Melville House Books

Esteemed poet and publisher Sam Hamill is leaving the Copper Canyon Press, “the publishing company he founded 32 years ago, to focus on his organization, Poets Against the War,” according to a Peninsula Daily News report by Nick Koveshnikov. Hamill started Poets Against the War to protest a poetry symposium organized by Laura Bush at the White House last year on the eve of the Iraq war. He tells Koveshnikov he is leaving for “a cyberspace soap box for anti-war literary expression.” Copper Canyon executives could not be reached for comment on what Hamill’s departure means for the company

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.