Published: June 05, 2008 12:18 pm            

Ninebark Press receives award

Submitted by Berry College



ROME — A 2008 Independent Publisher Book Award gold medal has been awarded to Ninebark Press for its inaugural publication, "Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad." This anthology brings together 34 contemporary American poets whose work has been significantly informed by international travel or by living abroad.

Edited by Sandra Meek, associate professor of English, rhetoric and writing at Berry College, "Deep Travel" includes poems by Pulitzer Prize-winners as well as mid-career and emerging writers. Participating poets also contributed original prose statements discussing how travel has deepened their work, their understanding of poetry’s aesthetic and human value, and their sense of self and “other.”

The award, known in the publishing industry as the IPPY, was formally presented at the 12th Annual IPPY Awards in Los Angeles on May 30. "Deep Travel" received its IPPY in the “Anthologies” category. The 2008 winners were selected from 3,175 entries representing 49 states and 16 countries. According to the judges, finalists “represent the cutting-edge of independent thinking and expression. We present these awards in hopes that all of these books and their authors will be recognized for their excellence and get all the attention they deserve.”

Founded in 2006 by four writer-editors in Rome, Ninebark Press is a not-for-profit literary press dedicated to publishing innovative and compelling work by both new and established writers. The press is especially interested in literature that crosses boundaries of genre, culture and aesthetic. Two of the four founding editors, Meek and Michael Mejia, are faculty members at Berry. Meek is the author of three award-winning books of poetry, while Mejia is the recent recipient of a literary fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the author of the novel "Forgetfulness."

Joining Meek and Mejia as founding editors are Ray Marsocci and Mindy Wilson. A poet and fiction writer, Marsocci is a former editor of Elixir Press. Wilson is managing editor of The Georgia Review and former managing editor of The Gettysburg Review.

The parent organization for Ninebark is the Rome Area Council for the Arts. Please contact Meek at (706) 234-0783 or smeek@berry.edu for more information.

        

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