Paper Camera: A Half Century with New Rivers Press

by Suzzanne Kelley (Editor), Alicia Strnad Hoalcraft (Editor)

With contributions from notable authors such as Charles Baxter, David Haynes, Deborah Keenan, and Joyce Sutphen, and an unpublished letter from founder C.W. Truesdale, this anthology is dedicated to the students, writers, and patrons of independent press publishing, where, as noted by Minnesota's poet laureate, "the ink is pressed deep."

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2015

About the author

Originally from Alaska, I now live in West Fargo and work in the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area. I am the editor in chief of North Dakota State University Press, and I also teach courses about publishing as associate professor of practice.

I have directed the publication of more than one hundred books of scholarly and literary nonfiction, fiction, and poetry--mostly in physical forms but also digital. I write, teach, and publish, and I conduct my own lines of research in memory and memory art topics. I am the co-editor and a contributor for Paper Camera: A Half Century with New Rivers Press, and editor for the forthcoming anthology, History and Memory in Germans from Russia Country. I am revising my first draft of the biography of Augusta Metcalfe, an Oklahoma rancher and memory artist.

I am the mom of two sons and the stepmom of two daughters, and I have ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild (so far!).

Past honors and awards include: National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar; North Dakota State University Editorial Fellow; Edward Everett Dale Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in History; Phi Alpha Theta (history honor society) Outstanding Service Award; and the Mirabeau B. Lamar Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Reviews

[David Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

PAPER CAMERA: A HALF CENTURY WITH NEW RIVERS PRESS is a compilation of essays by founder C. W. (Bill) Truesdale and others associated with New Rivers Press one of the first small, independent American publishing houses to receive 501(C)3 non-profit status. Books published by the press, which Truesdale founded in 1968, include early works by Charles Baxter and Charles Goldbarth and one of the earliest collections of poetry by Pablo Neruda in translation.

It was my good fortune to have Truesdale select my first book of poems, HERE, as one of the press’s earliest offerings. A decade later, New Rivers also published my second collection, CONTENDING TO BE THE DREAM.

Several contributors to this volume, including Baxter, indicate that Truesdale could be rather haughty and difficult to deal with. Through extensive correspondence with Truesdale about each of my books, I never experienced this aspect of his character. There is consensus that Truesdale was contemptuous of commercial publishing and commercial success. Whenever authors he had discovered and published would subsequently bring out books through major publishers and receive some acclaim, Truesdale would apparently show them a cold shoulder. I, uh, never gave him trouble in this way.

I do remember that when I met the late poet John Knoepfle, he mentioned how upset he was with what he regarded as obscene illustrations Truesdale had used, without consulting him, in a collection of Knoepfle’s work.

After Truesdale’s death,New Rivers was transferred to Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where a program was begun through which interested students could earn a certificate in publishing by working for the press. Several essays in PAPER CAMERA are by former students who describe their experience with this program.

Truesdale’s commitment to discovering and promoting new writers remained a focus of the press until it finally ceased operations in 2021.

This is probably not a book for the general reader, but it will be of a good read for those with an interest in the burst of small, independent American presses beginning at mid-century .

[Suzzanne Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twenty-two essays tell the story of a small, independent nonprofit press, established in a dusty shed in 1968, that has transitioned during its most recent two decades into a university-based teaching press, setting the standard for practical, hands-on experience in the national publication of fine literary prose and poetry.

Among the essayists are:

Charles Baxter: author of The Feast of Love, a finalist for the National Book Award and released as a movie starring Morgan Freeman, who had his first book--Chameleon--published by C.W. "Bill" Truesdale and New Rivers Press,

Mark Vinz: poet, teacher, and publisher; the author of more than fifteen poetry collections; winner of three Minnesota Book Awards and the 2014 winner of the Kay Sexton Award for long-standing dedication and outstanding work in fostering books, reading and literary activity in Minnesota,

Deborah Keenan: former editor for Milkweed Editions, winner of the 1991 American Book Award, and New Rivers Press's first winner of the Minnesota Voices Project (now the Many Voices Project) prize for poetry,

Clint McCown: Twice winner of the American Fiction Prize, author of four novels and numerous short stories, essays, and poems, and a former actor with the National Shakespeare Company,

David Haynes: author of six critically acclaimed novels and five children's books,

and 10 previously unpublished poems by Minnesota's Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen.

Is it fair for me to rank an anthology that I, my assistant editor (Alicia Strnad Hoalcraft), and a couple dozen of my publishing students produced? Well, I can say without (and with) bias that the essays here are superb.