University Times

"City of Salt" by Gregory Orr, published as part of the University of Pittsburgh Press Poetry Series, has been named a finalist in the 1995 Los Angeles Times Book Prize program.

Pitt was one of only four university presses in the country with a title on The Times's finalists' list, which was announced last month. Other university presses with books on the list were Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Winner of The Times's poetry prize was "The Inferno of Dante" by Robert Pinsky, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. "This is one of the more prestigious book competitions in the United States," said Ed Ochester, long-time editor of the Pitt Poetry Series. "We're really happy for Greg and glad to have him." A professor of English at the University of Virginia and poetry editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Orr is one of the most widely published contemporary American poets. "City of Salt" is his sixth book of poems, a largely autobiographical work that presents moments of intense emotion anchored in clearly dramatized events. Poetry magazine has said of his work: "Orr has chosen as his poetic ground the in-betweenness of things, that now closed and open ground between our surfaces (and depths) and those of others." According to Ochester, Orr was drawn to submit his work to the University Press both by the reputation of the Pitt Poetry Series, widely recognized as one of the best poetry series in the nation, and the realization that the Press will keep his work in print longer than a commercial publishing house.

Ochester called Orr one of the Poetry Series' "major acquisitions of the last couple of years" and "a fine acquisition to the series." Other poetry finalists were "Song" by Brigit Pegeen Kelly, published by BOA Editions Limited; "Split Horizon" by Thomas Lux, Houghton Mifflin, and "New and Selected Poems" by Gary Soto, Chronicle.

Judges for the poetry prize were Michael Ryan, Dorothy Barresi and Francisco Alarcon.

The book prizes have been awarded annually by The Los Angeles Times since 1980. Winners and finalists in each of seven categories are selected by seven committees made up of three judges each. Most judges are widely published writers and none is a Los Angeles Times employee.

–Mike Sajna