Posters Celebrate Small Presses and Poetry

This March marks the 10th annual celebration of National Small Press Month (NSPM), co-sponsored by the Small Press Center; PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association; and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). And April, of course, is National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets (AAP) in 1996. To help booksellers commemorate these celebrations, the events' sponsors have created colorful posters that can form the basis for store displays.

Bookstores with Book Sense were sent information about the Small Press Month celebration, including the poster featuring a self-portrait and quote by Kurt Vonnegut, in the February Red Box. The poster includes the tagline, "Books Beyond the Obvious: Support Independent Publishing."

National Small Press Month Coordinator Carol Hoenig encourages booksellers to send information about their NSPM events for inclusion on the Small Press Month website, www.smallpressmonth.org. Hoenig can be reached at [email protected] or (516) 396-1416. Orders for additional posters, which come in units of five, should be sent to [email protected].

All ABA member bookstores should be on the lookout for a verse-filled poster being sent by the Academy of American Poets via the mail. The AAP National Poetry Month poster is arranged in multi-colored rectangles containing verses of poetry by Elizabeth Bishop, James Wright, Kenneth Koch, Robert Frost, and others. On its Poetry Month web page, AAP has provided a tips sheet for booksellers on marketing, events, and other topics.

For more information about National Poetry Month, including schedule information, event listings, an image of this year's poster, the National Poetry Map, or to order additional posters, go to on www.poets.org. To contact the Academy of American Poets, call Douglas Korb, National Poetry Month coordinator, at (212) 274-0343, ext. 13, or send an e-mail to [email protected].