Donation / Sourcing Policies

The overwhelming majority of the books currently held in this archive are from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. There is a delightful culture of book-leaving on campus where one can find books in unlikely places. Each department usually has a 'free book' section or shelf, and at the end of every semester professors will usually do cleanings and leave boxes in the hallways. I am constantly searching through these boxes and shelves. The English department in particular will either have a very good selection, or else nothing for months on end. 

Occasionally, I will purchase a book of poetry. In this case, the selection criteria becomes much more stringent. This poetry is sourced from local bookstores in Boston. Brattle, Trident, and Commonwealth Books all have selections of local poets and publications and are within a reasonable distance of one another. When doing this, preference is given to local authors and autographed copies. Most of the books in the archive, however, were not bought. They were found or contributed from a specific place at a specific time and reflect that rather than my own buying habits. Copies I have bought for the archive are clearly labeled and priced in the name of transparency. 

Should you find this archive and wish to contribute, I would be delighted to speak with you about this. Please reach out to me at my email on the 'about' page. I am particularly interested currently in multi-lingual publications, publications from defunct presses, and other obscure local works from New England. 

If you are a student in a local Boston college and have independently published something, please reach out to us as your work is especially valuable to the long term development of the archive. We would be delighted to have your signature on it as well, as well as any information you can provide about the number of copies printed, and how you printed them. Archival work is ever dependent on catching things early before they are lost, and your work has value. 

 If you have something you wish to see preserved that is not on this list, or would like to donate your own work, let's discuss how we can both honor your writing and meet the needs of the archive. 

We are currently not interested in anthologies (unless they are local Boston micro-press releases), books that have seen mass-market release, or else books that are too badly damaged. We do regret to inform you that sometimes we may have to decline a submission if it does not align with our needs, but this is not a personal commentary on the quality of the poetry itself. It is more an unfortunate acknowledgment of storage limitations. All contributions are catalogued and hosted permanently on the site. Physical copies remain in the possession of the archivist. At this time they are not available for general handling, but may be consulted by current UMass Boston faculty or graduate students upon request.