Sixteen Rivers Press
Sixteen Rivers Press is a nonprofit, shared-work poetry collective and independent publisher serving poets of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
Sixteen Rivers Press is a nonprofit poetry collective founded in 1999 to create an alternative publishing route for poets living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its name refers to the sixteen rivers that flow into San Francisco Bay, linking the organization’s identity to the geography and literary culture of Northern California. Rather than operating as a conventional commercial press, it is organized as a shared-work collective in which participating poets contribute to editorial, production, publicity, governance, and other publishing responsibilities. The press was modeled in part on Alice James Books, a regional poetry collective established in Boston in the 1970s. Its central publishing model combines collective decision-making with an annual blind manuscript competition. Members of the collective participate in evaluating submissions, and a selected poet typically works with the press for a three-year term. The poet’s book is generally published during the second year of that term. Although the formal commitment is limited, many authors remain involved with the organization beyond the initial period. Sixteen Rivers Press publishes poetry collections by writers connected to the Greater Bay Area and has also issued anthologies, translations, audio material, and chapbooks. Its catalogue includes work by Valerie Berry, Terry Ehret, Margaret Kaufman, Carolyn Miller, Helen Wickes, Lynne Knight, Gerald Fleming, Judy Halebsky, Miriam Bird Greenberg, and many other poets. The press has published more than sixty poetry collections and has helped provide a regional platform for writers who have subsequently received literary prizes, translation honors, National Endowment for the Arts support, and recognition in poetry and other fields. The organization operates as a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and has no paid staff. Publishing costs are funded principally through sales of earlier books, supplemented by donations, grants, and fundraising events. Since 2005, the press has held annual fundraiser evenings featuring prominent poets, including Philip Levine, Eavan Boland, Al Young, Ilya Kaminsky, Brenda Hillman, Robert Hass, Jane Hirshfield, Mark Doty, Kay Ryan, and Camille Dungy. The National Endowment for the Arts recognized the press with Access to Artistic Excellence grants in 2009 and 2012; other support has come from foundations including the Koret Foundation, the Whitney Foundation, and the Yellow House Foundation. Its special projects have expanded the press’s regional and thematic scope. Naming the Rivers, released in 2007, gathered recordings of poets published by the press. The Place That Inhabits Us, published in 2009 or 2010 depending on cataloguing references, assembled poems by non-members about the San Francisco Bay watershed and included a foreword by former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass. In 2011, the press introduced an Under Forty chapbook competition, initially selecting work by Judy Halebsky and later Miriam Bird Greenberg. In 2013, it issued I Know/Je Sais, its first translation book, involving French poet Ito Naga and translator Lynne Knight. In 2018, it published America We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience, an international and historical anthology responding to the political climate following the 2016 United States presidential election. Books are sold directly by the press, through online retailers in the United States and abroad, and through conventional bookstores. Electronic editions are produced and distributed by Stillpoint Digital Press. Sixteen Rivers Press remains notable for its longevity, cooperative structure, regional focus, and commitment to sustaining literary publishing outside the standard commercial-press model.
History
Sixteen Rivers Press was established in 1999 by Valerie Berry, Terry Ehret, Margaret Kaufman, Jacqueline Kudler, Diane Sher Lutovich, Carolyn Miller, and Susan Sibbet. The founders created the organization as a shared-work nonprofit poetry collective for writers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its model drew inspiration from Alice James Books, a Boston-area collective press founded during the 1970s. The name was taken from the sixteen rivers that flow into San Francisco Bay, expressing the press’s geographical identity and its commitment to the literary community of the region. From its beginning, the press differed from a conventional publisher in both governance and labor structure. Manuscripts are selected through an annual blind competition in which collective members participate. Writers whose manuscripts are accepted normally join the collective for a three-year term, with their book scheduled for publication in the second year. Members share responsibility for the work required to produce and promote books, and some authors continue participating after their initial term. Organizational decisions are made through consensus, while a nonprofit board oversees the corporation. The press developed a substantial poetry list over the following decades, eventually publishing more than sixty collections. Its authors have received poetry and translation prizes, National Endowment for the Arts grants, and other literary honors. Several have also gone on to publish in poetry, fiction, architecture, education, psychology, and other areas of nonfiction. This record helped establish Sixteen Rivers Press as one of the longer-running and more successful collective literary presses in the United States. Its publishing program has included individual collections by poets such as Dan Bellm, Maria M. Benet, Stella Beratlis, Terry Ehret, Gerald Fleming, Judy Halebsky, Christina Hutchins, Margaret Kaufman, Lynne Knight, Carolyn Miller, Murray Silverstein, Jeanne Wagner, Gillian Wegener, and Helen Wickes. The press has also used thematic and experimental projects to extend beyond the standard poetry collection. Naming the Rivers, released in 2007, was a CD featuring poets published by the press before that year reading their own work. The Place That Inhabits Us, published around 2009–2010, brought together poems by non-members concerning the San Francisco Bay watershed and included a foreword by Robert Hass. In 2011 the organization began its Under Forty chapbook series, designed to identify and publish younger writers. Judy Halebsky’s Space/Gap/Interval/Distance was the first selected chapbook, followed by Miriam Bird Greenberg’s All night in the new country. The press entered translation publishing in 2013 with I Know/Je Sais, a book by Ito Naga translated by Naga and Lynne Knight. In 2018 it issued America We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience, an anthology that combined contemporary voices with poets from other countries and historical periods. The project responded to the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election and featured a foreword by Camille T. Dungy. Sixteen Rivers Press is incorporated as a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It employs no paid staff. Revenue from sales of previously published books provides the main funding for new publishing, with donations, grants, and fundraising supplying additional support. Beginning in 2005, the press held annual fundraiser evenings featuring poets including Philip Levine, Eavan Boland, Al Young, Ilya Kaminsky, Brenda Hillman, Robert Hass, Jane Hirshfield, Mark Doty, Kay Ryan, and Camille Dungy. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded the press Access to Artistic Excellence grants in 2009 and 2012, while additional foundation support came from the Koret Foundation, the Whitney Foundation, the Yellow House Foundation, and others. The press distributes its titles directly, through online outlets in the United States and internationally, and through traditional bookstores. Electronic editions are produced and distributed by Stillpoint Digital Press. Its continuing importance lies in the combination of regional literary service, collective authorship and administration, nonprofit financing, and an enduring commitment to poetry that might not find a natural home in commercial publishing.
- 2018
America We Call Your Name is published
[1]The press publishes an anthology of resistance and resilience poetry responding to the political climate after the 2016 election.
- 2013
The first translation title is published
[1]I Know/Je Sais becomes the press’s first book of translations.
- 2012
A second NEA grant is awarded
[1]Sixteen Rivers Press receives another Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
- 2011
Under Forty chapbook series begins
[1]The press launches a competition and publication series for poets under forty.
- 2009
The Place That Inhabits Us is published
[1]The press publishes a watershed-themed anthology and receives an Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
- 2007
Naming the Rivers is released
[1]The press issues a CD of authors reading their own poetry.
- 2005
Annual fundraising events begin
[1]The press begins holding annual fundraiser evenings featuring established poets and supporters.
- 1999
Sixteen Rivers Press is founded
[1]Seven Bay Area poets establish the press as a shared-work nonprofit collective providing an alternative publishing route for regional poets.
Products and positioning
A cooperative, nonprofit, regionally focused poetry press offering an alternative to conventional commercial publishing through shared editorial labor, blind manuscript selection, and collective governance.
Books · 1999
Poetry collections
The press’s core offering is the single-author poetry collection. Books are selected through an annual blind competition and developed through a collaborative publishing process involving the selected poet and collective members. The catalogue includes regional voices as well as poets whose work has later received wider literary recognition.
Anthology · 2009
The Place That Inhabits Us
This anthology gathers poems by writers outside the press’s membership that explore the San Francisco Bay watershed and the ways the region shapes poetic experience and consciousness. Robert Hass contributed the foreword.
Audio publication · 2007
Naming the Rivers
A CD featuring poets published by Sixteen Rivers Press reading their own work. The project documents the voices of the press’s authors and reflects the organization’s connection to the rivers and literary communities of the Bay Area.
Chapbooks · 2011
Under Forty chapbook series
A competition-based series intended to support poets under forty. Its early selections included Judy Halebsky’s Space/Gap/Interval/Distance and Miriam Bird Greenberg’s All night in the new country.
Translation · 2013
I Know/Je Sais
A bilingual or translation-oriented volume by French writer Ito Naga, translated by Naga and Sixteen Rivers Press member Lynne Knight. It marked the press’s first published translation book.
Anthology · 2018
America We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience
An anthology bringing together poets from the United States, other countries, and earlier historical periods. Conceived in response to the political atmosphere following the 2016 presidential election, it focuses on resistance, resilience, and civic voice.
Marketing campaigns
- 2011Under Forty chapbook competition
United States
The press created a recurring competition and chapbook series for writers under forty, extending its mission toward emerging poets.
Outcome. The first selected authors were Judy Halebsky and Miriam Bird Greenberg.
- 2005Annual fundraiser evenings
San Francisco Bay Area
Sixteen Rivers Press began recurring fundraising evenings featuring prominent poets and supporters to help finance new books and sustain its unpaid collective publishing model.
Outcome. The events became a continuing source of donations and public engagement.
Brand decisions
2018
Publication of a national political poetry anthologyProduct launchBackground
The political and cultural atmosphere after the 2016 United States presidential election prompted a project focused on resistance and resilience.
Action taken
The press released America We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience, featuring poets from the United States, other countries, and earlier periods.
Aftermath
The anthology broadened the press’s scope beyond its usual regional collective and addressed a national political moment.
2013
Expansion into translated poetryProduct launchBackground
The press had primarily published poetry by Bay Area-connected writers and sought to broaden its literary program.
Action taken
It published I Know/Je Sais by Ito Naga, translated by Naga and Lynne Knight.
Aftermath
The book became the press’s first translation publication.
2011
Launch of the Under Forty seriesStrategyBackground
The collective sought to create a dedicated route for younger writers in addition to its regular poetry-book program.
Action taken
It introduced a publication competition for writers under forty and issued the winning work as chaplets.
Aftermath
The early selections included work by Judy Halebsky and Miriam Bird Greenberg.
Recent events
- 2018
Sixteen Rivers Press publishes America We Call Your Name[1]
Product launch · Campaign
The press released an anthology of resistance and resilience poetry responding to the political context after the 2016 United States presidential election, with a foreword by Camille T. Dungy.
- 2013
Sixteen Rivers Press publishes its first translation book[1]
Product launch
The press issued I Know/Je Sais by French writer Ito Naga, translated collaboratively by Naga and press member Lynne Knight.
- 2012
Sixteen Rivers Press receives a second National Endowment for the Arts grant[1]
Other
The organization received another Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, reinforcing its standing as an established nonprofit poetry publisher.
- 2011
The press launches the Under Forty chapbook series[1]
Product launch
Sixteen Rivers Press introduced a competition and publication series for writers under forty, broadening its support for emerging poets.
- 2009
Sixteen Rivers Press receives National Endowment for the Arts support[1]
Other
The press was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts with an Access to Artistic Excellence grant supporting its nonprofit literary publishing work.
Sources1 sources
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