Catalog of Sun & Moon Press “New American Poetry” Series Titles
I love Sun & Moon’s “New American Poetry” series—it preserves a very heady slice of turn-of-the-century poetry in pocketable, now uncommon-ish volumes. In an Antiqbook listing, the people at Imago Press describe Gloria Frym’s By Ear (NAP 06) as follows, and I think this is a pretty good description of the series: “Runs the seam between L=A poetry and surrealisme.” To quote my friend Mitch Anzuoni, “Sounds exquisitely my shit.”
Sun & Moon Press, the precursor to Green Integer, was up to all sorts of good shit in the 1990s, incl. publishing Hervé Guibert’s essay collection Ghost Image (becoming the second publisher in the United States to put out Guibert in English, following High Risk). All hail Douglas Messerli.
I hadn’t been able to find a complete NAP series catalog so I’ve compiled one here. This data comes from university catalogs, WorldCat, booksellers’ listings, the Green Integer website, my own library, and other sources. Some of these titles were ultimately repackaged in the Sun & Moon Classics series or as Green Integer titles—dates below reflect first publication in the NAP series.
I’ve been buying these since I picked up Tan Lin’s Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe at Pegasus Books in Berkeley, Calif. Most recently I found a copy of Clark Cooldige’s Sound as Thought at Rust Belt Books in Buffalo (thanks Kristi). Putting together a full set has become a fun sort of ambient collecting activity for me.
Note: Can someone help me understand whether the 1998 printing of Joan Retallack’s How to Do Things With Words was part of this series?
- Guest, Barbara. Fair Realism. 1989. NAP 01.
- Major, Clarence. Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in the Latter Part of the Century. 1989. NAP 02.
- Phillips, Dennis. A World. 1989. NAP 03.
- Wellman, Mac. A Shelf in Woop’s Clothing. 1990. NAP 04.
- *Coolidge, Clark. Sound As Thought: Poems 1982-1984. 1990. NAP 05.
- Frym, Gloria. By Ear. 1990. NAP 06.
- Armantrout, Rae. Necromance. 1991. NAP 07.
- Taggart, John. Loop. 1991. NAP 08.
- *Sherry, James. Our Nuclear Heritage. 1991. NAP 09.
- Phillips, Dennis. Arena. 1991. NAP 10.
- Andrews, Bruce. I Don’t Have Any Paper So Shut Up (or, Social Romanticism). 1992. NAP 11.
- Ross, Joe. An American Voyage. 1993. NAP 12.
- Shurin, Aaron. Into Distances. 1993. NAP 13.
- George, Charley. Sunday’s Ending Too Soon. 1993. NAP 14.
- Mandel, Tom. Letters of the Law. 1994. NAP 15.
- Rehm, Pam. To Give It Up. 1995. NAP 16.
- Alexander, Will. Asia & Haiti. 1995. NAP 17.
- Hartman, Charles O. and Hugh Kenner. Sentences. 1995. NAP 18.
- *Bennett, Guy. Last Words. 1998. NAP 19.
- Armantrout, Rae. Made to Seem. 1995. NAP 20.
- Ronk, Martha. State of Mind. 1995. NAP 21.
- Coffey, Michael. Elemenopy. 1996. NAP 22.
- Phillips, Dennis. Credence. 1996. NAP 23.
- *Swenson, Cole. Noon. 1997. NAP 24.
- Spahr, Juliana. Response. 1996. NAP 25.
- *Lin, Tan. Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe. 1996. NAP 26.
- Hollander, Benjamin. The Book of Who Are Was. 1997. NAP 27.
- Kim, Myung Mi. Dura. 1998. NAP 28.
- Toscano, Rodrigo. The Disparities. 2000. NAP 29.
- North, Charles. New & Selected Poems. 1999. NAP 30.
- *Brown, Lee Ann. Polyverse. 1999. NAP 31.
- Fitterman, Robert. Metropolis 1–15. 2000. NAP 32.
- Clark, Jeff. The Little Door Slides Back. 1997. NAP 33.
- Bellen, Martine. Tales of Murasaki and Other Poems. 1999. NAP 34.
- Roberson, Ed. Atmosphere Conditions. 2000. NAP 35.
- Schaefer, Standard. NOVA. 2001. NAP 36.
- Donnelly, Jean. Anthem. 2002. NAP 37.
- Robinson, Elizabeth. Pure Descent. 2003. NAP 38.
See an error or omission? 👇
In case you haven’t verified already, Retallack’s “How To Do Things with Words” is listed as NAP 19 at the below upenn website. Of course, they list Joan as “John”, but it’s a data point. You’ve inspired me to start my own NAP collection, so perhaps someday I’ll get me hands on a copy and confirm one way or the other
https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/presses/sunmoon.html
I did see that when I was rooting around for info, but Guy Bennett’s “Last Words” is definitely number 19 in the NAP series (I have a copy and can confirm). I’m curious how/where UPenn got that info.
Cool to hear you’re collecting too. Shall we race?
I’m guessing you may have an insurmountable lead, but I’m all for a race. haha. My excuse if I lose is that I live in Japan now, so my access is a bit limited. I have a copy of Retallack’s book coming soon (I hope). I was surprised to find it for sale used on amazon.co.jp at a reasonable price, so we’ll see. Also, I was looking in the back of Michael Coffey’s Elemenopy which is NAP 22 and it does list Retallack’s book as NAP 19, but it has a lot of different books listed between NAP 25 and 32, so I think plans changed. Looking at the list at the back of Fitterman’s NAP 32, Guy Bennett’s book is securely in the #19 spot. I guess maybe the ultimate NAP collection is all of the real ones + all of those that could’ve been but weren’t. Anyway, happy hunting!
Thanks for this info—very interesting. Now I’ll have to take a look at the catalog in Elemenopy….
Good luck to you in your collecting.