Ars Poetica in Duas Partes – Centrum reading highlights Copper Canyon legacy
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On Monday, Dec. 8, Copper Canyon Press's doors were replaced with new ones by Centrum's Jim Guthrie (far right), and parks employees Eli Lederer (left) and Chris Guile (right). Guthrie said the state had the final say in the door's design. Photo by Kathie Meyer [/caption]
Arts news by Kathie Meyer
This Saturday, a merger occurs. Poetry on the Salish Sea goes under Centrum’s management with three award-winning poets – Jennifer Chang, Leila Chatti, and Jenny George – from the Copper Canyon Press author list, as the inaugural event, Winter Solstice: Let There Be Light.
“We want to celebrate two things: that Centrum is taking on this program and the legacy of Copper Canyon,” said Eric Greenwell, Centrum’s program manager for writing.
The Copper Canyon Legacy
The bottom quarters of both doors are spilling their insides to the elements. They’ve been ripped open by merciless beatings from wind and rain. Still green on the upper parts, though. You could kick a hole in them if you wanted to. The late Sam Hamill, one of the Press’s co-founders, might have wanted to, I think.
This is Building 313 in Fort Worden State Park. All white with evergreen trim, like all of the other buildings. Most milling about the fort might give it barely a glance. Those not of the poetry persuasion have no idea of its important place in that genre of letters.
It’s been a while, but I know those doors. How many entries I’ve made before, I couldn’t tell you, but my first Port Townsend job was here as its office manager for a couple of years at the turn of the millennium. Copper Canyon Press had recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with an anthology, The Gift of Tongues.
“As for Copper Canyon’s legacy, I’ve watched it grow like moss – green, beautiful, and glistening after rain – even before I moved here.”
How many stories I wrote about this internationally renowned publisher while I worked at The Leader (2006-11) as its arts editor, I don’t know either. As for Copper Canyon’s legacy, I’ve watched it grow like moss – green, beautiful, and glistening after rain – even before I moved here.
Perhaps this is why I noticed the doors. How many storms have hit those same doors in their days? I couldn’t tell you. These ravaged doors have seen some things.
Janeen Armstrong opens the locked doors. The doors are secured because for a legacy to grow, one must be flexible with the times. Most of the staff work from home now, and they’re spread out all over the country, says Armstrong, the press’s Reader Services and Intern Program Manager. She is the only one in the building because shipping books is part of her gig. Some jobs still need a physical presence. It was part of my gig too – getting poetry as a glimmer of light out into a world that may seem pretty dark. Sending out books to the various award organizations.
I ask Janeen if I may have complimentary copies of each poet’s work so I might better understand their work, and she readily obliges. I tell her I used to show up unannounced to make requests like this of Joseph Bednarik, who worked there for more than a couple of decades until he retired.
The unassuming building remains the same. It’s like everyone is out to lunch and will be back soon. But, no, Janeen really is the one and only point person there now. She shows me the conference room, which to me was once the publisher’s office. It is a book storage now.
I really don’t want to believe it has changed this much since I last went there.
I want to peek in one door and still see the large Chandler & Price platen press, Hamill and Tree Swenson, co-founders of the Press, first used in Port Townsend. Instead, a smaller, tabletop press sits near the doorway near the book display. Hamill and Swenson arrived in 1974, at Centrum director Joe Wheeler’s invitation because Bill Ransom thought a literary component to support the Port Townsend Poetry Symposium would fit in at Centrum nicely.
I want to see if Michael Wiegers is around and trade mildly disparaging wisecracks with him. I thought then, as I do now, that he is a poetry editing genius, although I rarely ever tell him this; it’s good to keep him humble.
Back when I worked there, he was the assistant editor. Back then, Mary Jane Knect, the publisher’s first paid employee, would wander in and out too. She went on to retire from the Frye Museum in Seattle, but still lives here in the county. I saw her at the grocery store the other day.
I was so busy noticing books, the tiny letterpress, and the ghosts, I did not notice the new green doors propped against the wall.
Armstrong points them out and tells me the fort is installing new doors soon. Doors that will take in the next 50 years of the Press.
Remarkable Readers
The evening with Poets on the Salish Sea features three Copper Canyon Press poets garnering considerable attention.
Jennifer Chang is a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist; Jenny George was a PEN Foundation Voelcker Award finalist; and Leila Chatti was recently the New York Times Magazine Poet-in-Residence.
“Copper Canyon Press punches far above its weight,” said Wiegers, Copper Canyon’s Executive Editor and Artistic Director, who moderates a panel discussion after the reading. “The incredible success and major accolades for so many of our poets are made possible by the support of Centrum – and the Port Townsend community over many years.
“As we approach the end of this year, we are grateful to Centrum and are looking forward to celebrating with our local community.”
In spite of cuts in arts funding and the banning of books across the nation, the nonprofit press has persevered with a banner year in 2025: the new Poet Laureate of the United States and four of the 2025 National Book Award finalists – Richard Siken, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Natalie Shapero, and Robyn Myers – are all Copper Canyon authors. “It’s been incredible and humbling,” said Wiegers.
Copper Canyon’s Legacy and Lore
I do know when I first walked through the green doors at Copper Canyon Press in Fort Worden State Park in 1999, the Press had only received one major award – the National Book Award for Hayden Carruth’s Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey in 1996. Bill O’Daly’s Neruda translations were selling well, and the list of Copper Canyon Press poets and translators grew more impressive with each book. The Press had long outgrown printing chapbooks on the letterpress, but was still used to print poetry broadsides.
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A small letterpress printer is on display next to a new door ready for installation at Copper Canyon Press. Photo by Kathie Meyer [/caption]
As the years rolled by, more national and international attention came their way. Ruth Stone won the next National Book Award for Poetry for the Press in 2002. Following her with Pulitzer Prizes and National Book Awards were W.S. Merwin and Ted Kooser in 2005, and then C.D. Wright won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2010.
I lost track of all of the poets I met and was exposed to over those years, but I remain deeply grateful for the opportunities I was given during that time. Yes, I met Merwin. Kooser and C.D. Wright too. Bill Porter (aka Red Pine), Marvin Bell and John Balaban.
I drank sake with Sam Hamill and sat at a picnic table on the beach with Carolyn Kizer. I heard Jim Harrison read in the basement of the old Elliott Bay Book Company location in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, and spent an hour with Margaret Atwood in her Seattle hotel room while she signed poetry broadsides.
At the time, Arthur Sze had published two books with Copper Canyon Press (The Redshifting Web: New and Selected Poems and Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese). Over the years, his name appeared on the faculty list for the Port Townsend Writers Conference occasionally.
More years passed until it was over 50 in total, and the press took home more major book awards from other poets – Laura Kasischke, Natalie Diaz, and Ocean Vuong.
Then, in 2019, Arthur Sze’s work, Sight Lines, earned him a National Book Award for Poetry in 2019 after a long career and dedication to the craft of poetry. In 2020, Jericho Brown won a Pulitzer Prize for Copper Canyon, too.
This year, Sze was named the 25th United States Poet Laureate.He will be inaugurated at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., this Thursday, Dec. 11. This is the third Copper Canyon poet to be appointed to this position.
I reached out to Wiegers, who was making his way to D.C. for the Thursday ceremony before the reading on Saturday. He takes time to cobble together a quick press release for the Port Townsend event.
“I think this is an opportunity to celebrate a bit of a reemergence of [Copper Canyon], particularly in Port Townsend. Especially with the support of Centrum, I am hoping the Press will have an increasingly vibrant presence in the community,” Wiegers said.
This is the first time all three poets will read in Port Townsend. “It’s an evening not to be missed,” promises Wiegers.
Your Chance to Experience the Magic
The event is this Saturday, Dec. 13, at the Fort Worden Chapel. Doors open at 6 pm. The reading begins at 6:30 pm. It is free and open to the public. Donations are gladly accepted at the door.A dessert reception with cookies, chocolate, wine, and bubbly water follows the reading. Copper Canyon Press will also offer books for sale.
Future readings in the Poetry on the Salish Sea series are scheduled for Feb 14, March 14, April 11, Oct. 21, and Dec. 12. The October reading is part of a three-day workshop, said Greenwell. For more information, please visit www.centrum.org.
Coda
Michael ends his email saying, “Meanwhile, I have been here as long as the dirt out your front door…
“I hope you are well.”
I begin to write my story. A storm is on the way. I wonder how those doors are doing.
