Last Leaf Press is a small, privately funded publisher of poetry collections based in Chestertown, Maryland.  Our goal is to publish books that will broaden the appeal of poetry beyond its readership in academic and literary journal circles.  As such, we seek works that communicate something new or interesting about experiences most people can relate to, conveyed with an honesty, humor, and humility that touches the reader directly.  Though we publish works by poets of all ages and backgrounds, we’re especcially interested in what people who've attained a certain "maturity of perspective" (i.e. are older than fifty or so) have to offer.   

 

A distinguishing characteristic of Last Leaf Press is that we rely entirely on private contributions to cover the costs of preparing a manuscript for publication, and make all the proceeds from each book’s sales available to the poet for the promotion of their work, the creation of new work, or really, whatever they choose.  We do this in recognition that most of the burden for getting a poet’s work out to the public falls squarely on the poet’s own shoulders, and they’re the ones best positioned to figure how to use the proceeds of their work to accomplish that (with whatever help we can offer, of course).   

 

A second distinguishing characteristic of Last Leaf Press is the attention we give to producing books that meet a higher design standard than that often followed by small presses.  Our editors and designers know what makes a visually appealing poetry book, and we think it shows in our cover and interior designs.  Within our standards, we also give our poets considerable control over what their books will look like.  We don't force their work into a single, predefined Last Leaf Press template.