{"id":7342,"date":"2017-05-10T09:28:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T13:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/?p=7342"},"modified":"2017-05-10T09:38:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T13:38:00","slug":"groundhog-press-rears-its-head-for-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/groundhog-press-rears-its-head-for-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundhog Press Rears Its Head for Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Martha Park M.F.A. \u201915<\/em><\/p>\n

Since he was a teenager, Professor of English R.H.W. Dillard has wanted to be a publisher. Groundhog Poetry Press fulfills his dream, offering \u201cthe best poetry we can find\u201d and welcoming writers \u201cwho\u2019ve given me of their intelligence and energy for years.\u201d<\/h2>\n
\"Richard

Dillard<\/p><\/div>\n

Professor of English and editor of The Hollins Critic<\/em> R.H.W. Dillard has been writing poetry, novels, and critical essays and teaching literature, creative writing, and film studies for over half a century. Over the past year, he has added a new role: publisher.<\/p>\n

Dillard started Groundhog Poetry Press LLC (GPP), a small, independent press publishing books of poetry without preference for styles or theories of poetry. The GPP website<\/a> announces, \u201cWe publish established poets and new poets, prize-winning poets and those deserving of prizes, and those to whom the very thought of poetry prizes is anathema. We only want the best poetry we can find.\u201d<\/p>\n

GPP will publish books in suites. The first suite included 7,000 Sparrows <\/em>by Duffie Taylor \u201907, as a flock of goats <\/em>by Liana Quill \u201904, Domestic Yoga <\/em>by Jack Christian M.A. \u201903, Subsidence <\/em>by Julia Mae Johnson \u201993, and Great Bear <\/em>by fellow Professor of English Cathryn Hankla (\u201980, M.A. \u201982).<\/p>\n

The poems in Great Bear <\/em>are wide-ranging, its poems populated by critters of all kinds\u2014giraffes, catfish, raccoons and, yes, groundhogs\u2014as well as human neighbors, an ailing mother, and the speaker\u2019s observant and companionable voice.<\/p>\n

\"Cathryn

Hankla<\/p><\/div>\n

Hankla says, \u201cHaving Great Bear<\/em> be the first Groundhog book to emerge from hibernation was a wonderful experience! I\u2019ve worked with poetry publishers since the early \u201980s when Phenomena<\/em> came out, and I\u2019ve never seen a more generous contract from a publisher. Richard is all about the poets and respects varied voices, styles, and definitions of the poem, as we teachers and mentors at Hollins also encourage poetry\u2019s many possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

GPP\u2019s second suite will be unveiled sometime this spring, and will include the first book of poetry by Grant Kittrell, a 2014 graduate of Hollins\u2019 creative writing M.F.A. degree program.<\/p>\n

\"Grant

Kittrell<\/p><\/div>\n

Kittrell says, \u201cThe title of the book is Let\u2019s Sit Down, Figure This Out<\/em>, and in some ways that\u2019s what\u2019s happening in many of the poems\u2014someone is confused or desperate or out of their element. These poems explore attempts to locate an identity within a constantly shifting cultural context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillard was able to develop the press with the support of the Jackson Center for Creative Writing at Hollins. As the Susan Gager Jackson Professor of Creative Writing for two years, Dillard used the course release time to teach himself about all aspects of publishing, from the challenges of formatting different styles of poetry on the page, to distributing books.<\/p>\n

Dillard has learned you can make a really good book without having to spend a fortune. \u201cI love designing the books,\u201d he says, \u201cAlthough only one of my own books was ever set in my favorite font, Palatino, I\u2019ve taken great pleasure in establishing it as the house font for GPP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillard\u2019s collaborative approach to publishing grants authors some creative control over the design of their books. Each writer can choose the image that appears on his\/her book\u2019s cover. Therefore, the books are coordinated but distinct from each other.<\/p>\n

Since Dillard is acting simultaneously as \u201cpublisher, editor, designer, compositor, account warehouse manager, and the entire shipping office of GPP,\u201d all book distribution is being handled by Small Press Distribution in Berkeley, California. The GPP website (https:\/\/www.groundhogpoetrypress.com\/<\/a>, managed by current M.F.A. candidate Tessa Cheek) has a direct order link to Small Press Distribution.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGroundhog Poetry Press is by invitation only, and cannot accept uninvited manuscript submissions or queries. \u201cThat\u2019s not a snobbish decision,\u201d Dillard says, \u201cbut a purely practical one.\u201d One result of a life spent in writing communities is that Dillard knows a lot of poets with strong manuscripts.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the poets published by Groundhog Poetry Press I\u2019ve known for fifty-five years. Another I\u2019ve known for five.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far,\u201d Dillard says, \u201cno two books are alike. In terms of style and approach to poetry, they\u2019re all different.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dillard, this new role doesn\u2019t seem so new at all: \u201cI wanted to be a publisher as early as I wanted to be a writer,\u201d Dillard says, \u201csince about age sixteen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dillard says publishing poetry is \u201cmy gift to people who\u2019ve given me of their intelligence and energy for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hankla adds, \u201cRichard has a knack for reinventing himself, and this venture may be his finest.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"camera\"\u00a0Photos from the April launch event.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Martha Park is a writer and illustrator from Memphis, Tennessee, and a\u00a02015 graduate of the M.F.A. program in creative writing at Hollins.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Martha Park M.F.A. \u201915 Since he was a teenager, Professor of English R.H.W. Dillard has wanted to be a publisher. Groundhog Poetry Press fulfills his dream, offering \u201cthe best poetry we can find\u201d and welcoming writers \u201cwho\u2019ve given me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-7342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-spring-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7342"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7439,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7342\/revisions\/7439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hollins.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}