues throughout the U.S. including Town Hall and the Richard Hugo House in Seattle, the Poetry Foundation, and New York’s 92nd Street Y.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Last year, you supported 2 major efforts.Your support enabled us to create and make poetry e-books available to everyone who uses e-reading devices. From kids using inner-city libraries to busy international travelers, readers can now enjoy over 50 poetry e-books from Copper Canyon. You also established the W.S. Merwin Legacy Fund, which has allowed us begin production on the revered former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer-prize winning author’s next six books of poems. The first two collections of poetry in translation will be available this spring to you and to poetry readers around the world. Thank you for making this work possible!
This year, your support will give readers access to some of the most distinguished poets writing including a complete translation of the Haiku of Buson by W.S. Merwin and a new translation by Joseph Cadora of Rainer Maria Rilke’s New Poems. Your support also enables the publication of acclaimed poets Lucia Perillo and Kwame Dawes as well as the next generation of poets Lisa Olstein and Tishani Doshi. We seek to continue to broaden and expand both the reading audience for poetry and our aesthetic considerations.