Curbstone Press was an American publishing company founded in 1975 in

Willimantic, Connecticut Willimantic is a census-designated place located in Windham, Connecticut, United States. Previously organized as a city and later as a Borough (Connecticut), borough, Willimantic is currently one of two Local government in Connecticut#Special ta ...

by Judith Doyle and Alexander “Sandy” Taylor that specialized in fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry that promote human rights, social justice, and intercultural understanding. Curbstone Press's backlist of 160 books was acquired by

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticis ...

in 2010, where it continues as the Curbstone Books imprint.

History

Doyle and Taylor met in the 1960s while students at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, she an undergraduate in English literature, he working on a PhD in literature, with a special interest in Scandinavian writing. “We were both pretty involved in the antiwar and Civil Rights movement,” Doyle said. A friendship based on their shared political activism developed into love, marriage, and the founding of the Curbstone Press, which "served as a model for activist literary publishing on the small press scene." Taylor stated that they founded Curbstone because they "wanted to present literature that promoted human rights and civil liberties and promoted cultural understanding." They founded Curbstone in the basement of their home in Willimantic, CT in 1975 and continued in active operation through 2005. Authors published by Curbstone include Luis Rodríguez, Martín Espada, Claribel Alegria, Salah Al Hamdani,

Ana Castillo Ana Castillo (born June 15, 1953) is a Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Considered one of the leading voices in Chicana experience, Castillo is most known for her experi ...

, Wayne Karlin, E. Ethelbert Miller,

Sergio Ramírez Sergio Ramírez Mercado (; born 5 August 1942 in Masatepe, Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan writer and intellectual who was a key figure in 1979 revolution, served in the leftist Government Junta of National Reconstruction and as vice president of ...

, and Le Clézio. In 2001, Curbstone founded the Julia de Burgos Poetry Park at the south corner of Jackson Street and Terry Avenue near the Curbstone offices in honor of Puerto Rican poet and independence advocate

Julia de Burgos Julia Constanza Burgos García (February 17, 1914 – July 6, 1953), known as Julia de Burgos, was a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican poet, journalist, Independence movement in Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican independence advocate, and teacher. As an advo ...

García. In acquiring the press in 2010,

cited Curbstone's "emphasis on creative literature that promotes human rights and intercultural understanding," which complemented Northwestern's longstanding commitments to writing from underrepresented communities and literature in translation.

Awards

Curbstone earned numerous national and regional awards, including the New England Booksellers Association for Publishing Excellence, the National Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences for Achievement in Publishing, the

ALTA Alta or ALTA may refer to: Acronyms * Alt-A, short for Alternative A-paper, is a type of US mortgage * American Land Title Association, a national trade association representing the land title industry * American Literary Translators Association, ...

Award for Dedication to Translation, the PEN New England “Friends to Writers” Award, and the PEN Gregory Kolovakos Award for commitment to Hispanic Literature. Works published by Curbstone have won the

Outstanding Translation of the Year Award, the American Book Award, the Critics Choice Award, Foreword’s Book of the Year Award, Independent Publishers Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the PEN/Oakland Award, the PEN/Revson Award, Premio Atzlán, and the Pushcart Prize. In October 2020, the town council of Willimantic voted to memorialize the publishing house by renaming the street where the press was located "Curbstone Way."

External links

References

{{Reflist Publishing companies established in 1975 Book publishing companies based in Illinois