Collaborative work for literary culture...
a not-for-profit imprint publishing books and journals.

The Pen & Anvil Press is a literary imprint publishing books and literary journals in Boston, Massachusetts. Its founding was a natural extension of the activities of its parent organization, the Boston Poetry Union. The Union in turn emerged out of a community of diverse and shifting literary collaborations among Boston-area belletrists.

In 2002, a group of literary-minded students began meeting for a weekly salon in venues near Kenmore Square in Boston. The members of that original group, operating under the name Charles River Writers, discussed their writing and their ambitions for writing; advised and assisted the editors of undergraduate journals at Boston University and other area schools, and put up readings and events. Since 2005, these activities have been conducted under a new name: the Boston Poetry Union.

The Union acts as a meeting place for literary culture. The people who have gathered around its table for workshop discussion or a convivial meal include translators, poets, musicians, storytellers, editors, publishers, critics, and devoted readers. As often happens when creative minds get together, many of these encounters have turned into shared projects—including the re-establishment of Hawk & Whippoorwill, the conception of Sixty-Six: The Journal of Sonnet Studies, and the founding of The Charles River Journal.

The Pen & Anvil Press was initially founded in order to bring organization and efficiency to these periodical projects. Soon thereafter, the original editors of the Press—Zachary Bos, Nora Delaney, and Daniel Pritchard—made plans to publish books as well.

The first book from Pen & Anvil, Conscious Explanations by M. A. Schorr, was published in 2008. In 2010, the Press plans to release four previously unpublished books, and will make available a reprint edition of Melissa Green's much-acclaimed collection, The Squanicook Ecologues. We welcome inquiries from trade publishers interested in taking up one of our titles for reprinting and wider distribution.

The Press is presently organized as a sole proprietorship under the direction of its Executive Editor, Zachary Bos, but as described above its activities are prodigiously collaborative. This makes the Press a not-for-profit initiative, though it is not registered as a non-profit organization. All receipts from the sale of books and journals are plowed back into the production, distribution, and promotion of Pen & Anvil publications.

Operating costs are paid for by the editors and through the proceeds of an annual bel esprit campaign. Donations are always needed, and are most welcome. Supporters who would like to review our balance sheets before making a donation are invited to contact the Managing Editor to arrange a meeting.

The Pen & Anvil logo was designed by artist Alice Delaney. It portrays a penman at his anvil, where literature is being wrought from the raw material of literary imagination. This principle of workmanship has long been central in the literary community that has come together in the Union and the Press. The same sentiment is expressed in the following lines by poet Alissa Valles, as quoted by Stephen Burt in Boston Review: "I admire the 'startling new voice' / and the 'linguistic tour-de-force' / but how about something to read before an operation? / How about a few lines to engrave on a ring or a stone?"

If the Press can be said to have a single purpose, it is to publish writing worth writing on stone with an iron pen.