Dallas-based Southern Methodist University's Project Poëtica and Bridwell Press are establishing a new poetry publishing venture set to debut in 2025, featuring three distinct editorial lines focusing on established poets and collaborative works.
David Caplan, the Daisy Deane Frensley Chair in English Literature at SMU and founding director of Project Poëtica, will oversee two of the imprint's lines, while poet and SMU English professor Katie Condon will edit the third.
"Too often, brilliant poets struggle to find a place for their second or third books, or books they wrote with other collaborators," Caplan said. "SMU Project Poëtica / Bridwell Press seeks these important works. We want to support poetic careers and broaden the culture's notion of creativity beyond a single author."
Condon's line, which emphasizes works by poets who have previously published at least one collection, will launch in spring 2025 with Luisa Muradyan's I Make Jokes When I'm Devastated, followed by Rebecca Gayle Howell's Erase Genesis in fall 2025.
"This series offers post-emerging poets a well-funded and long-term home," Condon said. "So many publishing opportunities for poets are limited to first and second books, and the contracts for those prizes are often capped at one collection. Consequently, there is a surplus of accomplished and experienced poets who are forced to prize hop from press to press."
One of Caplan's lines will focus on collaborative works, beginning with a two-books-in-one volume featuring Tilt by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton, paired with Beautiful People by Aaron Smith and Seaton, who died in 2023. Another forthcoming collaborative work, Spotted Pony, will feature poems by Leila Chatti, Chen Chen, Tarfia Faizullah, Mag Gabbert, and Carly Joy Miller.
The third line of works, also overseen by Caplan, will focus on creative or scholarly works about poetics.
Bridwell Press is the professional publishing arm of Bridwell Library, part of SMU Libraries and Perkins School of Theology, at Southern Methodist University. “The mission of Bridwell Press is to support and publish a broad range of academic and literary titles, including translations,” said Anthony Elia, director of Bridwell Library. The press is supported by Fulcrum, the digital publishing platform of Michigan Publishing Services, which handles publication and distribution. Bridwell Press offers all titles online for free, with physical copies sold at cost.
The initiative is part of SMU's broader commitment to poetry, which includes the biennial SMU Symposium on Poetic Form. The second symposium, scheduled for March 1-2, 2026, will feature presentations by Ada Limón, Anahid Nersessian, Ben Lerner, Camille Dungy, Patience Agbabi, and Stephanie Burt, along with editors from Poetry, Pleiades, Paris Review, and Granta.
