Experimental Feminist Poetics Since 1974
Writing this on Thursday, March 28, Kelsey Street Press is trying to absorb Small Press Distribution’s sudden closure and what that will mean for KSP moving forward.
In the meantime, Book Sellers, please contact us at info@kelseystreetpress.org for sales. We’re happy to extend discounts and accept returns.
Updated: Jun 27, 2024
Congratulations to Jennifer Perrine, winner of the 2023 QTBIPOC Prize for Beautiful Outlaw.
Judge and editor Ching-In Chen says, "I loved the urgent energy and movement of the language and the questions of this book around how we contend with violence in many forms – and found myself returning to the pages again and again.” Kelsey Street Press is proud to be bringing this manuscript into the world.
Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the author of four books of poetry: Again, The Body Is No Machine, In the Human Zoo, and No Confession, No Mass. Their latest poems and essays appear in Five Minutes, The Maine Review, Cincinnati Review, Pleiades, Nimrod, New Letters, Poetry Northwest, Orion Magazine, Harpur Palate, Oregon Humanities, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, and Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry. Their recent work has been recognized through the Arts and Culture Diversity and Inclusion Award from the Asian American Journalists Association, an Oregon Humanities Community Storytelling Fellowship, an Arts3C grant and a Make | Learn | Build grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize, and residencies at Caldera Arts Center and the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Perrine lives in Portland, Oregon, where they cohost the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, teach writing, and work as the equity and racial justice program manager with the regional parks and nature department.
We also wanted to congratulate the finalists:
Counterpoint by Jasmine An
Imagined Child by LM Brimmer
water:way by ayana harsoet
Surviving Fire by ena ganguly
Poemuit by Shantell Powell
Hard Crush by Sarah Yanni
Thank you to everyone who sent us their work to the 2023 QTBIPOC Prize! We were so excited to read so much urgent and beautiful writing.
Dear Friends,
As 2023 comes to a close, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Kelsey Street Press in honor of KSP's 50thAnniversary.
Kelsey Street Press was founded in 1974 to address the marginalization of women writers by small press and mainstream publishers. From the beginning, we linked our editorial policy to a poetics of allowance, encouraging women to write directly from their own creative imperatives, and to a poetics of inclusion that embraces racial and cultural diversity. Our early books were handset and printed two pages at a time on a basement letterpress. In the eighties, we instituted a series of cross-genre collaborative works between poets and visual artists.
A decade later, as our list included more established writers, we created the Frances Jaffer Book Award and, then, the FIRSTS! series to ensure continued support of emerging poets. We also expanded our editorial vision to include the work of trans and genderqueer authors. At the heart of the Press remain the pleasures of the written page, books that can be held and carried, and ongoing participation in a continually changing poetry community. With fifty years of publishing, we remain true to our commitment to bring out a wide range of voices.
Current Projects:
Out now! A new edition of Bhanu Kapil’s Incubation: A Space for Monsters Order Here
Forthcoming in 2024:
The Redesignation of Paradise by Denise Newman
Instructions for Banno by Kiran Bath
IF AN ELSEWHERE (The Burrow) by Jocelyn Saidenberg (text) and Cybele Lyle (art)
not so, sea by Emgee Dufresne
Queer Registry: The Body & Film by Rena Rosenwasser
Next up:
The 2023 QTIBIPOC prize winner and finalists to be announced
KSP will be at AWP in Kansas City this February
Mark your calendars! Kelsey Street Press 50th Anniversary Saturday afternoon, April 20 at the
Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco
We are grateful and we celebrate you all! Please consider attending our 50th Anniversary Party on April 20 (more details to come). Please consider supporting KSP in 2023! Please Donate Here
Thank you and best wishes to all,
KSP members Rena Rosenwasser, Patricia Dienstfrey, Emgee Dufresne, Erin Wilson, Carla Hall, Ching-In Chen