“I found myself enraptured at every moment, and it was incredible to see such a packed house for poetry. Thank you all for gathering these authors all together in one place for such an important conversation.” –Rachel Mennies Goodmanson, attendee “We reached a huge number of people with a really meaningful discussion, with our authors representing the very best of what their work, and the efforts of this Press, can do on a matter of the greatest public significance.  It is our natural role as publishers to bring the ideas of our authors to the widest possible audience; and as…

CONGRATULATIONS Ross Gay, author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, has won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. The NBCC awards were presented Thursday evening in New York City. Gay is one of six acclaimed African American poets who will participate in a landmark event on Monday on the Pitt campus—“Poetry and Race in America: How the Humanities Engage with Social Issues.” The NBCC award is the latest in a whirlwind of honors for Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Gay recently won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize, was a 2015 National Book Award finalist, and a 2015 finalist…

Poetry and Race in America How the Humanities Engage with Social Problems   Two Special Events in Pittsburgh Free and Open to the Public   Readings and Moderated Discussions Monday, March 21, 7-9 p.m. Frick Fine Arts Auditorium University of Pittsburgh, Oakland Campus Moderated by Terrance Hayes, Co-Director Center for African American Poetry and Poetics   Interactive Workshop Sunday, March 20, 5-6:30 p.m. Kelly-Strayhorn Theater Alloy Studios 5530 Penn Avenue Hosted by Janera Solomon, Executive Director Kelly-Strayhorn Theater     About the Events Two departments at the University of Pittsburgh will combine artistic forces for a landmark event, giving the…

If you have yet to publish a full-length book of poems send us your manuscript between March 1- April 30, 2016 for a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press in the Pitt Poetry Series. See the full details here. We would like to congratulate Miriam Bird Greenberg, who was just announced as the 2015 winner of the prize for her collection In the Volcano’s Mouth. Miriam was born in 1980 and grew up in rural Texas. She studied English and studio arts at the University of Pittsburgh, earned an MFA in Poetry from the Michener Center for Writers, and currently…

CONGRATULATIONS The University of Pittsburgh Press has been proud to take this journey with Ross Gay, and to share the acclaim for his brilliant collection, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. May his future as a poet be bright and rewarding! Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2015 National Book Award: Robin Coste Lewis, Neal Shusterman, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Adam Johnson. Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude Ross Gay University of Pittsburgh Press Pitt Poetry Series 2015 National Book Award Finalist “The Bloomington Community Orchard must have spread its roots into Ross Gay, an Indiana University English professor, as the organic poems in his third collection bear fruit,…