Correspondence, production files, and business records of Story Line Press, an outgrowth of the New Formalism movement in twentieth century American poetry.

Story Line Press was founded in 1984 with funding from the Nicholas Roerich Museum. The Press grew out of The Reaper, a literary magazine founded in 1980 by Robert McDowell and Mark Jarman. Both The Reaper and Story Line Press were part of the New Narrative and New Formalism movements in American poetry. These movements went against the free verse poetics of the 1950s Beats poets and advocated for a return to meter and rhyme, as well as a recognition of the importance of narrative. Story Line Press' original editorial and creative team consisted of poets Robert McDowell and Mark Jarman, and visual artist Lysa McDowell. The Press was originally located in Santa Cruz, California, and followed the McDowells when they moved to Brownsville, Oregon, in 1989 and Ashland, Oregon, in 1998. In addition to publishing poetry, the Press published a number of translated works, short fiction pieces, and essays on literary criticism. Authors and frequent collaborators of the Press included Dana Gioia, Paul Lake, Annie Finch, Frederick Feirstein, and David Mason. As part of the New Narrative and New Formalism movements, Story Line Press released essays in anthologies highlighting work done in the movements, including Expansive Poetry: Essays on the New Narrative and the New Formalism (1989), Poetry After Modernism (1991), Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism (1996), and After New Formalism: Poets on Form, Narrative, and Tradition (1999). The Press also focused on writing about the rural experience, featuring writers living in rural parts of the United States and publishing anthologies like Cowboy Poetry Matters: From Abilene to the Mainstream (2000). Following years of struggles to find sufficient funding and failed efforts to have Story Line Press acquired by Willamette University or Southern Oregon University, Story Line ceased operation in the early 2000s.

28 Linear Feet 65 manuscript boxes

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