“We can be of our region and communities while also being part of a larger thing—whether that be American poetry, university press publishing, or just publishing in general.”
By Rose Bialer
It seems like the rest of the country is finally catching on to the vital poetry being published by Rust Belt university presses. In the last several years, presses such as University of Akron Press, Kent State University Press, University of Pittsburgh Press, and Cleveland State University Poetry Center — to name just a few — have garnered national attention and have won major literary awards for their publications. In November, Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (University of Akron Press) won the National Book Award for poetry. As someone who follows the publishing industry closely and has personal ties to the Rust Belt, I have long been aware of the concentration of talented authors and publishers in the region. Recently, I decided to speak with publishers there to find out why their works are more important now than ever before, and how their success intertwines with their identities as both university and Rust Belt presses.
One recurring theme in the conversation is that the presses’ dynamism and freedom lie in their ability to take risks in what they publish. As Derek Krissoff writes in his article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “It may be surprising to hear, but we’re in a golden age for university-press publishing. Driven by mission and tolerant of risk, these houses are publishing some of the most-vital books around.” While Krissoff’s optimism may seem unusual – both higher education and publishing are often spoken of in fatalistic terms – perhaps it shouldn’t be. These publishers are motivated by literary craft, not financial earnings. This is especially true in their poetry titles, a genre, which all we know, is not exactly profit-driven. The critical role that university presses play in publishing poetry was recently spotlighted in Lithub. In the article, six poets shared their perspectives about the vitality of university press publishing. A common consensus was that university presses, being mission-driven, can stay more aligned with the writer’s initial intention even, or especially, if that means pushing against current publishing trends.
I spoke with Alex Wolfe, the acquiring editor for the Pitt Poetry Series at The University of Pittsburgh Press about the advantages of working at a university press. The Rust Belt press has been publishing against the grain since 1937, and the Pitt Poetry Series was founded thirty years later in 1967. Wolfe
emphasized that while University of Pittsburgh Press does not have the same budget or marketing capability as larger publishing houses, this is far outweighed by their commitment to publish today’s best poetry and writing. As Wolfe points out, “We can publish niche [scholarly] titles that otherwise would never see publication—and this is not because these works and their authors are not worthy of publication, it simply means that commercial presses would not be able to put these titles into the world because their profit margins would never allow it to be considered in the first place.”
Hilary Plum, the associate director of the CSU Poetry Center at Cleveland State University Press echoed this view about the work of small and university presses. To clarify, The CSU Poetry Center is not technically a university press, but it is housed within Cleveland State University and partially funded by it. In our conversation, I asked Plum what she thought about her own and neighboring presses in the Rust Belt breaking through to readers across the country, specifically to those who wouldn’t normally read books from a university press. Plum explained, “A lot of small and independent presses are regularly
publishing work that has a very critical, rich, and important political range of perspectives outside of the mainstream and sometimes the mainstream catches on.”
She gave as an example, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha winning the National Book Award for Poetry. Before receiving this prestigious honor, Tuffaha had spent decades publishing poetry. Something About Living was her fourth collection and was published by University of Akron Press for the Akron Series in Poetry after Adrian Matejka selected Tuffaha’s manuscript for the 2022 Akron Poetry Prize. As a Palestinian-American poet, her work explores themes of violence, displacement, memory, and diaspora. The National Book Award Foundation recognized the urgency and essential power of Tuffaha’s voice—made all the more resonant in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Mary Biddinger, poetry editor at the University of Akron Press, has been cultivating a vibrant poetry community in the Rust Belt for nearly two decades. In response to the aforementioned National Book Award recognition, Biddinger remarked, “I am tremendously grateful to the National Book Foundation judges for their support of Something About Living—not only because Khalaf Tuffaha’s work is so poignant and timely, but because this acknowledgment recognizes the vital work of university presses.” This award marks a significant achievement for a press that was nearly shut down in 2014. Furthermore, it marks the second title from Biddinger’s list to receive such recognition from the National Book Award Foundation. Leslie Harrison’s The Book of Endings was a finalist in 2017. Both of these works are a powerful reminder that university presses play a crucial role in sustaining literary culture and in disseminating its works to a wider public.
In addition to their freedom to take risks, Rust Belt university presses also enjoy collaborative and engaging relationships both with each other and with their surrounding communities. Biddinger is also currently the Director of NEOMFA (Northeast Ohio MFA Program) the only creative writing program in the nation that merges the faculties of three universities into a single MFA. NEOMFA students can take courses at University of Akron, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University. The MFA students are also actively involved in organizing literary events in the community and have the opportunity to work at the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University or the CSU Poetry Center. Plum, who works with graduate assistants at the CSU Poetry Center, spoke about their intention to build alternative sites for literature and publishing. “Part of the press’ mission in Cleveland, in the Midwest, and in the Rust Belt is to help create robust centers of publishing, programming, and training outside of New York City.” Through sharing resources and organizing community readings, Plum hopes CSU Poetry Center offers a place to bring Cleveland to the publishing world and the publishing world to Cleveland.
In my conversation with Clara Totten, the interim director and acquisitions editor at Kent State University Press, I heard a similar commitment to community engagement. Totten believes that there is a deep desire among small publishers to connect with the place in which they are located. One way Kent State University Press built a sense of community in the area is through its publication of books of regional interest, a genre which Totten believes is growing among university presses. Their recent publication in partnership with Wick Poetry Center titled Light Enters the Grove features 80 poems from authors exploring the biodiversity of Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The project is just one example of publishing and programming initiatives Kent State University Press has undertaken to get writers’ words and ideas out into the Northeast Ohio community and through it the wider world.
Alongside the university poetry presses of the Rust Belt, a vibrant network of nonprofits, independent presses, and community organizations are actively enriching the region’s literary culture. As Totten remarked, “It is a very exciting time to be a writer and a publisher in Northeast Ohio and to be a reader here because there is so much amazing work coming out of the Rust Belt and it will continue to build.” Strong literature and strong literary communities are not created in a vacuum. They feed off of each other over time, and many have been over decades in the making. Organizations and presses such as Lit Youngstown, Lake Erie Ink, Belt Publishing, Autumn House Press, Action Books, Rescue Press, West Virginia University Press, and Carnegie Mellon University Press all contribute to the diverse and ever-evolving literary landscape of the Rust Belt.
Yet, as Wolfe reminded me, the region is neither easily definable nor static. “To be of the Rust Belt region doesn’t mean that a poet or a publisher of poetry has to fit neatly into the categories designed by the often simplistic national / historical narratives that are churned out and used derisively. We can be of our region and communities while also being part of a larger thing—whether that be American poetry, university press publishing, or just publishing in general.” So while regional series are integral to establishing a sense of place and engaging with local writers, at the end of the day, Rust Belt University Presses publish poetry collections that speak urgently to national and global communities. Their mission to publish daring literature is more crucial now than ever before as the current administration broadly targets funding to higher education, DEI initiatives, and editorial independence are targeted.
University presses in the Rust Belt of course are not immune to these threats. Furthermore, in March, the Ohio legislature passed Senate Bill 1, a bill which will gut academic freedom, ban DEI departments on campus, and reshape Ohio public education in a profound, destabilizing way. My conversations with regional publishers were frank when speaking about the future of what university presses might look like moving forward. It’s hard to predict how U.S. or Rust Belt politics will affect their presses. However, it is clear that they have no intention of compromising their commitments and standards to both their authors and their reading public. Totten affirms that all of Kent State University Press’ work, including their academic titles, are committed to peer review and providing credible and trustworthy information. They will not be changing that or ceding any type of editorial independence. For her part, Plum noted that this is far from the first challenge small presses have faced in recent years. The Covid-19 Pandemic and the shuttering of Small Press Distribution (SPD), the main distributor for small presses, both threatened to decimate industry. And yet, they have continued to persist. Even thrive. As Plum said of the future, “Although I’m not optimistic at all about bigger things, I do believe in small presses as models of ways to keep going.”
Rose Bialer is a translator and cultural worker who is based in Barcelona. She has held positions at 826 Valenica, The Kenyon Review, Asymptote Journal, and Artist at Risk Connection. Rose holds an Mphil. in Comparative Literature from Trinity College Dublin. Her research and translations focus on contemporary Latin American novels that explore the topics of reproductive rights, gender violence, and motherhood.
