Curbstone Press
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| Parent company | Northwestern University Press |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1975 |
| Founders | Judith Doyle, Alexander "Sandy" Taylor |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | Evanston, Illinois |
| Official website | nupress |
Curbstone Press was an American publishing company founded in 1975 in Willimantic, Connecticut by Judith Doyle and Alexander “Sandy” Taylor that specialized in fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and poetry that promote human rights, social justice, and intercultural understanding.[1] Curbstone Press's backlist of 160 books was acquired by Northwestern University Press in 2010, where it continues as the Curbstone Books imprint.[2]
Doyle and Taylor met in the 1960s while students at the University of Connecticut. Doyle was an undergraduate in English literature, and Taylor was working on a PhD in literature, with a special interest in Scandinavian writing. “We were both pretty involved in the antiwar and Civil Rights movement,” Doyle said. A friendship based on their shared political activism developed into love, marriage, and the founding of the Curbstone Press, which "served as a model for activist literary publishing on the small press scene."[3] Taylor stated that they founded Curbstone because they "wanted to present literature that promoted human rights and civil liberties and promoted cultural understanding."[4]
They founded Curbstone in the basement of their home in Willimantic, CT in 1975 and continued in active operation through 2005. Authors published by Curbstone include Luis Rodríguez, Martín Espada, Claribel Alegria, Salah Al Hamdani, Ana Castillo, Wayne Karlin, E. Ethelbert Miller, Sergio Ramírez, and Le Clézio.[5]
In 2001, Curbstone founded the Julia de Burgos Poetry Park at the south corner of Jackson Street and Terry Avenue near the Curbstone offices in honor of Puerto Rican poet and independence advocate Julia de Burgos García.[6]
In acquiring the press in 2010, Northwestern University Press cited Curbstone's "emphasis on creative literature that promotes human rights and intercultural understanding," which complemented Northwestern's longstanding commitments to writing from underrepresented communities and literature in translation.[7]