About Our Editor Joseph Bruchac III
Promoting Diverse Voices in Poetry and Literature, One Publishing Venture at a Time
Editor Joseph Bruchac III lives in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his late wife, Carol, he founded the Greenfield Review and Literary Center. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award), and Returning the Gift.
Nurturing Literary Voices: A Publisher's Journey of Connecting and Creating
After three years of volunteer teaching in West Africa, my awareness of the importance of literature to the world had grown, and I wanted to provide a forum for new and established writers from different backgrounds and from other countries. We were honored to publish Leslie Silko's and Gary Soto's first books of poetry, and a collection of poetry by Kofi Awoonor. These were people who were not well known at that time to an American audience. In many ways I find myself inspired as a writer by publishing other people.
Fostering Literary Diversity: The Birth of The Greenfield Review Press
We believe in recognizing the humanity in everyone and understand that differences in culture and money put some people at a disadvantage. I used the $2,000 re-adjustment allowance from the Teachers for West Africa Program to start the Greenfield Review in part to address the fact that American poetry publishers didn't represent the diverse range of poets from the U.S. and around the world. Right from the beginning, Greenfield Review aimed to publish the work of many different people from various backgrounds.