APP Launches Translation Series
On April 14th,1969, two professors of English at Ashland University established the Ashland Poetry Press (APP). In 2019 it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and its publication of more than seventy single-authored collections, five anthologies, seven chapbooks, seven books of essays and five New and Selected editions. Its books have won at least seven prizes including the Eric Hoffer Award, Independent Book Publishers Award, Los Angeles Times Book Award, and Colorado Book Award and one title was chosen as a finalist for the National Book Award in 2005. Ashland Poetry Press titles are available for purchase through Amazon, Small Press Distributing and the AU Bookstore.
As part of the anniversary celebration the editors of the press planned for its next fifty years projecting its growth into the future. All agreed that in order for the press to diversify, grow and gain international recognition it needed to create a translation series. All prestigious poetry presses, regardless of their size, publish poetry in translation. Colombian poet Carlos Aguasaco graciously accepted to initiate the translation series at APP. The editors approached him with this proposal due to his academic and poetic profile. Among his many accomplishments, Aguasaco is the editor of the Hispanic editorial house Artepoética Press in New York, he’s the organizer and curator of The Americas Poetry Festival of New York and he is the author of six books of poetry. Undoubtedly Aguasaco is one of poetry’s best ambassadors. He has traveled extensively all over the world as an invited guest speaker or a participant in poetry conferences or festivals. APP will release his bilingual, en face book, The New York City Subway Poems, in July 2020. Not only is this the first translation released by APP, Carlos Aguasaco is the first author of color to be published by the press. APP celebrates this momentous occasion in its history and is proud to be diversifying its titles and authors. It will be forever indebted to Carlos Aguasaco for his historic role in their transition.
When APP and Aguasaco began working on the production of his book in 2019 there was no way to foresee the Covid Pandemic and how it would alter every way of life as we know it around the globe and particularly in New York—the first epicenter of the outbreak in the United States. The New York City Subway Poems are being released at a time of reopening in New York where many long to return to normal life including daily rides on its subway. The verses in its pages are now nostalgic of a time when life in New York was indeed normal, if there ever was a normal there. They take us to a time when the poetic voice was free to roam the streets and observe humanity like a modern day Don Quixote searching desperately for love in his life while tackling any giants along his way. APP invites its readers to explore New York through Aguasaco’s eyes and to help us celebrate this significant, exceptional publication.
