Sixteen Rivers Press is a shared-work, nonprofit poetry collective that provides an alternative publishing avenue for San Francisco Bay Area poets.

History

Founded in 1999 by poets Valerie Berry, Terry Ehret, Margaret Kaufman, Jacqueline Kudler, Diane Lutovich, Carolyn Miller, and Susan Sibbet as a shared-work, nonprofit poetry collective dedicated to providing an alternative publishing avenue for San Francisco Bay Area poets. Sixteen Rivers Press was modeled after the

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, MA in 19 ...

collective, a Boston-area regional press created in the 1970s. Named for the sixteen rivers that flow into San Francisco Bay, the press publishes books by poets residing in the Greater Bay Area region. Sixteen Rivers Press continues as one of the longest-running and most successful collective presses in the United States, having published thirty collections of poetry. Its authors have won prizes in poetry and translation,

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and other grants, honors in various genres, and have published books with other presses—in

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 ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, education,

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

, and other nonfiction.

Press operations

Editorial structure

Sixteen Rivers Press chooses manuscripts via an annual “blind” selection competition, the collective's membership participating in that selection. Poets whose manuscripts are chosen for book publication commit to working with the press for a term of three years, their book appearing during the second year of that term. Many writers have chosen to stay active in the press past the requisite three-year term. Although the press operates with a nonprofit board, it uses a consensus model of decision-making.

Funding

Sixteen Rivers Press is a US 501(c)(3)

not-for-profit corporation 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 ...

. The press employs no paid staff. Money to publish new books comes primarily from sales of the previous year's books, augmented by donations, grants, and fundraisers. Since 2005, through the generosity of particular supporters and featured poets, Sixteen Rivers has held annual fundraiser evenings. Featured poets at those fundraisers have been Philip Levine,

Eavan Boland Eavan Aisling Boland (24 September 1944 – 27 April 2020) was an Irish poet, author, and professor. She was a professor at Stanford University, where she had taught from 1996. Her work deals with the Irish national identity, and the role of w ...

Al Young Albert James Young (May 31, 1939 – April 17, 2021) was an American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and professor. He was named Poet Laureate of California by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2005 to 2008. Young's many books includ ...

Ilya Kaminsky Ilya Kaminsky (born April 18, 1977) is a hard-of-hearing, USSR-born, Ukrainian-Russian-Jewish-American poet, critic, translator and professor. He is best known for his poetry collections ''Dancing in Odesa'' and ''Deaf Republic'', which have earn ...

Brenda Hillman Brenda Hillman (born March 27, 1951 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American poet and translator. She is the author of ten collections of poetry: ''White Dress'', ''Fortress'', ''Death Tractates'', ''Bright Existence'', ''Loose Sugar'', ''Cascadia'', '' ...

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 1997 ...

Jane Hirshfield Jane Hirshfield (born February 24, 1953) is an American poet, essayist, and translator, known as 'one of American poetry's central spokespersons for the biosphere' and recognized as 'among the modern masters,' 'writing some of the most important ...

Mark Doty Mark Doty (born August 10, 1953) is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work ''My Alexandria.'' He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. Early life Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee to Lawrence an ...

Kay Ryan Kay Ryan (born September 21, 1945) is an American poet and educator. She has published seven volumes of poetry and an anthology of selected and new poems. From 2008 to 2010 she was the sixteenth United States Poet Laureate. In 2011 she was named ...

, and

Camille Dungy Camille T. Dungy (born 1972) is an American poet and professor. Career Born in Denver, Colorado, Dungy graduated from Stanford University (BA) and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where she earned her MFA. She is the author of four ...

. In 2009 and 2012, Sixteen Rivers Press was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts with Access to Artistic Excellence grants. Grants have also come from

The Koret Foundation ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

The Whitney Foundation ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Yellow House Foundation Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

, and others.NEA website

Special projects

In 2007, Sixteen Rivers Press released a CD, , featuring poetry read by poets published by the press prior to that year. In 2009, Sixteen Rivers Press released , a wide-ranging anthology of poems by non-members that explores different aspects of life within the San Francisco Bay Area and that area's effect on poets’ lives and consciousness. Former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass wrote the foreword to the volume. The anthology is currently in its third printing. In 2011, Sixteen Rivers Press initiated its Under Forty chapbook series, a publication competition for writers under the age of forty. The first chapbook selected was Judy Halebsky’s . The second was Miriam Bird Greenberg's . In 2013, Sixteen Rivers Press published its first book of translations, by French writer Ito Naga, translated by the author and press member Lynne Knight.

Members

Nonprofit Board Members

Current Sixteen Rivers Press Nonprofit Board Members include Margaret Kaufman, Lynne Knight, Jacqueline Kudler, and Carolyn Miller.

Advisory board members

Current Sixteen Rivers Press Advisory Board members include Marjorie Agosin,

Francisco X. Alarcón Francisco Xavier Alarcón (21 February 1954 – 15 January 2016) was a Chicano poet and educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to have "gained recognition while writing mostly in Spanish" within the United States. His poems have been also ...

, Gillian Conoley, Ellen Dudley, Kathleen Fraser, Ruth Gundle,

Marie Howe Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tr ...

, Joyce Jenkins, Diana O'Hehir,

David St. John David St. John (born July 24, 1949) is an American poet. Biography Born in Fresno, California, he was educated at California State University, Fresno, where he studied with poet Philip Levine, and at the University of Iowa, receiving an M.F.A. ...

, Eleanor Wilner, and

Collective Members

Current active Sixteen Rivers Press collective members include Valerie Berry, Stella Beratlis, Barbara Swift Brauer, Beverly Burch, Terry Ehret, Gerald Fleming, Margaret Kaufman, Lynne Knight, Jacqueline Kudler, Rosa Lane, Nina Lindsay, Carolyn Miller, Lisa Robertson, Erin Rodoni, Murray Silverstein, Jeanne Wagner, Gillian Wegener, and Helen Wickes.

Book sales

Sixteen Rivers Press titles are available from the press itself,

Small Press Distribution Small Press Distribution (SPD) is a non-profit literary arts organization located in Berkeley, California. As their name indicates, the core of their mission is to act as an umbrella distributor and marketer for hundreds of smaller literary publi ...

, online outlets in the United States and internationally, and traditional bookstores. Ebooks are produced and distributed by .

Titles

* Sixteen Rivers Press (eds.), ''America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience'', Foreword by Camille T. Dungy, 2018, * Sixteen Rivers Press (eds.), '' The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed,'' Foreword by Robert Hass, April 2010, * Sixteen Rivers Press, ''Naming the Rivers'': Poets of Sixteen Rivers Press 1999-2008. Features the recordings of sixteen Sixteen Rivers Press authors reading their own work * Dan Bellm, ''Practice,'' 2008,
ebook edition
2012 * Maria M. Benet, ''Mapmaker of Absences,'' 2005, * Stella Beratlis, ''Alkali Sink'', 2015, * Valerie Berry, ''difficult news,'' 2001, * Barbara Swift Brauer, 2013, ''At Ease in the Borrowed World'', * Beverly Burch, 2014, ''How a Mirage Works'', * Terry Ehret, ''Lucky Break,'' 2008, * Terry Ehret, ''Translations From the Human Language,'' 2001, * Gerald Fleming, ''The Choreographer'', 2013, * Gerald Fleming, ''Swimmer Climbing onto Shore,'' 2005, * Miriam Bird Greenberg, ''All night in the new country'', 2013, * Judy Halebsky, ''Space/Gap/Interval/Distance'', 2012,
ebook edition
2012 * Christina Hutchins, ''The Stranger Dissolves,'' 2011,
ebook edition
2012 * Margaret Kaufman, ''Inheritance,'' April 2010, * Margaret Kaufman, ''Snake at the Wrist,'' 2002, * Lynne Knight, ''Again,'' 2009, * Jacqueline Kudler, ''Easing into Dark'', 2012,
ebook edition
2012 * Jacqueline Kudler, ''Sacred Precinct,'' 2003,
ebook edition
2012 * Nina Lindsay, ''Today’s Special,'' 2007, * Diane Sher Lutovich, ''In the Right Season,'' 2005, * Diane Sher Lutovich, ''What I Stole,'' 2003, * Carolyn Miller, ''Light, Moving,'' 2009, * Carolyn Miller, ''After Cocteau,'' 2002, * Sharon Olson, ''The Long Night of Flying,'' 2006, * Lisa Robertson, ''Orbit of Known Objects'', 2015, * Susan Sibbet, ''No Easy Light, 2004,'' * Murray Silverstein, ''Any Old Wolf,'' 2006, * Murray Silverstein, Master of Leaves, 2014, * Lynn Lyman Trombetta, ''Falling World,'' 2004, * Jeanne Wagner, ''In the Body of Our Lives'', 2011, * Gillian Wegener, ''The Opposite of Clairvoyance,'' 2008, * Helen Wickes, ''In Search of Landscape,'' 2007, * Helen Wickes, ''World as You Left It'', 2015,

References

External links

The Sixteen Rivers Press website
{{Authority control Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco Poetry organizations American poetry Book publishing companies based in San Francisco Publishing companies established in 1999 1999 establishments in California