Copper Canyon: Copper Canyon was founded 40 years ago and is based in Port Townsend, Washington. We published poetry and translations, with an occasional work of prose. More specifically, we have committed to publishing contemporary poetry from new and established poets alike, in addition to translations, anthologies and reissues of out-of-print classics. You can find more about the history on our website. It breaks down who our founders were, who we publish specifically and a bit about our fundraising program.

Cobalt: How do you obtain the manuscripts that you publish, and how many of your authors are previously unpublished (no prior books, that is)? How many manuscripts are taken out of the slush pile?

Copper Canyon: This a great question, and one we get often. Michael Wiegers, our executive editor, frequently says “there is no one way to become a Copper Canyon poet.” He looks for writing that is exceptional: equal parts evocative and intellectual. Sometimes our poets are discovered through recommendations, occasionally we solicit specific poets, and though it is rare that a manuscript be pulled from the slush pile for publication, every submission that comes to our mailbox is read. I’m not sure the exact number of our authors who are previously unpublished, but between last year and 2014 we are publishing four “first book” collections.

Cobalt: Let’s suppose that you’ve just read a manuscript, love it, and are making that phone call (or sending that email) to the author. How does that conversation typically go?

Copper Canyon: Oh, this is a fun question! We’ve had some truly fantastic reactions when our authors are notified they are going to be published by Copper Canyon. Typically, Michael Wiegers calls or emails the author and what follows is a string of many exclamations points and warm welcomes from our staff and the CCP family.

Cobalt: What unique challenges and opportunities does the present market for poetry create for a publisher?

Copper Canyon: There are certainly many unique challenges with marketing poetry, but I see them all as opportunities. Since there are fewer venues that consistently review poetry collections, I practice a lot of side-dooring, which is a technique used by marketers and publicists to discover nontraditional venues who might be interested in the author and their work. For example, one of our new first-book authors, Kerry James Evans, has a collection titled BANGALORE coming out that touches on his time in the military. I’ll spend some time investigating media outlets that might be interested in his experience as a soldier in addition to his beauty poetry. I think its important to know the book inside-out—emotionally, intellectually and from a more formal sales perspective in order to market poetry well.

Cobalt: You’ve been at this for 40 years! Kudos. What are some of your favorite Copper Canyon books, and what are some of the exciting books coming out in the near future?

Copper Canyon: Thank you! Ah—the dreaded “what is your favorite” question! I’m tentative to answer with any one author or collection. We have a long history of elegant, timeless books and translations…it is very hard to pick just one. Our new season of books keeps in line with this history: along with Bob Hicok’s Elegy Owed, Lisa Olstein’s Little Stranger, Kwame Dawes’ Duppy Conqueror, Ed Skoog’s Rough Day, Fady Joudah’s Alight and Jane Miller’s Thunderbird which are all being released this season, we have two “first-book” collections coming out in the Fall / Winter 2013 season: as previously mentioned Kerry James Evans (Bangalore) and Roger Reeves (King Me).

Hmmm…there are also three terrific bilingual editions coming out: Rilke’s New Poems by Joe Cadora, Pinholes in the Night: Essential Poems from Latin America (Raul Zurita and Forrest Gander) and fungus skull eye wing by Alfonso D’Aquino (translated by Forrest Gander). Plus, three volumes of poetry from established poets Sarah Lindsay (Debt to the Bone-eating Snotflower – yes that is a real thing!), Jennifer Michael Hecht (Who Said) and the late Dennis O’Driscoll (Dear Life). Whew. Lots to be excited about over here!

Return to Issue 8.

like Flynn. I don’t pay
too much attention to either
actuarial tables or walnuts,
one I consider a crime, the other
entirely comical. I can be
conniving, I can be prissy,

but my mind, the dynamo,
kicks off ideas like plump sparks
like fireflies into a summer night
all their own and when the light

of my genius fritzes out,
I’ll stand dumb in the dark,
fingers wet in my mouth.

About John: John Morrison’s book, Heaven of the Moment, won the 2006 Rhea & Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition and was a finalist for the 2008 Oregon Book Award in poetry. He teaches poetry as an associate fellow at the Attic Institute in Portland, Oregon.

Return to Issue 8

About John: John Grey is an Australian born poet. Recently published in International Poetry Review, Chrysalis and the science fiction anthology Futuredaze with work upcoming in Potomac Review, Sanskrit and Fox Cry Review.

Return to Issue 8

About Erica: Erica Bodwell is a poet and attorney from Concord, New Hampshire. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Stone Highway Review, The Smoking Poet, Scissors & Spackle, Cactus Heart, Crack the Spine, Red River Review and other excellent journals.

Return to Issue 8.

Return to Issue 8

I want to swallow you whole
for all the ways the metaphor breaks down.
I want you to stain my petals
for all the beautiful colors blue-on-yellow
don’t make.

I want my mouth to turn gallon bucket for you.
My mouth, yawning unbaked pie crust.
My mouth, pinkish orifice through which
I consume sustenance, you look like the stranger
across the coffee shop scalding your own mouth.
The teacup across the table asks if I have
ever been to Mount Rushmore. Brooklyn.
The Washington Monument. I lick
sweet juice from my gums. I don’t remember.

About Hillary: Hillary Kobernick  holds a Master’s of Divinity degree from Emory University, meaning that she has, in fact, mastered the Divine. She divides her time between home and places like home. Her work has appeared in literary magazines in the U.S. and Canada, including Paper Nautilus, Third Wednesday, and The Mochila Review. She is also a three-time member of the Art Amok Poetry Slam Team. Her work can always be found on Tumblr.

Return to Issue 8

asleep your fingers twitch
in syncopated rhythm
to a dream   flex and
relax   they grasp at
something I can’t
see   something you can’t
quite hold   it kills me
to know this is only
one of a million things

I never noticed
when I loved you too
easily   when time was a
glass of water the waiter
refilled without even
asking me   I was too busy
with sleep to see you
had already boarded
the train that was taking
you away   one hand waving
the other reaching for
what I was already too far
away by now to see

Physical Therapy

please   you say   don’t look at me
I’m disgusting   emaciated
by the treatments   you swear
they gave you the wrong
body to bring home   here’s something
you’d like to know   who
is this woman wearing your clothes

they don’t even fit her   look at her
she’s a complete mess   lays in bed all day
it’s pathetic   get up   you scream
at her   get up   come on I say   that’s enough
she needs to rest

bullshit you say and grab her arm   pull
her to her feet   walk   you demand
but she can’t   you shove her
a little too hard   she pitches forward
like a wave toward the shore
and shatters across the floor

now look what you’ve done

carefully I piece her back together
from memory

The Royal Society

born from smoldering
Rome came crawling
the wretched infected
swarms   installed by hunger
behind the heavy plow they bowed
before benign and
malignant kings alike and
ate what molded bread came
their way by moon or dying
fire light   their mysterious ailments
gradually abated with equal
doses of accident and circumstance

those who lived were not yet a testament
to the inoculation of infectious agents but
rather to the faith in the impulsive
unknown who seemed to revel in choosing

you but not you
you but not you

it’s a given we’re not living in the dark
ages anymore but a measure of the unexplained
remains as we sit together in the examination
room while you shiver in your open
gown   the unplugged electrodes
attached to your bare back
like leeches

Apollo the Healer

the idea is the ideal
a young man
in the sunlight
of his days
a good boy
falls out of the tree
but doesn’t fall
far   he’s an apple
in the grass   his red
delicious skin   the sun
reaches down through the
clouds as he drifts
to sleep   the sun runs
its fingers down the length
of his thigh and sighs
but lingers too long
the earth begins to burn
everyone wants to be
the sun except the sun

Acceptance

it’s a beautiful thought after
all   to think   with just the right
sense of distance   we’re nearly
nonexistent   that the fingers we use
to count the people who love us
unconditionally will slowly
fold into a fist in which we’ve
caught a drowsy firefly   when
we let it go   a long moment passes
in which it’s lost in the night sky
unconsciously we hold
our breath in the dark and wait

About Brian: Brian Russell is the author of The Year of What Now (Graywolf, 2013), winner of the Bakeless Poetry Prize. He lives in Chicago with his wife and dogs.

Read an exclusive interview with Brian Russell.
Get your hands on the book.
Return to Issue 8.

The burden of their bulk limped
toward me like the dead
with tongues filthy as oven mitts
and moist eyes crowded with flies.

About John: John Morrison’s book, Heaven of the Moment, won the 2006 Rhea & Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition and was a finalist for the 2008 Oregon Book Award in poetry. He teaches poetry as an associate fellow at the Attic Institute in Portland, Oregon.

Return to Issue 8

Thanks for visiting our 8th issue, the final installment of our second year of quarterly publishing. As many of you know, we have recently launched our first fundraising campaign via Kickstarter. The goal is to raise at least $2,000 in an effort to publish our first book project, Where You Should Be (working title), by Dave Housley, BL Pawelek, Ben Tanzer and Tom Williams. We have done a lot of great work over the past two years, and you are a big part of that. If you can spare a buck, or five, we would be very appreciative. Just click here to help us get Cobalt Press off the ground.

You’ll notice that there are some changes on our website. There are now specific pages for Cobalt Press, purchasing, interviews, and issues. Our “Friends and Partners” list has changed to a list of top and recent content. We will be adding a friends and partners list on a separate page, alongside a list of benefactors, in the next few weeks.

Enjoy Issue #8. The cover art, and all of the headers are compliments of Christopher Newgent. Thanks to him. You’ll also notice that we’ve changed the balance of content for this issue so that poetry gets the focus. Every June issue will feature more poetry than prose. September and March issues will be all-prose, and December will be all-poetry. This might result in longer wait times for notifying our submitters, so we apologize for that. But we promise that this new schedule will give us the chance to not only publish more awesome stuff, but give it the attention it deserves.

Thanks for reading,

Andrew K.
Managing Editor

Angela Cummings | Fly in the Wine

Angela Cummings | Pluto

Heather Bell | These are the Casualties

Heather Bell | If You Ask Me

Heather Bell | A Man Walks Home Followed by a Coyote

Heather Bell | What is Easiest Today

Brendan Walsh | A Road Trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Amy K. Rowland | In the Year of the Fire

Amy K. Rowland | Daniel’s Teeth

Hillary Kobernick | Wild Blueberries

Hillary Kobernick |Distance

John C. Morrison | Cattle

John C. Morrison | Bird Bones

John C. Morrison | What I Think

Erica Bodwell | Michelle Obama Kicks Ass

Rebecca Shepard | Cleave

John Grey | Tree Time

John Grey | Opening the Book of Old Rockaway

Edward Hamlin | Phone Phone Gun
A boy disrupts a plane’s boarding process when he won’t stop counting.

Steven Gowin | Tragedy and Wreck
When cars begin to vanish from a junkyard, their stories ripple through a man’s memory.

Danielle Ariano | (The Truth) About Danielle Ariano
Think you know (The Truth) about Danielle Ariano after reading the essay “(The Truth) About Danielle Ariano”? Think again.

At the end of our second year, we have decided to highlight a pair of writers who were published in our very first issue (Sept. 2011) and have recently won literary prizes. Read our exclusive interviews with Jen Michalski and Brian Russell, as well as excerpts from their award-winning books, below. Also check out our quarterly publisher series interview with Copper Canyon Press.

Jen Michalski, author of The Tide King
Excerpt | Interview

Brian Russell, author of The Year of What Now
Excerpt | Interview

Publisher Series, vol. 6: Copper Canyon Press

What have you been up to over the past couple years?

Brian Russell: Thank you right back. Cobalt was the first magazine to take any poems from the book I had been working on that year. Best friends forever. The past couple years…well, I’ve gotten about 10 haircuts (approximate).

Cobalt: Oh, Brian, you’re being modest. Last year, your book, THE YEAR OF WHAT NOW (link) was selected for the Bakeless Poetry Prize. That’s a huge honor. Can you speak a little to your experience with the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and receiving this great award?

Russell: Thanks; it hasn’t ceased to be exciting to me since the day I got the call. I actually don’t have any experience with Bread Loaf, though I’m eager to go in August. I’ve never been to any writing conference/retreat, in fact. I’ve got a regular old office job which means I have a precious collection of vacation days that I have to use judiciously. I’ve been saving them up for close to a year now for Bread Loaf. They will be well-spent.

Cobalt: You also received your MFA from University of Houston. Is this how you landed the gig as safety for the Houston Texans? How do you balance life as a poet with the strenuous career of being a professional athlete?

Russell: It was purely coincidence. Prior to my time in Houston, when I was playing for the Seahawks and applying for MFA programs, I thought that I would have to choose between the obscure but meaningful world of professional football and the lucrative but potentially dangerous world of poetry. Thankfully I didn’t have to make that choice.

Seriously though, when I was in the program at Houston, we used to play pick-up football in the park on weekends, poetry vs. fiction. Poetry always won, obviously.

Cobalt: While you were at Houston, you served as the poetry editor for Gulf Coast. Did you find that your own writing was influenced by the work you did for the journal?

Russell: I do think it was influential, though mostly in indirect ways. By making choices (in individual poems, in establishing a larger vision for an issue or a magazine as a whole) editors are forced to define what they think is and what isn’t worthy of space. To some degree, I think that probably helped me articulate what I was trying to do in my own work. Editing (I’m currently the Managing Editor for Phantom Limb [shameless plug]) also provides an informative cross-section of the State of Poetry. At the very least, it allows me to see where I stand in relation.

Cobalt: Tell us a little bit more about your upcoming collection, THE YEAR OF WHAT NOW (Graywolf Press, July 2013).

Russell: THE YEAR OF WHAT NOW follows a loose chronology of a woman’s sudden illness, her extended stay in the hospital, and her eventual release. The poems are narrated from the perspective of her husband. The book presents the hospital as a kind of parallel universe with its own rhythms, language, and time. The longer they’re inside, the more they feel detached from the outside world. Confronted with his wife’s mortality, the husband begins to see more clearly what their life together has meant and what the world would be without her.

Cobalt: Do you have any secrets to your process? When and where do you write, and how do you get that first draft on paper?

Russell: When I set out to write THE YEAR OF WHAT NOW I was more or less abandoning the book I’d been working on for the previous five years. I had an overwhelming sense of urgency to get the new book written. I gave myself six months to write 90 poems and two months to edit and cut. In doing so, I forced myself to stop thinking (read “second-guessing”) so much and just write. It also gave me a kind of built-in permission to write bad poems, which felt very freeing. Since finishing the book, I’ve actually written very little. I haven’t felt enough separation yet to start again in earnest.

Cobalt: So what comes next?

Russell: In the long-term, crushing anxiety over the thought of writing another book. In the short-term, I have the incredible fortune of joining Stephen Burt and Sophie Cabot Black for the Graywolf Poetry Tour this summer. We’ll be reading at BookCourt in Brooklyn on July 8^th, Prairie Lights in Iowa City on July 9^th, and Common Good Books in St. Paul on July 10^th.

About Brian: Brian Russell is the author of The Year of What Now (Graywolf, 2013), winner of the Bakeless Poetry Prize. He lives in Chicago with his wife and dogs.

Read an excerpt from The Year of What Now.
Get your hands on the book.
Return to Issue 8.

We drive off the road, see if we
can name all the Indian tribes by
their footprints.  You tell me your
thoughts on fog, that I will surely

never be happy here with you.  I
tell you about the true – the way
the net of tarantulas played in your
hands, the scorpion we saved in the

jar, the birds that leave their pecks
and years by your eyes.  Joy is not
the way things are, the way
you say it as if I wish for urban chatter

instead of moon glint, instead of the
way your back bends to smell the
juniper.  How to say I love you when
it is more to say that you held my dark

in your fist, felt the heart of a little
bird beating and then found a good
place to let it go?  Consider that joy
has nothing to do with happy.  Happy

is just the oily swamp on the way to
a desert field.  Joy is full of leaves in
a gutter and you raking them out,
raking them out.  It is knowing the black

trucks are coming down the road
before they come down the road.
Joy is watching you capture the mice
in the house in small traps and then

placing the cages outside.  You tell
me you think I will never be happy
here or with you while I watch you
open the cage doors.  Consider

how much I love you then
watching you let anything go
just because it begged to be
released.

About Heather: Heather Bell’s work has been published in Rattle, Grasslimb, Barnwood, Poets/Artists,  Red Fez, Ampersand and many others.  She was nominated for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Pushcart Prize from Rattle and also won the New Letters 2009 Poetry Prize.  Heather has also published four books.  Any more details can be found here.

Return to Issue 8.