Founded in 2010 with support from the Department of English at Indiana University in South Bend, 42 Miles Press launched with the goal of publishing “stirring, daring, always original work written by poets we felt were ahead of their time,” says editor in chief David Dodd Lee. Named for the number of miles the St. Joseph River stretches as it winds its way through Indiana, 42 Miles Press still prints books using offset press technology. “The idea of the book as an art object is important to us,” Lee says. “Great poetry should come in a great package, right?”
42 Miles Press publishes one or two titles per year, primarily poetry, in addition to publishing an annual online journal called the Glacier for the past four years. Recent titles from 42 Miles include Otherly (2025) by Rebecca Reynolds, which explores loneliness, warfare, our experiences with COVID-19, marriage and queer and childless domesticity, and more, and The Return From Calvary (2025) by Mary Ann Samyn, which has been noted by Agni for its “blend of sly, strained, scattered wit and a deep, contemporary meditative urge.”
The 42 Miles Press Poetry Award is open for submissions through June 15; the winner will receive $1,000, publication of their book, and fifty author copies. The winner will also be invited to give a reading at Indiana University in South Bend. To writers submitting their manuscripts, Lee says: “Send us work you might be afraid to send elsewhere (because you think it is too out there). Big plus if your poems include humor and a healthy sense of the absurd.” He adds, “There needs to be some difficulty involved, work that requires immersion in such a way that, at times, you think What have I gotten myself into? But then you find yourself coasting, totally taken by the poet’s sensibility, recklessness, and vision.”
