Alice James Books

ABOUT

Alice James Books was founded in 1973 in Boston as a cooperative — authors shared the labor of publishing — named for the brilliant, overshadowed sister of William and Henry James. Now housed in Maine, it retains the cooperative DNA: the Alice James Award (formerly the Beatrice Hawley Award) includes a cash prize and involves winners in the press's life.

Its list skews urgent and first-person — early books by Ocean Vuong (Night Sky began as an AJB manuscript before Copper Canyon), Kaveh Akbar's Calling a Wolf a Wolf, and jos charles's feeld among them. Open reading periods and the annual award make it one of the most genuinely accessible serious poetry presses.