I’m not sure where to start, so I will send you to the Kenyon Review blog, where I say a few things about my editorial home since 2008, the University of Akron Press.

My favorite poetry collections are ones that aren’t afraid to show their teeth. I lecture my graduate students about how taking risks can be a way to understand a poem’s underlying obsessions and passions. Many of the books that I accepted for publication as my editor’s choice selections were first books by innovative new poets such as Sarah Perrier, Emilia Phillips, Brittany Cavallaro, and Jennifer Moore. During my time as editor of the Akron Series in Poetry, and the Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics, which I founded in 2009 with John Gallaher, I worked closely with designer Amy Freels. I can say that what we did was not just literary publishing, but the creation of art. We engaged deeply with the books, pondering the intersection of text and design, and corresponded extensively with the authors regarding all aspects of publication. In many ways it felt like we were a pair of midwives, offering support and encouragement and wisdom to ease something miraculous into the world.