Scenes: Texas Review Press an interview with Paul Ruffin

Could you briefly describe Texas Review Press's history?

It all began with a $500 fund that my dean set up when I arrived at SHSU, an amount that he suggested would allow me to begin a literary journal to replace Whetstone/The Stone Drum, which Joe Murphy had edited before I got there. Joe and the dean had a serious falling out—the journal collapsed, and Joe left. I was hired for that vacancy. In 1976, I brought out the first issue of The Sam Houston Literary Review, a biannual 64-page stapled journal focusing on regional poetry and fiction.

We got on the map with our very first issue, though, since a story by Walt McDonal, "The Track," was selected for at Texas Institute of Letters fiction award that year. Within two years, we were publishing solid fiction and poetry from all across the country.

Early on I had it in my mind to start up a literary press, but such an enterprise requires the commitment of a great deal of money, something that I didn't have. I managed to lay aside a little bit of money from sales over my first three years of operation and in 1979 brought out our first book, The Texas Anthology, a collection of Texas poetry and photography. It was not a resounding success, though we sold a few hundred copies over the next couple of years.

When I went back to the Consortium in 1997, they agreed to take us on. At that point, Texas Review Press became a genuine university press. Suddenly, our books, represented by the Consortium, began sell, permitting me to publish even more books each year. We expanded our annual list to 6, then 8, then 10.

Once we got really rolling, I introduced 2 annual international competitions: the George Garrett Fiction Prize for the best novel or collection of short stories and the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize for the best full-length collection of poetry. I then added the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize.

Cover, George Garrett: A Critical Biography

Today, we publish between 20 and 24 books a year, usually fiction, poetry, and essays, and I would argue that our authors are among the best you'll find anywhere.

Detail from cover, Genesis in Japan: The Bible Beyond Christianity

How would you characterize the work you publish?

Most of our books are novels, collections of short stories, books of familiar essay, and collections of poetry, though we also release literary studies, histories, and biographies.

We run our four international competitions, but our most important role, I think, is to promote writers from our state and region. Hence, a good number of our books each year are by Texas authors and writers from other Southern states. For example, in my 2013 list, I have books by Texas writers Brian Carr, Sarah Cortez, Joe Haske, Beryl Lawn, Mike Lieberman, Juan Ochoa, and Clay Reynolds, and I have books by Southern writers Jack Bedell, Richard Boada, Jack Butler, Casey Clabough, Thomas Dabbs, David Havird, and Tim Parrish.

One of the greatest contributions we make to Southern literature (and I certainly regard Texas as Southern) is the publication of our annual Southern Poetry Anthology, the most comprehensive representation of Southern poets that I know anything about. With the exception of one regional edition, Contemporary Appalachia, co-editor Will Wright and I have been going state by state. First we brought out SPA I: South Carolina, followed by Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia. The rest of the Southern states will follow. These are thick anthologies that showcase the very best poetry of the region, and they have been quite popular as university classroom textbooks.

Another thing we are doing to promote literature in the region is to publish through our annual Southern Poetry Breakthrough Series a full-length collection of poetry by an author who has not managed to break out with that all-important first book. Last year, we brought out Walking Safari by Mississippian Noel Polk...