About

Charles Olson, from Maximus:

…Polis now

is a few, is a coherence not even yet new (the island of this city

is a mainland now of who? who can say who are

citizens?

It seems to me that one of the things we’re lacking, both in the poetry world and society at large, is the sense of a polis. Doesn’t have to be local, as Charles Olson writes, but it could be. It has to do with attention, care, responsibility, and probably does consist of a self-selected “few” who are willing and able to rise to those measures. Polis Press is about creating and fostering such a community, which I’ve felt and tried to contribute to wherever I’ve been – Austin, San Francisco, Buffalo. Post-pandemic, having moved to the Twin Cities, it’s seemed really hard to come by.

In a practical sense, I was feeling some frustration with the small press world a little while back, and looking at my surroundings, I realized I had everything I needed on hand to produce limited runs of chapbooks: copy machines, cutters, staplers. I had published a journal (kadar koli) and small press (habenicht) for a number of years, often with funding through the UB Poetics Program while I was a grad student there, and it felt good to take the reins and get back into it. Then it became a question of what and who to publish. Chris Vitiello had long been a friend, and we’d already begun collaborating on some things, so it felt natural when he expressed an interest to ask him to join as co-editor.

We’ve lost a lot of poets recently – Alice Notley, Fanny Howe, Cole Heinowitz, and Mel Nichols all since 2025. One focus that Chris and I talked about was helping to foster, and provide outlets for, those poets who’ve been plying their trade for a while, who are still engaged and pushing the envelope in whatever way, yet to some degree have “aged out” of whatever pomp and buzz still surrounds younger poets, however loosely defined. In a different light, we simply want to open the polis to whoever out there is interested, and listening.

–David Hadbawnik, May 2026