Alice James Books - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington

University of Maine at Farmington

The University of Maine at Farmington, established in 1864 as Maine’s first public institution of higher education, is a public liberal arts college, and a founding member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges offering programs in teacher education, human services and arts and sciences as...

History and mission

"Alice James Books was founded [as a co-operative press, in Cambridge, MA] in 1973 by five women and two men: Patricia Cumming, Marjorie Fletcher, Lee Rudolph, Ron Schreiber, Betsy Sholl, Cornelia Veenendaal, and Jean Pedrick. The intent was to provide women with a greater representation in literature and involve the writer in the publishing process. While this may seem unbelievable today, in the 1970s women writers had a very difficult time being published. Recognizing this dire need, Alice James Books was established." Maine Poet Laureate

Poet Laureate

A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...

Betsy Sholl

Elizabeth "Betsy" Sholl is an American poet and a former poet laureate of Maine. She was appointed by Governor John Baldacci to the position in 2006 and held it until 2011. She is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Rough Cradle...

shared her memory of being a founding member of the press in an interview: "The experience of starting the press from the ground up, she says, was a heady one, not least because the organization put a special emphasis on publishing poetry written by women. 'There really were attitudes that made it hard for women to publish,' Sholl says. 'There weren't a lot of women being published, and male editors tended to be pretty disdainful.' " The press is named for Alice James

Alice James

Alice James was a U.S. diarist. The only daughter of Henry James, Sr. and sister of philosopher William James and novelist Henry James, she is known mainly for the posthumously published diary that she kept in her final years.-Life:Born into a wealthy and intellectually active family, Alice James...

(sister of novelist Henry James

Henry James

Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....

and philosopher William James

William James

William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...

), whose fine journal and gift for writing were unrecognized within her lifetime.
The mission of Alice James Books, a cooperative poetry press, is to seek out and publish the best contemporary poetry by both established and beginning poets, with particular emphasis on involving poets in the publishing process.

Notable Authors and Honors

Notable poets published by Alice James Books include Jane Kenyon

Jane Kenyon

Jane Kenyon was an American poet and translator. Her work is often characterized as simple, spare, and emotionally resonant.-Life:...

, Donald Revell

Donald Revell

Donald Revell is an American poet, essayist, translator and professor.Revell has won numerous honors and awards for his work, beginning with his first book, From the Abandoned Cities, which was a National Poetry Series winner. More recently, he won the 2004 Lenore Marshall Award and is a two-time...

, Jean Valentine

Jean Valentine

Jean Valentine is an American poet, and currently the New York State Poet . Her poetry collection, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003, was awarded the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry....

, David Kirby

David Kirby

David Kirby is a journalist based in Brooklyn, New York, and was formerly a regular contributor to the New York Times since 1998. He is author of the 2005 book Evidence of Harm - Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy....

, Cole Swensen

Cole Swensen

Cole Swensen is an American poet, translator, editor, copywriter, and professor. Swensen was awarded a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and is the author of more than ten poetry collections and as many translations of works from the French. She received her B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State...

, Brian Turner

Brian Turner (American poet)

Brian Turner is an American poet, essayist, and professor. He won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award for his debut collection, Here, Bullet, the first of many awards and honors received for this collection of poems about his experience as a soldier in the Iraq War...

, Robin Becker

Robin Becker

Robin Becker is an American poet, critic, feminist, and professor. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Domain of Perfect Affection . Her All-American Girl , won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Poetry. Becker earned a B.A...

, Frank X. Gaspar

Frank X. Gaspar

Frank Xavier Gaspar is a Portuguese American poet, novelist and professor. His most recent novel is Stealing Fatima . His most recent collection of poetry, Night of a Thousand Blossoms was one of 12 books honored as the "Best Poetry of 2004" by Library Journal...

, Mary Szybist

Mary Szybist

Mary Szybist is an American poet. She grew up in Pennsylvania, and earned her B.A. and M.T. from the University of Virginia and attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Teaching-Writing Fellow....

, Forrest Hamer

Forrest Hamer

Forrest Hamer is an American poet, psychologist, and psychoanalyst. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Rift . His first collection, Call & Response, won the Beatrice Hawley Award, and his second, Middle Ear , received the Northern California Book Award...

, Sarah Manguso

Sarah Manguso

Sarah Manguso is an American writer and poet born in Massachusetts in 1974. In 2007, she was awarded the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize Fellowship in literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters...

, Kazim Ali

Kazim Ali

Kazim Ali is an American poet, novelist, essayist and professor. His most recent books are The Disappearance of Seth and Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities . His honors include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council...

, Ellen Doré Watson

Ellen Doré Watson

Ellen Doré Watson is an American poet, translator and teacher.Watson is author of five collections of poems, most recently, Dogged Hearts . Her book, Ladder Music, was a New York/New England Award winner from Alice James Books...

, Fanny Howe

Fanny Howe

Fanny Howe is an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She has written many novels in prose collection. Howe was awarded the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, presented annually by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S...

, B.H. Fairchild and Matthea Harvey

Matthea Harvey

Matthea Harvey is a contemporary American poet, writer and professor. She has published three collections, most recently, Modern Life , which earned her the 2009 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award, and a New York Times Notable Book...

. Authors have been recipients of the Witter Bynner Award, American Book Award, Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the Norma Farber First Book Award, the Arthur Rense Poetry Prize, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the William Carlos Williams Award, The Nation/Discovery Prize, The Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, Whiting Writer's Award, Guggenheim Fellowships, NEA fellowships, and many other honors. Alice James Books titles have been reviewed in The New York Times Sunday Book Review, The New Yorker, ALA Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Boston Globe, L.A. Times, and many other publications. Alice James Books itself has been featured in such magazines as Ms, Poets & Writers, Publishers Weekly, Slate, and Poetry Daily.

Manuscript Selection and Awards

"The cooperative selects manuscripts for publication through both regional and national competitions. Awards given by Alice James Books include the Beatrice Hawley Award
Beatrice Hawley Award
The Beatrice Hawley Award is given annually by Alice James Books. The award includes publication of a book-length poetry manuscript and a cash prize ....

and the Kinereth Gensler Awards. The Kinereth Gensler Awards are open to residents of New England, New York and New Jersey, and the Beatrice Hawley Award is open to all residents of the U.S. Winners of the Kinereth Gensler Awards become active cooperative members, judging future contests and participating in editorial and executive decisions. The Beatrice Hawley Award does not carry a cooperative work commitment." Awards given by AJB soon will include The Kundiman Poetry Prize, for a first or second book by an Asian American poet. The prize is being co-sponsored by Kundiman (nonprofit organization)

Kundiman (nonprofit organization)

Kundiman is a nonprofit organization which offers writing retreats, a reading series, and a poetry prize, and is dedicated to providing "a safe yet rigorous space where Asian American poets can explore, through art, the unique challenges that face the new and ever changing diaspora." Kundiman was...

Affiliation and Funding

Since 1994, the press has been affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington, and offers a publishing internship program for UMF students which offers the students work experience and education, and provides the press with assistance. The press has received funding from the Maine Arts Commission

Maine Arts Commission

The Maine Arts Commission is a State agency that assists artists and arts organizations in bringing music, dance, poetry, painting and other arts activities into the lives of people in Maine.- History :...

, as well as receiving funding from UMF and the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

, private foundations, and individuals.

Sources

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.