There’s nobody else like C.D. Wright. Her incomparable voice and body of work led The New York Times to declare she “constituted a school of exactly one.”

You now have the opportunity to join Copper Canyon Press in preserving her poetic legacy and bringing even more readers to her work by helping us publish the next volume in our Essential series: The Essential C.D. Wright.

For the first time in print, you will find a single volume that spans her dazzling four-decade career of docupoetics and poetic activism.

The Essential C.D. Wright will feature:

A significant number of new poems, never before published in her previous collections, and working papers
A moving introduction by Forrest Gander
Archival photographs from C.D. Wright’s life
Rare selections from across her entire oeuvre—from her first book, Room Rented by a Single Woman (1978), through her final collection, ShallCross (2016)

Thanks to your vital support, Copper Canyon Press has been entrusted to protect and advance the legacy of many essential poets: Jim Harrison, June Jordan, W.S. Merwin, Red Pine, and Ruth Stone. With your help today, C.D. Wright will be the latest poet to join them, and you will ensure that her work is recognized afresh for new generations of readers.

Our goal is to raise $25,000 by November 1, 2024, and we cannot meet this goal without your support.

You are a reason we can remain a home for poetic legacy.

You are the reason poets who shape the contemporary literary landscape want their work to live on at Copper Canyon Press.

You are essential.

Please join us as we take the exciting first step toward advancing and preserving C.D.’s poetic legacy—with your help, we can “redeem the world in words” together. And this is just the beginning.

The Rewards

Our thank you gift to you for all donations made between October 1, 2024 – November 1, 2024.

$25

One paperback copy of the National Book Award finalist One with Others

$50

One hardcover copy of Steal Away, which contains lyrics, narratives, prose poems, and odes, and includes a bracing vigil on incarceration

$75

One copy of Casting Deep Shade, a beautiful tri-fold hardcover which is a passionate, poetic exploration of humanity’s shared history with the beech tree

$100

One copy of the first-edition The Essential C.D. Wright. Be among the first to receive this collection, which includes the very best of her work in addition to not yet collected poems.

$150

Your name published in the first edition of The Essential C.D. Wright in a special donor acknowledgement section
One copy of the first-edition of The Essential C.D. Wright

$300

One copy of Casting Deep Shade
Your name published in the first edition of The Essential C.D. Wright in a special donor acknowledgement section

One copy of the first-edition of The Essential C.D. Wright

$500

A signed hardcover copy of Rising, Falling, Hovering ( available to the first 15 donors at this level)
One copy of Casting Deep Shade
Your name published in the first edition of The Essential C.D. Wright in a special donor acknowledgement section

One copy of the first-edition of The Essential C.D. Wright

$1,000

Donor’s Circle Membership: Be the first to receive a bundle of our Spring 2025 frontlist titles. As a member of our Donor’s Circle, you will also receive all books Copper Canyon Press publishes for one year.

$2,500

Publisher’s Circle Membership: Be the first to receive a bundle of our Spring 2025 frontlist titles. As a member of our Publisher’s Circle, you will also receive all books Copper Canyon Press publishes for one year, including additional gifts such as rare signed books and limited edition broadsides.

$5,000

Editor’s Circle Membership: Join our Editor's Circle and get your name printed in all books Copper Canyon Press publishes for one year. Immediately begin receiving all poetry books Copper Canyon publishes for one year.

Please note not all rewards are cumulative. We expect to fulfill donor rewards in Summer 2025. Thank you for supporting independent publishing and The Essential C.D. Wright!

The Essential C.D. Wright

By Copper Canyon Press

The Essential C.D. Wright

Help Copper Canyon Press take the first step toward honoring C.D. Wright’s poetic legacy.