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Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University (Connecticut). The Press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist.[1][2] Founded (in its present form) in 1957, the Press publishes books of poetry and books on music, dance and performance, American Studies, and film.[2][3][4][5]
The Press is notable among prestigious American academic presses for its poetry series, which publishes both established poets and new ones.[6][7] The Press has released more than 250 titles in its poetry series and has garnered, in that series alone, among other awards, four Pulitzer Prizes, a Bollingen Prize, three National Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, and an American Book Award.[2][3][6][8][9] According to The New York Times, university presses with bigger endowments, with financial backing from the state, or with large graduate programs do not enjoy the same status in the field of poetry that the Wesleyan University Press enjoys, nor have they won a comparable array of prizes in poetry.[10] The Press also has garnered Pulitzer Prizes, American Book Awards, and other awards in its other series.[11]
Norman O. Brown and John Cage were two of the prominent early authors whose work was published by the Press.[12] The Press's poetry series was nurtured in its infancy by noted poet Richard Wilbur, then an English professor at the University.[6][13][14] In the mid 1950s, William Manchester, who would become a long time writer-in-residence and professor at the University, served as an editor at the Press.[15] In the 1960s, T.S. Eliot served both as a roving editor for the poetry series and special editorial consultant of the Press. In the former capacity, Eliot specialized in, among other things, seeking out promising new poets in Europe for publication.[6][16]
Wesleyan is the smallest college or university in the nation to have its own press, and the Wesleyan University Press has the second-oldest poetry series in the nation.[2][17] Approximately 25 books are published each year.
Authors and poets published by the Press include John Luther Adams, Rae Armantrout, Samuel R. Delany, James Dickey (18th U.S. Poet Laureate), Brenda Hillman, Paul Horgan, David Ignatow, Yusef Komunyakaa, Justine Larbalestier, Heather McHugh, Juliet McMains, Farah Mendlesohn, Alice Notley, Louis Simpson, Richard Slotkin, James Tate, Jean Valentine, Charles Wright, James Wright, and Jack Spicer, among others.
Wesleyan University Press titles are distributed by the University Press of New England.
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