Operating Support

Build a leading literary list of creative writing by casting a wide net, recognizing and fostering innovative, dynamic literary writers, and pursuing strategic artistic collaborations. Graywolf published thirty books, including ten volumes of poetry, fourteen works of fiction, and six nonfiction titles. Graywolf set its publication list more than sixteen months in advance, allowing time for intensive editing and audience development. D.A. Powell won the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys. Catherine Barnett's The Game of Boxes won the 2012 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. Kevin Barry's City of Bohane won the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Graywolf books garnered seventeen positive Star Tribune reviews, and six positive New York Times reviews; including four titles on its 100 Notable Books for 2012. The Star Tribune wrote a feature article on executive editor Jeff Shotts (The Guy Behind the Poets, April 14, 2013), which described his role in editing authors who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, National Book Critics Circle Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. 2: Reach an engaged community through traditional and innovative marketing efforts designed to connect groundbreaking authors with eager audiences. Graywolf authors held twenty-three local readings, reaching live audiences conservatively estimated at 1,180. Local authors Dobby Gibson (It Becomes You), Leslie Adrienne Miller (Y), and Robert Bly (Airmail: The Letters of Robert Bly and Tomas Tranströmer) drew significant crowds, as did the conversation between Geoff Dyer (Otherwise Known as the Human Condition) and publisher Fiona McCrae for the Talk of the Stacks event at the Hennepin County Library. Graywolf staff made at least eleven instructional visits to local colleges, and three college classes visited the Graywolf office. Graywolf continued its partnerships with local institutions and organizations, including the College of Saint Benedict, The Loft, Poetry Out Loud, and LitPunch, and added over 30,000 Twitter followers and Facebook followers. Gross frontlist sales were $915,083, and gross backlist sales were $662,550.