Blue Light Press is dedicated to the publication of poetry that is imagistic, inventive, emotionally honest, and pushes the language to a deeper level of insight. We are a collective of poets and artists, and our books are respected for their vision, language, and artistic design. As a cooperative press, we rely on the poets we publish to actively promote their books, send out review copies, and set up readings at bookstores, universities, and reading series. With chapbooks, we do print runs of 50 to 200 books. For full-length books, we work with our publishing partner, 1st World Publishing, and use print on demand technology to save trees. Our contracts are author-friendly, with poets receiving a 30% royalty on book profits.

Diane Frank, Chief Editor, is an award-winning poet and author of five books of poems, including Entering the Word Temple and The Winter Life of Shooting Stars. Diane teaches at San Francisco State University, directs the Blue Light Press On-line Poetry Workshop, and leads workshops for young writers as a Poet in the School. She lives in San Francisco – where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form. Blackberries in the Dream House, her first novel, won the Chelson Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Melanie Gendron, our book designer, is a multi-talented painter and graphic artist, book designer and poet. Nationally known and respected for her visionary art, she is also creator of the Gendron Tarot. Inspired by many cultures, Melanie’s prizewinning artwork is widely exhibited in public and private collections. In her words: “I seek to express realms beyond surface perception, to provide a bridge between what is seen and unseen. Living art breathes through the symbiotic relationship of artist and observer, through awareness shared. I explore invisible subtleties inherent in physical manifestation, drawn by the infinite source of creation to express Itself.”

Erik Ievins, web designer for Blue Light Press, is available to develop a custom website for your poems or help you develop an on-line poetry magazine. Along with being an engineer, programmer, and fine-tuning expert, Erik is a professional cellist. Since his move to San Francisco, dancers, poets, and musicians have welcomed his expressive voice on cello. Classically trained since he was old enough to hold a bow, Erik joined professional symphony and pops orchestras while he was still in high school. He also enjoys improvising for songwriters in the recording studio. When collaborating with poets, Erik expresses the emotions of the poem through music.

Poets in the Blue Light Press publishing group include Diane Frank, Chief Editor, with Stewart Florsheim, Scott Caputo, Kirston Koths, Alice Rogoff, Will Walker, Lynne Barnes, and Jessica Flynn. Our books are distributed by Ingram, Amazon.com, and 1st World Publishing.