Season’s greetings from all of us at Paloma Press! We look back at 2023 with astonishment and gratitude.
In March, Jeanne-Marie Osterman donated the proceeds from her book, Shellback, to Americans for the Arts in support of the National Initiative for Arts & Health Across the Military. The event, hosted by the Yale Club, was attended by Americans for the Arts CEO Nolen Bivens and other members of staff.
Also in March, our publisher Aileen Cassinetto received the 2023 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 Award for her contributions in building regenerative and equitable communities through the arts.
In June, we received a general support grant from the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture and San Mateo County Arts Commission. It was a very competitive round of funding and we are grateful to our local arts agency for their staunch support of the work we do.
In September, we released the anthology, Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States, co-edited by Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto & NCA5 lead author for the Southeast Dr. Jeremy S. Hoffman as a companion to the congressionally-mandated Fifth National Climate Assessment, featuring a foreword from Claire Wahmanholm, an afterword from Dr. Sam Illingworth and advance words from Renato Redentor Constantino, as well as poems from 70+ poets and scientists including U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limon. The anthology, which grew out of the National Poets Laureate civic projects, was made possible with support from the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture, San Mateo County Arts Commission, and the Academy of American Poets and Mellon Foundation’s poet laureate initiative. We also received programmatic support from the American Geophysical Union’s Science & Society Track, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Berkeley Climate Change Network, Clarion Performing Arts Center, Communicating Complexity Symposium and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Exploratorium, Elizabeth River Project, Elizabeth River Trail, Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience, Midwest Climate Resilience Conference and the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership, Old Dominion University, RHINO, South San Francisco Public Library, the UC Berkeley Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and the National Climate Assessment team at the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
Also in September, the Dear Human editors explored a partnership with Poets for Science and Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University. An interactive microsite was launched early this month featuring poetry prompts, Art x Climate artworks and text from NCA5. The microsite continues to be a place for the public to share their voice, address climate change and explore how the intersection of science and art can foster creativity, innovation, and discovery.
In November, the results of the 20th Annual Best Book Awards were announced and Dear Human at the Edge of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States was named the winner in the Poetry Anthology category.
In December, we presented the Dear Human anthology and microsite at the American Geophysical Union’s annual conference at Moscone Center in San Francisco, and at the Exploratorium co-sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
We are deeply grateful for the people and spaces that made our 7th year so very extraordinary. May 2024 soar higher and higher, a marvel, sweeter and mightier.
