Paper: ISBN 978-1-934909-04-1 $18
Jen Benka’s elegant and superbly crafted poems reinvigorate our notion of the lyric. Welding language from diverse spheres-military, political, legal, literary, pop-she enlists the reader to help in this renewal process, urging: “trespassers take up your tools.”
Hanging Loose Press is still going, and hoping to do so for many years to come with your support. And so, we’re coming to you with an end of year appeal for donations. As we approach this 60th birthday, we’re mindful of our history, which is also the history of the small press movement that began in the mid-’60s.
Our mission remains steadfast: to seek out and support exciting new writers and artists, as well as the acclaimed and established. One of our achievements in recent years has been the establishment of the Founders Award, our commitment to publish a first poetry collection. We are grateful to the Russell Freedman Foundation, among other donors, for support of this prize. The next award winner is Starr Davis for her book, Affidavit.
Finally, a new (and ironic) development in the world of funding for the arts. The Literary Arts Fund, a coalition of seven charitable foundations has just announced a total of $50 million to be donated in “an unprecedented effort to dramatically boost the essential yet critically underfunded nonprofit literary arts field in the United States.” Good news, except for the ironic twist: to qualify for a grant, your “critically underfunded” operation must have an annual revenue of at least $50,000. That handily leaves out Hanging Loose Press, and so many others of our small press colleagues. Oh, well.
So here we are again, coming to you, our community, in the hope that we can continue to count on your interest and generosity.
