Poem from the Vault aims to celebrate our diverse poetic history by highlighting backlist poetry from the Pitt Poetry Series. Ed Ochester has been the editor and creative force behind the series since 1978. We kick off Black History Month with a selection from Toi Derricotte’s 1989 collection, Captivity.   © 1989 Toi Derricotte from Captivity What are the forces that cause us to strike out and harm each other? Captivity explores the way in which the individual is held hostage by society; how the forces of racism, sexism, and classism frequently express themselves as violence within the family. The…

The deadline for the 2018 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is approaching. ABOUT THE PRIZE: Awarded annually for a first full-length book of poems. Named after the first director of the Press, the prize carries a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press in the Pitt Poetry Series. Winner will be announced in the fall of 2018. DEADLINE: Manuscripts must be received during March and April 2018 (postmarked on or after March 1 and on or before April 30). Each manuscript must include an entry fee of $25.00. We asked several past Starrett Prize winners to tell us what…

New to the UPP Blog, Poem from the Vault aims to celebrate our diverse poetic history by highlighting backlist poetry from the Pitt Poetry Series. Ed Ochester has been the editor and creative force behind the series since 1978. Our first selection comes from Jim Daniels third book of poems, M-80. DIGGER, DEEP SNOW A sudden day off. You invite neighbors over to shoot pool in the basement to fill the deep silence. You drink fast to get inspiration to talk about something besides snow. After a few drinks, Tony rips the felt with his cue when Gus kids him about…

Get inspired by some of our recent books featuring a feminist perspective. Scald Denise Duhamel POETRY “As much a manifesto as it is a book of poems, Scald is Denise Duhamel’s great feminist statement—by way of pantoums and villanelles, of course. But more than a feminist, I would say that Duhamel is a humanitarian. Her words dignify the disenfranchised. Glory to Denise Duhamel for her formal ingenuity and her gleeful political imagination.”—David Trinidad   Blood Memory Colleen McElroy POETRY “She is the last woman of her line. Her new poems end and begin with A. Phillip Randolph and Pullman Porters,…

We’re giving away 50 poetry books! Enter to win. WHY Pitt Poetry Series is celebrating its 50th Anniversary—and we’re giving you the gifts! WHAT Ten lucky poetry fans will get their pick of any five Pitt poetry books in print. HOW Stop by our booth (355) at the 2017 AWP conference in Washington, DC (February 8-11) and sign up OR enter your info on the entry form below. Contest ends on February 28, 2017 at 11:59pm. Five winners will be chosen from the AWP entries and five winners will be chosen from the online entries. The ten winners will receive an email notification…