The title of my July 31st post, “Not an Elegy for the University of Akron Press,” turned out to be, well, just that–not an elegy. In the wake of public outcry, University of Akron offcials seem to have rethought their plans for the press. An August 17th Akron Beacon Journal article announced that “University of Akron recommits to UA Press, rehires fired workers.” National publications picked up the news of the victory as well, with Publishers Weekly confirming “U. of Akron Press Gets Support, Staff Back” and Library Journal following up on “Crossed Signals for University of Akron Press” on August 20. Claire Kirch of Publishers Weekly reports:
While applauding the university’s rehiring of press employees and its public statement of support for the press, UA Press’ nine-member editorial board asked Scarborough and Sherman [president and provost] in a letter dated August 19 to also affirm the university’s investment to the press “well into the future and that the Press’s financial needs will be addressed in the annual budgeting process.” Such a declaration, the editorial board members wrote, will be essential to both current and future UA Press authors “who want to be assured that the University is committed to the future of the Press.”
I’m thrilled for Mary Biddinger, Amy Freels, the Akron Series in Poetry & Poetics, the University of Akron Press, its authors, and its readers. It’s exhilarating (and unfortunately rare) to speak out against an administrative decision and see tangible, positive results. Let’s stay vigilant and supportive of the presses and editors we care about, championing their work before it comes down to potential job cuts and press closings.
Pick up some books from the Akron Series in Poetry here. There are exciting new books (from Philip Metres, Emilia Phillips, Jennifer Moore) on the University of Akron Press horizon, but I’ll wrap up here with a reminder that the University of Akron Press has been publishing amazing books for years. Just read (or re-read) Ashley Capps’s first book, Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields, selected a decade ago by Gerald Stern as the winner of the 2005 Akron Poetry Prize. Here’s a link to Oni Buchanan’s Poetry Society of America “New American Poets: Introduction to the Work of Ashley Capps” and Graham Foust’s Boston Review “Poet’s Sampler: Ashley Capps.” Her poem “April” from Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields begins:
Everywhere, the ghost
wigs of dandelions,
everywhere the green
toothache of early spring.
The cops-in-training
are beating their horses,
and they wave at me
from the fields.
Her poem “What Constitutes a Proper Planet” from Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields ends:
I had to dig quicker. I dug frantic. Kids appeared with plastic buckets, little shovels—
I wanted to ask them not to collapse it, but they hung back, a cautious tribe.
Till at last, one poked me with a stick, and asked why I was doing that.
And I said, “To keep the ocean out.” And then they all joined in.