University Times

The University of Pittsburgh Press has been awarded a $12,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for the publication of poetry in the Pitt Poetry Series.

Pitt's Press was one of only two university presses in the nation to receive such a grant from the NEA.

The Pitt Poetry Series was founded by the University Press in 1968 and has gained wide national and international recognition for the quality of its publications.

Publishers' Weekly has called the series "the nation's most distinctive poetry publishing venture." Series editor Ed Ochester, a faculty member in the English department, also was honored recently as the only university press poetry editor named a finalist in the National Poetry Series Editor's Award for Poetry.

The NEA awards its grants through a democratic system of peer reviewing by panels of more than 1,000 private citizens representing all regions of the country, diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and varying aesthetic viewpoints.

The $12,000 grant to the University Press will be used to help support the publication of seven poetry titles during the coming fiscal year.