Wesleyan University Press

Community can be defined in many ways—shared interests, shared experiences, a shared zip code. For Oliver Egger ’23, founder of the student-led Route 9 Collective writing community, Middlesex County provided fertile ground from which to examine the different voices that populate this small Connecticut county spanned by Route 9. In early September, Wesleyan University Press (WesPress) and the Route 9 Collective published Route 9 Anthology: A Collection of Writing from Wesleyan Students, Faculty, Staff, and Middlesex County Residents, compiled and edited by Egger, who has dreamed of fostering community through art in this manner since his first year at Wesleyan.…

Three titles affiliated with Wesleyan were nominated for the 2021 NAACP Images Awards in the Outstanding Literary Work — Poetry category. According to the NAACP, Image Awards celebrate "the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts and those who promote social justice through their creative work." Among the five nominees is Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way Books, 2020) written by John Murillo, assistant professor of English; The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan University Press, 2020) by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers; and Un-American (Wesleyan University Press, 2020) by Hafizah Geter. The collections by Murillo, Jeffers, and Geter also are longlisted for…

Wesleyan University Press authors Hafizah Geter, Rae Armantrout, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers were recently longlisted for awards from PEN America. Hafizah Geter’s debut poetry collection, Un-American, is longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award. The PEN Open Book Award honors a work of fiction, literary nonfiction, biography/memoir, or poetry written by an author of color. The award was created by PEN America’s Open Book Committee, a group committed to racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities. Geter’s collection moves readers through the fraught internal and external landscapes—linguistic, cultural, racial, familial—of those whose lives are shaped and transformed by…

Two Wesleyan University Press music titles garnered four awards, from the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the American Musicological Society (AMS) this month. Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine, by Maria Sonevytsky, received the 2020 Lewis Lockwood Award from the AMS. The Lockwood Award honors a musicological book of exceptional merit published during the previous year in any language and in any country by a scholar in the early stages of his or her career who is a member of the AMS or a citizen or permanent resident of Canada or the United States. Music and Modernity among First…

On Sept. 16, the Literary Arts Emergency Fund awarded Wesleyan University Press with a $25,000 grant to help with its financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Literary Arts Emergency Fund is administered by the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazine and Presses, and the National Book Foundation. Wesleyan is among 282 nonprofit literary arts organizations, magazines, and presses across the nation that are receiving part of the $3,530,000 million in emergency funding. “We are delighted and grateful to receive this support from the Literary Arts Emergency Fund. So much in the world is difficult right…

Abigail Chabitnoy’s debut poetry collection How to Dress a Fish, published by Wesleyan University Press in December 2018, has been shortlisted for the 2020 International Griffin Poetry Prize. The prize is given by The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. In addition to the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Griffin Trust initiates and supports projects and ventures consistent with the mandate of the prize to further promote appreciation of Canadian and international poetry. The judges read 572 books of poetry from 14 countries prior to narrowing their selection down to seven shortlisted finalists. The two winners will each be awarded $65,000,…

Hari Krishnan, associate professor of dance, is the author of a new book, Celluloid Classicism: Early Tamil Cinema and the Making of Modern Bharatanatyam, published by Wesleyan University Press in August 2019. According to the publisher: Celluloid Classicism provides a rich and detailed history of two important modern South Indian cultural forms: Tamil Cinema and Bharatanatyam dance. It addresses representations of dance in the cinema from an interdisciplinary, critical-historical perspective. The intertwined and symbiotic histories of these forms have never received serious scholarly attention. For the most part, historians of South Indian cinema have noted the presence of song and…

Joy Harjo, an author published by Wesleyan University Press and W.W. Norton has been named the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, as announced by the U.S. Library of Congress. Harjo is a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation. She is the first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate. Harjo’s American Book Award–winning In Mad Love and War was published by Wesleyan in 1990. Other books include the pedagogical work Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo, edited by Tanaya Winder; and theater work Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light: A Play by Joy…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News The Washington Post: "Major Trump Administration Climate Report Says Damage is 'Intensifying Across the Country'" Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, was widely quoted in the media about the fourth National Climate Assessment, the first to be released under the Trump Administration. "The impacts we’ve seen the last 15 years have continued to get stronger, and that will only continue,” Yohe, who served on the National Academy of Sciences panel that…

The campus and local community celebrated the fall season during the College of the Environment's annual Pumpkin Fest on Oct. 13. Held at the student-run, Long Lane Organic Farm, participants enjoyed farm tours, farm produce and baked good sales, crafts, face painting, local vendors, free veggie burgers and apple cider, a pie eating contest, prizes from Wesleyan University Press, and musical performances. Wesleyan performers included Brien Bradley ’19, Phie Towle ’20, Rebecca Roff ’20, Dreamboat (May Klug '19), Slavei, Long Lane Gourdchestra, and Anna Marie Rosenlieb [’20] Collective Dance Improv. In addition, the student groups Veg Out, Outing Club, Climate…

In this recurring feature in The Wesleyan Connection, we highlight some of the latest news stories about Wesleyan and our alumni. Recent Wesleyan News Inside Higher Ed: “Career Path Intervention–Via a MOOC” An open online course by Gordon Career Center Director Sharon Belden Castonguay, which helps young people explore their interests and career options, is featured. 2. NPR: “Midterm Election Could Reshape Health Policy” Associate Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, explains why Democrats are “laser-focused on health care” this election season. Fowler also recently was quoted on advertising in the midterm elections in The Washington Post and USA Today, and interviewed…

Four Wesleyan University Press–affiliated authors were nominated for book awards this month. Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Rae Armantrout is one of 10 contenders for the National Book Award for Poetry. Her collection, Wobble (Wesleyan University Press, 2018) was named to the award's longlist on Sept. 13. Finalists will be revealed on Oct. 10. Teetering on the edge of the American Dream, Armantrout’s Wobble seeks to both playfully and forcefully evoke the devastation of a chaotic, unstoppable culture. Two authors were named 2018 CT Book Awards Finalists by the Connecticut Center for the Book, a Connecticut Humanities program. The awards recognize and honor authors and…

Celebrating Community Voices: The Route 9 Anthology

3 Works of Poetry Nominated for NAACP Images Awards

Wesleyan University Press Authors Longlisted for PEN Awards

2 Wesleyan University Press Books Win 4 Awards

Wesleyan University Press Receives Grant from the Literary Arts Emergency Fund

Wesleyan University Press Book by Chabitnoy Shortlisted for Griffin Poetry Prize

Krishnan Authors New Book on Tamil Cinema, Bharatanatyam Dance

Wesleyan University Press Author Harjo Named U.S. Poet Laureate

Wesleyan in the News

Fall Harvest, Music, Gatherings at 2018 Pumpkin Fest

Wesleyan in the News

Wes Press Authors Nominated for 2018 Book Awards