Pittsburgh’s Autumn House Press recently announced the winners of their 2016 full-length contest for poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and also just wrapped up hosting a slew of readings in our city’s parks over the summer! We caught up with AHP’s Editor In Chief, Christine Stroud, to find out a little bit more about the press and all the exciting projects/books they have in the works. Plus, we welcome AHP’s new Managing Editor, Ryan Kaune, back to the ‘burgh!
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Can you tell us a little bit about the press?
Autumn House was founded as a publisher of poetry in 1998 by Michael Simms and his wife, Eva-Marie Simms. The press was created to offer a home to talented poets who struggled to find publishers when larger publishers began reducing the number of poetry titles they released. We now also publish fiction and nonfiction because we realized that many fantastic prose writers were being overlooked too. Since then we’ve published well-known authors, such as Ed Ochester, Chana Bloch, and Steven Schwartz, as well as the first books of Ada Limón, Clifford Thompson, and Sharma Shields. We love being able to publish the best of both worlds: established and emerging authors.
Over the past few years there have been some large transitions around the press—our founder and editor in chief retired from the press as well as the board of directors. Melissa Becker, who worked closely with the editors, took over as board president, and I was promoted to editor in chief. This summer we also hired a new managing editor, Ryan Kaune, the former fiction editor of Ecotone magazine.
You just announced the winners of your 2016 full-length contest, how exciting! What were you looking for in the submissions? Can you please tell us more about the winners? When will we be able to read their published work?
Yes! We’re super excited about the 2016 contest winners; the judges did a fabulous job in choosing really strong manuscripts (as always!). The books will come out in early 2017—just in time for AWP in DC.
As far as what we’re looking for, the list could go on and on, but we’ll try to keep it brief. First and foremost (this probably goes without saying, but we’re saying it anyway) we want quality writing—that is, attention to language, a coherent narrative, clear themes, and a strong voice. We want to read books that engage with larger, contemporary issues or that engage with familiar topics in new and surprising ways. We want to be stunned, taken off guard. We want to read something that changes our mind or illuminates an unknown.
How can local writers/readers aka “Littsburghers” get involved? Do you host events or workshops? Are there any contests coming up in the near future?
AHP holds several readings a year. This summer we were fortunate enough to host the Pittsburgh Parks Summer Reading Series, funded by The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation. We collaborated with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy to hold readings in parks all around the city. We also have some great readings scheduled for the fall. Check out the event’s calendar on our website or subscribe to our online newsletter to learn more!
We do have some great contests for poets to consider over the next few months. There’s the Coal Hill Review Chapbook Contest (open now!) and the Rising Writers Contest, which is for younger writers without a first book. All of our contests are listed here:
http://www.autumnhouse.org/contest-submissions/
Also, we host interns every semester and always welcome volunteers. If you’re interested in something like that, send us an email: info@autumnhouse.org!
What are you hopes and goals for Autumn House Press?
In addition to continuing to publish a diverse collection of authors through the contests, we’re really looking forward to soliciting more work that will supplement our already robust catalogue.
We’d also really like to see the press reconnect with its Pittsburgh roots by holding more events and readings, as well as collaborating more with the community. We have a few projects in the works that we’ll be announcing over the next year. Stay tuned and keep us on your radar!
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