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Your donation matters.
Waywiser Books is dependent on financial contributions from donors who understand the value of independent presses and want to support the unique mission of Waywiser.
Independent poetry presses are vital for the health of contemporary literature, and there aren’t enough of them. This is a chance to help.
Waywiser Books Limited is a Kansas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and as such, all donations are tax deductible. Additional information about Waywiser Books and its activities can be obtained by contacting waywiserbooks@gmail.com.
About Us
Waywiser Books is the successor organization of Waywiser Press, which was founded by Phillip Hoy in 2001 to amplify the voices of American poets who were undervalued in England. When Hoy retired in 2025, he put the press’s legacy into the hands of four longtime board members—all poets based in the U.S.—and it became Waywiser Books.
We are now an editorial team of eight. In addition to stewardship of the Waywiser catalogue, we facilitate the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, a premiere early-career book award currently in its 21st year.
Notable Waywiser publications include debuts from Erica Dawson and Dora Malech; new books by Alan Shapiro and Jeffrey Harrison; expansive dialogues with eminent poets (Seamus Heaney, John Ashbery, Thom Gunn, and more); Morri Creech’s Pulitzer Prize finalist The Sleep of Reason and several works republished as New York Review of Books Classics.
Thank you to our donors!
Friends of Waywiser: Jordan Ault | Matthew C. Brenneman | Christina DeMarea
Supporter: Nicholas Spitzman
Sustainer: John Coakley | Anne & Brady Deaton | Alan Shapiro | Julia Stein | Rosanna Warren
Partner: Elizabeth Poston
Ambassador: Jessica Yeats
Champion: Anonymous