Zephyr Mission:

In 2010, Zephyr proudly celebrates its 30th anniversary of publishing outstanding literature from around the world. We serve as a bridge between cultures—understanding other languages and literary traditions through the twin arts of poetry and literary translation. Our poets are among the most celebrated writers in their own countries, and most of our books are the first title of each poet ever to appear in English—and most also include the original language as well as the English translations. A brief overview of our work includes:

• The Russian series: Books by Nobel Prize nominee Gennady Aygi, Anatoly Naiman (protégé and literary secretary to Anna Akhmatova), Booker Prize-winner Sergey Gandlevsky, Moscow poet and editor Mikhail Aizenberg, Tatiana Shcherbina and many others, as well as the acclaimed anthology, In the Grip of Strange Thoughts: New Russian Poetry, one of the first major collections to showcase Russian poets from the 1960s through the fall of the Soviet Union.
• The Chinese series: Beginning with the first book of essays to be published by Nobel nominee Bei Dao, we have published books by both Mainland and Taiwanese poets, including Lo Fu, Hsia Yu, Zhang Er and Duo Duo, winner of the 2010 Neustadt Prize. We are the only press in the United States with a long-term commitment to publishing Chinese poetry in translation.
• The Polish series: Our anthology, Carnivorous Boy, Carnivorous Bird, was one of the first to feature younger poets of Poland, and has spawned a series of individual volumes by some of Poland’s emerging poets: Marzanna Kielar, Tomasz Rozycki, Tadeusz Dabrowski, Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki and MLB, all winners of their country’s most prestigious awards.
• And more: The first collection of feminist poets from Korea, Anxiety of Words, edited by Don Mee Choi; the first major anthology of Iraqi poetry, Iraqi Poetry Today, edited by Saadi Simawe; the first major anthology of Ukrainian literature, From Three Worlds[gets mention below, as well]. We publish the complete edition of poems by the Austrian Ingeborg Bachmann (including poems not appearing before in German) Darkness Spoken: Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann, translated by Peter Filkins. And recently, we have expanded to publish books by major poets from Romania, Germany, and Israel.
• Robert Frost in Russia and other books of prose: Zephyr has published several novels and books of prose over its history, all of which have been widely and enthusiastically reviewed. In 2007, we brought out a new, expanded edition of Letters from Mississippi, including forty pages of poets from the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools, introduced by Langston Hughes.
• Adventures in Poetry: Edited by Christopher Mattison and Larry Fagin, this series of experimental American poets includes books by John Ashbery, Charles North, Clark Coolidge, Kit Robinson, Merrill Gilfillan and many more.
• Events: We organize bilingual readings, educational workshops, and conference panels, and exhibit at several literary and academic book fairs each year. We bring poets and translators to campuses, high schools and community settings for readings and workshops, including our special The “World in Poetry” series in New Mexico and El Paso. Recent collaborations include the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, the Simmons College International Chinese Poetry Festival and Boston University's Eurospective series of conferences and readings.

BACKGROUND:

Founded in 1980 by the late Ed Hogan and two other editors from the little magazine Aspect, Zephyr spent its first decade bringing out a small but significant line of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. In 1990, after seven years of editorial, fundraising and production work, we published our landmark collection, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, translated by Judith Hemschemeyer and edited by Roberta Reeder. This began our history of publishing translations. Another dozen titles from Russia followed over the next several years, as well as the first anthology ever published in English of new Ukrainian writing, From Three Worlds.

The press went through three years of hardship following the deaths of Ed Hogan and his office assistant, Helen Lisovich, in a canoeing accident in late 1997. They were our entire staff at that time. Board members James Kates and Leora Zeitlin assumed responsibility of the press, hired Cris Mattison in 1999 as managing editor, and re-launched Zephyr in 2000.