Foundlings Press is a literary publisher based in Buffalo, New York. While the core of the Foundlings catalog will always be devoted to contemporary poetry, the press also seeks nonfiction, journalism, memoir, art and literary criticism, visual art and photography, lyrics, and hybrid works that defy categorization. The press has also sought works in translation and has republished exceptional books that have fallen out of print. Since its beginnings as a staple-bound zine, Foundlings has been characterized by found or stolen text and images, heteroglossia, and an effort to place design in dialogue with the writer and the reader.
Though the press is adamantly ecumenical, its founding members take their guiding ethic from Canon 1115 of the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church, which closes with the provoking observation that “Foundlings are to be presumed legitimate until the contrary can be proved.”
FOUNDLINGS are presumed to be legitimate until the contrary can be proved.
BOUSCAREN, T. LINCOLN, S.J. ELLIS, ADAM C., S.J., Canon Law: A Text and Commentary. Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1946. Print. p. 541
The Founders
This quartet launched a zine that became a press. They continue to manage all editorial and business operations.
MAX CRINNIN, Editor in Chief
AIDAN RYAN, PUBLISHER
DARREN CANHAM, CREATIVE DIRECTOR
S. JAMES COFFED, EDITOR AT LARGE
Editorial Advisory Board
Foundlings Press relies on an all-volunteer editorial advisory board to scout new work and shepherd certain special projects through the publishing process. The board comprises some of the press’s closest confidants and staunchest supporters who have had a significant hand in Foundlings’ growth and editorial direction. Click on their names for more information on each member.
Peter Temes
Ata Moharreri
Rachelle Toarmino
More
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Foundlings began as a staple-backed poetry zine, born in the dorms of the University at Buffalo. The founding partners—Max Crinnin, Aidan Ryan, Darren Canham, and S. James Coffed—wanted only to find good poetry and to present it in a startling new context, a printed conversation of text and images that would be so appealing to hold and open that even non-readers and poetry skeptics would find some joy and good puzzlement in it. Featuring a small but eclectic group of mostly local writers, the first volume was released on the first of May in 2016 at a bar in North Buffalo, NY to a crowd that was enthusiastic, though made up to a significant degree of people who had not planned on hearing poetry that night.
In fall of 2016 Foundlings took a group of poets and other writers on a “political” tour of Western and Central New York and Southern Ontario, with stops in different cities on the dates of the televised presidential election debates. After the publication of two larger, perfect-bound, and more daring volumes, the Foundlings announced its first chapbook competition—promising a collaboration with a guest book artist a weekend artist residency at Buffalo’s Hotel Henry—and in March 2017 released the winning title, Lytton Smith’s My Radar Data Knows Its Thing. Meanwhile, S. James Coffed had moved to Los Angeles, where he opened a west coast “office” for the collective.
The zine became a magazine and the magazine became a press.
In the following years, Foundlings introduced books and chapbooks, an anthology of work connected to the late poet Frank Stanford, a short-lived imprint in collaboration with the alternative weekly newspaper The Public, the Strays series, and a broadside publication prize in honor of the late poet Ralph Angel.
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We did not launch Foundlings for any single reason—it is not a declaration, a manifesto, or a univocal protest. We pledge allegiance to no ideology or school. Like The "Irish Airman" of Yeats' poem, we followed a "lonely impulse of delight" up into the clouds. Whatever we've done since then belongs to the realm of the reader's interpretation. We are fond of found text and images. We listen to other people's conversations, ready to catch and take in any cast off and abandoned language.
While we will read any and every submission with interest and attention, there are some consistencies among the writers we end up publishing and promoting: They read; they revise; they are unhesitant; they do not posture; they do their best to tell the truth; and they have phenomenal ears. Once a Foundling, always a Foundling. While our writers publish widely, and may give most of their pages to much bigger, better known, longer established presses and publications, we will work tirelessly to nurture their careers and to promote them for as long as we continue to read, write, publish, and talk about books.
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Foundlings is entirely volunteer-run. No editors or advisory board members take any form of compensation from the press. We manage press affairs when we have time left over after attending to work, our families, and our own art. For that reason, Foundlings is not open to unsolicited submissions, except during occasional contest periods. We aim to respond to emails and ship purchases within a week.