Elizabeth Rush. Photo by Stephanie Alvarez Ewens.
It's a remarkable and heady thing for a publisher, to have a book nominated as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. But try two books.
Minneapolis publisher Milkweed Editions had two titles listed as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize yesterday. "Rising," by Elizabeth Rush, was a finalist in nonfiction, and "feeld," by Jos Charles, a finalist in poetry. Charles' book was also longlisted for a National Book Award and was named a best poetry book of 2018 by several publications, including the New Yorker magazine. Rush's book, "Rising," brings "a writer's sensibility" to writing about the environment and climate change, the Star Tribune said in its review. It, too, was named a best book of 2018 by a number of publications, including the Guardian. Milkweed Editions was founded in 1980 and focuses primarily on a wide range of books--essays, poetry, fiction and nonfiction--that revolve around the natural world. Milkweed is one of three nonprofit literary presses in the Twin Cities that have seen skyrocketing fame and major awards in recent years. "Indecency" by Justin Phillip Reed, won the 2018 National Book Award for Poetry, handing Coffee House Press its first such award. And "Milkman," by Anna Burns, published in the U.S. by Minneapolis' Graywolf Press, won the National Book Critics Circle award this year for fiction (as well as the Man Booker Prize).
