CavanKerry Press debuted in 2000 with a dual mission – to serve art and community.  We provide publishing opportunities for gifted, under-recognized writers.  At the same time, we create a community of and for writers:  a home where writers can share their art with each other and with the greater community of readers.

We publish poetry and prose that engages readers through emotional frankness, revelatory imagery, and unexpected insight into everyday experiences.  We publish at least three first books, and at least one LaurelBook, each year.  Find out more about the books we publish, and about our LaurelBooks/Literature of Illness, go to LaurelBooks.

We believe poetry is for everyone, and belongs everywhere.  So we bring poetry to people where they live and work, providing readings and workshops in the public square and in the intimacy of private homes.  We open the world of poetry for kids in under-resourced public schools, and help doctors learn to treat the whole patient by bringing poetry into medical school curricula.  Find out how CavanKerry expands its community of readers, go to Programs.

Named for the two counties in Ireland where Joan Cusack Handler’s parents were born, CavanKerry’s name expresses its Irish values – fine writing, friendship and generosity.  It’s symbol, the linked horizontal circles, represent equality:  of separate identities and relatedness; of diverse and distinct voices; and of artist and audience, speaker and listener.

We see each of our books as a work of visual as well as literary art, and most of our covers feature original commissioned artworks.  Each title receives marketing and advertising support that is unparalleled for a press our size.  CavanKerry is a small press with a rich voice.  Listen to some of our authors read their work (Audio files coming soon).