After celebrating its 50th anniversary last year, the storied Port Townsend, Wash.–based poetry publisher Copper Canyon Press has announced new leadership. Longtime copublishers George Knotek and Joseph Bednarik retired on May 1, tapping the press's publicist, Ryo Yamaguchi, to succeed them as publisher. In addition, Julie Johnson, finance and operations manager, has assumed the role of director of finance and operations, and longtime executive editor Michael Wiegers has added the role of artistic director to his purview.
“I’ve been reading Copper Canyon books since I was eighteen years old,” Yamaguchi said. “Simply being part of this organization is a dream come true, and I step into this leadership role backed by a half century of institutional wisdom advocating for the vitality of poetry in our lives,” citing press founders Tree Swenson and Sam Hamill as well as Knotek and Bednarik. “We’ve got so much on the horizon—books from familiar voices, books from new voices; new partnerships, new formats, new focus. Lots of work to do. We are already doing it.”
Yamaguchi has more than a decade of experience in the world of book publishing. Previously, he served as sales and marketing director at Wave Books and promotions manager at the University of Chicago Press. The press has a history of nurturing talent and promoting internally. Knotek and Bednarik, who had served as copublishers since 2014, previously served as development and marketing directors, respectively.
“I am proud of the work we have done together, and looking forward to watching the press continue to thrive in the very capable hands of Ryo Yamaguchi and Julie Johnson, alongside Michael Wiegers,” Knotek said, noting wryly: “And now, to be honest, I am looking forward to having more time for reading.” Bednarik added, “On the back of my business card I included a quote from Theordore Roethke, ‘What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.’ The Copper Canyon community is teeming with specialists in the impossible.”
“We are grateful for the many years that George and Joseph have invested at Copper Canyon,” Anne Barker, chairperson of the board of directors, said in a statement. “Combined, they have forty-two years of experience at the press. It’s that kind of organizational stability and dedicated leadership that has helped Copper Canyon become the most important poetry publisher in America.”
In his new role, Yamaguchi will "guide the press's strategic vision," Copper Canyon said in a statement, in addition to overseeing the press's audience, donor, and partnership development. (Yamaguchi added, in an email, that he “will continue to be your main person for all-things-galleys and everything else in publicity land.”) Johnson will oversee all fiscal operations of the press, including processing royalties and subsidiary rights, serving as human resources executive, and managing the press’s physical facilities and grant application and management activities. Wiegers, the publisher said, "will continue in his role guiding the artistic direction of the organization."
“Anyone can tell you how hard it is to build an organization around the reading of books, especially poetry. I’m astonished at how well we’ve done it,” Yamaguchi said. “The shift to remote work has allowed us to thoughtfully compose one of the most talented staffs in publishing—a staff that is now majority persons under fifty and majority persons of color, and who are equally dedicated to poetry as poets, writers, and artists themselves. We’ve built a cash reserve that enables us to weather vicissitudes in the marketplace and institutional giving. And, perhaps most important, we’ve continued to push our editorial vision to interact with and reflect the diverse and dynamic literary landscape as it truly exists, helping put numerous communities and generations of poets into conversation with one another.”
