Copper Canyon Press is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

, founded in 1972 specializing exclusively in the publication of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both popular and emerging American poets, translations of classical and contemporary work from many of the world's cultures, re-issues of out-of-print poetry classics, prose books about poetry, and anthologies. The press achieved national attention when Copper Canyon poet

W.S. Merwin William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose, and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thema ...

won the 2005

National Book Award for Poetry The National Book Award for Poetry is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".

in the same year another Copper Canyon poet, Ted Kooser, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and was appointed to a second year as

United States Poet Laureate The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...

. Merwin later won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and in 2010 was named

. Copper Canyon has published more than 400 titles, including works by

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

Laureates

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

Odysseas Elytis Odysseas Elytis ( el, Οδυσσέας Ελύτης , pen name of Odysseas Alepoudellis, el, Οδυσσέας Αλεπουδέλλης; 2 November 1911 – 18 March 1996) was a Greek poet, man of letters, essayist and translator, regarded as th ...

, Octavio Paz, Vicente Aleixandre and

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

;

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winners Ted Kooser, Carolyn Kizer, Maxine Kumin, Theodore Roethke, and

;

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

winners Hayden Carruth, Lucille Clifton, and Ruth Stone; and some contemporary poets and translators such as Jim Harrison,

C. D. Wright Carolyn D. Wright (January 6, 1949 – January 12, 2016) was an American poet. She was a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island. Background C. D. Wright was born in Mountain Home, Arkansas, to a chancery jud ...

, Bill Porter (aka Red Pine), Norman Dubie,

Eleanor Wilner Eleanor Rand Wilner (born 1937) is an American poet and editing, editor. Life Wilner obtained her bachelor's from Goucher College and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Her graduate dissertation concerned the topic of imagination and was l ...

Arthur Sze Arthur Sze (; ; born December 1, 1950) is an American poet, translator, and professor. Since 1972, he has published ten collections of poetry. Sze's ninth collection ''Compass Rose'' (2014) was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Sz ...

, James Richardson, Tom Hennen and

Lucia Perillo Lucia Maria Perillo (September 30, 1958 – October 16, 2016) was an American poet. In 2000, Perillo was recognized with a "genius grant" as part of the MacArthur Fellows Program. Life and career Perillo was born in Manhattan on September 30, 19 ...

. In 2003 it published The Complete Poems of

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider h ...

The press published ''What About This: Collected Poems of

Frank Stanford Frank Stanford (born Francis Gildart Smith; August 1, 1948 – June 3, 1978) was an American poet. He is most known for his epic, ''The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You'' – a labyrinthine poem without stanzas or punctuation. In a ...

'' to great critical acclaim in 2015. In his New York Times review, Dwight Garner complimented the press for performing a "vital and difficult task" and giving the reader "a chance to see him (Stanford) whole." National Public Radio called the book's release "the big event in poetry for 2015." Also in 2015, Copper Canyon Press acquired the U.S. rights to a manuscript of lost poems by

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

. Discovered by archivists from The Pablo Neruda Foundation in the summer of 2014 just after the April 2013 exhumation of Neruda's body in Chile, this collection of poems has been called "a literary event of universal importance" and "the biggest find in Spanish literature in recent years". The collection, ''Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems'', translated by Pulitzer finalist

Forrest Gander Forrest Gander (born 1956) is an American poet, translator, essayist, and novelist. The A.K. Seaver Professor Emeritus of Literary Arts & Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2019 for ''Be With' ...

, was released in April 2016 and includes full-color, facsimile presentations of Neruda's handwritten poems. Copper Canyon was also awarded the rights to publish Neruda's first book, ''Crepusulario'', which has also never appeared in the U.S. in English translation. Not only does Copper Canyon Press publish works of established poets, it also strives to publish the first books by talented new poets. In 2016, Copper Canyon published two debut collections:

Camille Rankine Camille Rankine is an American poet. She was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, earned a BA at Harvard University and an MFA at Columbia University. Rankine is the author of the chapbook, ''Slow Dance with Trip Wire,'' selected by Cornelius Ea ...

's ''Incorrect Merciful Impulses'' and Ocean Vuong's ''Night Sky With Exit Wounds''; both of these titles received critical acclaim.

Major prizes

* Jericho Brown - 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for ''

The Tradition The Tradition (known as the Regions Tradition for sponsorship reasons) is an event on the PGA Tour Champions. First staged in 1989, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five senior major golf championships. Unlike the U.S. Senior Op ...

'' * Arthur Sze - 2019

for ''

Sight Lines ''Sight Lines'' is the tenth poetry collection by Arthur Sze. It was published by Copper Canyon Press in April 9, 2019. The collection won the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry (USA). Judges of the prize praised Sze's "quiet mastery which ge ...

'' * Ocean Vuong - 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize for ''

Night Sky with Exit Wounds ''Night Sky with Exit Wounds'' is a 2016 collection of poetry by Vietnamese Americans, Vietnamese American poet and essayist Ocean Vuong. The book won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2017. Content Vuong and his family immigrated to the United States fr ...

'' * Natalie Diaz - 2013

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

for ''When My Brother Was an Aztec'' * Laura Kasischke - 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award for ''Space, In Chains'' * C.D. Wright - 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for ''One With Others'' *

- 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for ''The Shadow of Sirius'' * Ted Kooser - 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for ''Delights and Shadows'' * W.S. Merwin - 2005

for ''Migrations: New and Selected Poems'' * Ruth Stone - 2002 National Book Award for Poetry for ''In the Next Galaxy'' * Hayden Carruth - 1996 National Book Award for Poetry for ''Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey''

References

{{reflist Book publishing companies based in Washington (state) Companies based in Port Townsend, Washington Non-profit organizations based in Port Townsend, Washington Publishing companies established in 1972 American companies established in 1972 1972 establishments in Washington (state)