As Graywolf Press celebrates the 30th anniversary of its founding and the 10th anniversary of its current publisher's tenure, it is expanding the size and diversity of its list while maintaining its commitment to publishing poetry. This combination of moving in new directions while continuing to do what it does best is working: sales surged to record levels this past year.
Graywolf's two anniversaries are being commemorated with a nationwide schedule of readings and panel discussions at bookstores, literary conferences and book festivals this spring and into the fall. The festivities kicked off with a Graywolf author group reading at Brazos Bookstore in Houston on March 22. Other special events will take place at the Associated Writers Program Conference in Chicago, the Festival of Books in Los Angeles, the National Arts Club in New York City, the Twin Cities Book Festival and Seattle's Pacific Northwest Bookfest. The celebration winds down with a publishing panel at the Madison (Wis.) Book Festival in October.
Graywolf has come a long way, both literally and figuratively, in its 30 years. Founded by Scott Walker and Kathleen Foster in Port Washington, Wash., in 1974, the press published a few hand-set, hand-printed poetry chapbooks each season. Typical print runs were 300 copies. "It was very much a labor of love those first couple of years," recalled Walker. "I didn't make more than $7,000 the first 10 years of the press. We almost gave up. We just couldn't do it, especially in rural Washington State."
But after incorporating the press as a nonprofit in 1985 and moving to Minnesota, Walker expanded Graywolf's list, adding literary fiction, memoirs and short stories. In 1993, Graywolf published 23 titles. But it was also running a deficit of $200,000. The staff was cut from eight to four, and Walker himself left the press in 1994.
Fiona McCrae joined Graywolf as publisher later that year. She immediately cut back to eight new titles a year as a cost-cutting measure. Since then, she has slowly but steadily built the press back up, but on solid financial ground this time. After a decade of McCrae's leadership, Graywolf posted a record $880,000 in sales in fiscal year 2003, an increase of 38% over the previous fiscal year. The switch of distributors from Consortium to Farrar, Straus & Giroux played a key role in boosting sales, McCrae said. The press also increased its output each year, and is releasing 21 titles in 2004. The staff once again numbers eight full-time employees.
According to McCrae, the press is moving forward by further diversifying. About 60% of its list will continue to be poetry titles, with the rest a combination of literary fiction, memoirs, short stories and essays. Graywolf is also branching out into more international offerings. After receiving a grant in 2002 from the Lannan Foundation to publish literature in translation, the press is publishing at least two translations each year. It's also publishing more work acquired from British publishers, such as this season's New British Poetry anthology.
McCrae also plans to publish literary nonfiction. In fact, the press is formally announcing in April that, beginning in 2006, it will offer the Graywolf Literary Nonfiction Prize to an author with fewer than two books in that genre. "The diversity of our list is the secret of our success. What we're looking for is originality and innovation. Once we're inside the exclusively literary book, we don't further niche ourselves," McCrae said.
From his current home in Massachusetts, Walker told PW, "I'm applauding from afar. I keep up with the press. It's been well cared for, it keeps on going. It was founded out of a love of literature, and that's still embodied in Graywolf."
