Take our poll to tell us which cover you like best. It doesn’t mean we’ll change our minds about the one WE like, but it’s always fun to see what everyone thinks!
While Katherine Smith writes beautiful poetry, Kathryn also creates collages we can’t stop looking at.
The story begins with the Madville crew doing some online research about a new poet we had just signed, Katherine Smith. (Secret City, Madville, August 2022). Expect a preorder page to become available for this collection in May. You’ll find that on our homepage, https://madvillepublishing.com.
But back to the reason for the search in the first place, we were looking for inspiration for Katherine Smith’s book cover. We like to start by looking at an author’s previous covers, so we started by looking at Katherine’s Woman Alone on the Mountain (Iris Press, 2014). After that, our eyes were naturally drawn to the really striking collage art of Katheryn Smith, who turned up among our search results. We contacted her about her art before even realizing she is also a poet. Learn more about her at kathrynsmithpoetry.com
Winner of The 2021 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize Look for it September 2022
Jesse Graves, the judge for the 2021 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize, said:
“… moving and memorable in terms of subject matter… accomplished in form and technique. The individual poems are brilliantly expressed, and they add up to sustained and coherent whole. The poet … captures the experiences living [in Appalachia] and moving away and the feelings about the language, beautifully.”
Lisa Parker is a native Virginian, a poet, musician, and photographer. Her book, This Gone Place, won the 2010 Appalachian Studies Association Weatherford Award and her work is widely published in literary journals and anthologies. Her photography has been on exhibit in NYC and published in several arts journals and anthologies.
Splinter by Susan O’Dell Underwood
Finalist for the 2022 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize Look for it May 2023
Jesse Graves, the judge for the 2021 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize said:
“These poems are wise and generous throughout, and witty at times to provide a balance to the elegiac tone.”
Susan O'Dell Underwood is a native of East Tennessee, where she has lived most of her life. She's the director of creative writing at Carson-Newman University. Besides two chapbooks, she has one full-length collection of poetry, The Book of Awe (Iris, 2018). Her novel Genesis Road is forthcoming from Madville Publishing (June 2022). Her poems and fiction are published and forthcoming in a variety of journals and anthologies, including A Southern Poetry Anthology: Tennessee, Oxford American, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Still: The Journal.
We wish you Happy New Year 2022, but first, here is a quick recap of 2021.
We know that many among our subscribers, authors, and staff went back to teaching face-to-face amid Covid fears in 2021. We applaud you all for your hard work and dedication. What you do is a calling.
We didn’t get to see one another in person as much as we like in 2021, but we attended a few virtual events, like AWP in March, and there were a few bright pockets of time when the likes of Lee Zacharias, Wondra Chang, and Francine Rodriguez braved the scary world outside between Covid mutations and booster shots to sign books and read their stories in front of live people.
Our 2021 authors have been fabulous. They affirm that despite the daunting nature of the search for one’s audience, worthwhile literature can still find an audience. (All praises to the Indie bookstores that have hosted our authors this year.) While the pandemic has seen book sales industry-wide increase due to the increased demand for children’s books and textbooks, that increase in sales has been more modest for authors of poetry, literary fiction and nonfiction. That said, Madville increased production a little bit this year, to an official 13, with one 2022 title coming out a little early, (All I See Is Your Glinting: 90 Days in the Pandemic Gianna Russo and Jenny Carey.) We also added 8 hardback editions of existing titles in our catalog. You can find those here.
We had some good news in February after two long years of going backward and forward with the IRS, we were granted our official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. That’s huge for a little press like Madville. It allows us to apply for grants and makes any donations we receive tax deductible (retroactive to June 2020). If anyone needs a receipt for a donation, please get in touch. And, of course, we are always able to put donations to good use, producing and promoting quality literature.
Many thanks to all who donated during our recent online fundraiser. And we have to say, it isn’t too late to make a 2021 donation!
We accomplished a lot in 2021
We published 13 titles this year, and we couldn’t be prouder of them.
Note the badges on the award winners… We had some of our 2020 titles winning awards this year as well. We created a new section of the website for Award Winners so you can see them all in one place.
Ron and Alice Kenney.
On a sad note, we lost one of our Madville family this year. Ron Kenney, our beloved English jockey friend, and author of An Englishman in Texas passed away. We hope you will join us in sending love and condolences to his wife Alice. Ron was 91 years old, and one of the most uplifting people you could ever hope to know. He’s bound to be singing and dancing in heaven.
From Madville Publishing to you,
Happy New Year and all the very best wishes for 2022!
