Dear Readers,
Welcome to our new website! Here’s a bit about us: the CSU Poetry Center was established in 1962 and has since proudly published nearly 200 rangy, joyful, profound, astonishing, complicated, surprising, and aesthetically diverse collections of contemporary poetry and prose. We publish 3-5 collections a year with national distribution and reach. CSU Poetry Center books have won a whole bunch of competitive prizes and awards and our authors are some of the most thrilling writers you’ll find. The Poetry Center mainly acquires manuscripts through our annual contests (one is dedicated to publishing first books, the other to supporting an established poet’s career), and this year we will add a third contest to the list—our Essay Collection Competition—which welcomes submissions of full-length essay collections as a way of promoting prose genres that, like poetry, embrace messy structures, troublesome subject matter, and surprising language.
In addition to publishing, the Poetry Center actively promotes poetry through an annual reading series, collaborative art events, participation in national poetry and publication conferences, and as an educational resource for the undergraduate, M.A., and M.F.A. students at Cleveland State University by involving students in the editorial and production aspects of literary publishing.
Our new website features lots of great stuff, including these pages:
ABOUT: learn more about the history of the Poetry Center and our lovely staff of students.
BOOKS: a section which features the entire CSU Poetry Center catalog with author news and information, book details, and the option to purchase our titles directly through from the website.
COMPETITIONS: here you can find out more about our current book competitions, reading period, judges, eligibility, and submission guidelines. You can also send us your manuscript via the links to Submittable.
NEWS: a platform which will regularly feature interviews & reviews, local Cleveland art events, information on author reading tours, sales and promotions, and whatever it is that’s on our mind at the moment.
READING SERIES: join us this spring for four stellar readings by seven astounding poets, many of whom are past winners of our book prizes.
RESOURCES: go here for more information on shipping, permissions, and our favorite local arts organizations.
Thanks you for your patience as we continue to tweak and update these pages over the next few weeks. Enjoy!
Caryl Pagel
Director, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
