by ndsupress

The Distance That Isn’t Miles: Our 2026 POPP Award Winner

Every year, we host our annual Poetry of the Plains & Prairies (POPP) Award competition. In 2026, we are pleased to announce that Anthony J. Albright is our winning author. This fall, we will letterpress publish Tony’s chapbook-length poetry collection, The Distance That Isn’t Miles, as our 11th chapbook in the series.

Tony will receive nationally distributed publication, ten comp copies, $400 ($200 at the signing of his contract + $200 when he serves as next year’s finalist judge), and our author’s discount.

Tony is a Choctaw writer, army veteran, and scholar whose work traces memory, landscape, and recovery across the Plains. His poetry and prose appear in North Dakota Quarterly, Hawaii Pacific Review, and Issued: Stories of Service. He holds a PhD in Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture from North Dakota State University.

 

Our POPP Award competition is conducted with double blind peer review. This year we had ten in-house readers and two finalist judges. Usually, we have just one finalist judge, but co-authors won last year, so Tony received double-good powerful praise. 😊 We’ve included both of the finalist judges’ comments below, and we’ve changed the pronouns they used for the narrator–since they did not know the author’s identity–to Tony’s name. The finalist judges are Josh Gaines and Ben Clark, co-authors of After the Floating Barn and other fine works of poetry and prose.


From Josh: 

Ish haklo ho? The Distance That Isn’t Miles is a military journey through narrative poems that carried me through places I am familiar with as a veteran, but unfamiliar with as a non-Native American. This book creates a new lens, changing the view of common experiences into the uncommon, the spiritual, and even the magical. Tony Albright writes, “I feel the land daring me to rise. I whisper holisso, book-spirit, teach me how to read this place before it reads me first,” while at the same time this book is teaching me how to read it, how to experience. Words give dimension to thought, and so with new words I learn a new way to think. This holisso reminds me of the things I value, of promises I’ve made, and of lives I gave up before I could even name the one I was already living.
“Every mile feels borrowed from another life,” writes Albright. And whose life or lives we are living, our own, our ancestors, our government’s? The narrator begins with putting his life in the hands of the military with a signature, and the military does what it does and accepts the offer. Nothing can be the same past this moment. The world grows smaller as it is crossed. There is training, gas to breathe, wars to witness and bear the scars of, while the narrator clings to vanished versions of themselves. T.S. Eliot said, “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” Distance That Isn’t Miles says, maybe not. It asks, what happens if we can never truly arrive where we started because part of us can never leave where we’ve been. It asks, what if home is only a thing one can leave.

 

From Ben:

I was pulled into the journey of The Distance That Isn’t Miles and the effortless way the poems worked together in a uniform, chronological narrative, while also standing alone as individual pieces. What a great use of the chapbook format. And what wonderful language: descriptive, understated, emotive, and masterfully paced: “Her fingers are small storms,” “windows rattling like restless bones,” “humming hvshi hvshi / under my breath, the syllables slipping / like sparks between whistling teeth,” and “Dawn here is a blade: sharp, sudden, / cutting the night from the day with no apology.”
This is a narrator that is stripped of everything, remade, but is also resilient enough, thankfully, to keep hold of his language, which he uses like a prayer, a shield, a song passed down through generations. This language is the road, if not back to who they were before the military, then to the version of themselves that “can fall— / not metaphorically, / but literally, repeatedly, / with something like grace.” Repeatedly, the key word in this poem, as it implies rising from the fall with something like grace as well.

 

Past POPP Award Publications:

  • 2025 After the Floating Barn, by Joshua C. Gaines (Nebraska) and Ben Clark (Minnesota)
  • 2024 Dakota Dreaming, by Marjorie Buettner (Minnesota)
  • 2023 Forgotten Frequencies, by Brendan Stermer (Minnesota)
  • 2022 Surrender Dorothy, by Brett Salsbury (Nevada)
  • 2021 Prairie Madness, by Katherine Hoerth (Nebraska)
  • 2020 A Muddy Kind of Love, by Carolyn A. Dahl (Texas)
  • 2019 Harvest Widows, by Nick Bertelson (Iowa)
  • 2018 Destiny Manifested, by Bonnie Larson Staiger (North Dakota)
  • 2017 Thunderbird, by Denise Lajimodiere (North Dakota)
  • 2016 Land of Sunlit Ice, by Larry Woiwode (North Dakota)

Next year’s POPP Award submissions period will be open (as usual) from January 17 through March 17. Poets, please mark your calendar! Submissions can be uploaded here when the portal opens: NDSU Press Submission Manager.

by ndsupress

NDSU Press and the Use of AI

from NDSU Press Publisher, Suzzanne Kelley

NDSU Press “shall not upload the Work or any of Author’s personal information to consumer-facing AI systems for purposes such as generating summaries, assessments, or marketing copy.” And, NDSU Press “agrees that it will not use AI to edit a manuscript, other than for the use of basic spelling and grammar-checking applications. Further, NDSU Press warrants that any textual or art changes it proposes will not have been created by AI.”

Such matters of ethics have been in flux in the publishing world, and we appreciate the forthrightness of the above statements delivered today from an informational group we keep up with called Publishers Lunch. The text comes from “Today’s Meal,” which shares recommendations from the Authors Guild in regard to manuscripts and AI tools.

 

The concern as expressed in Today’s Meal follows reports that professionals are “uploading manuscripts and authors’ personal information into consumer-facing AI systems for uses such as generating summaries, assessments, and marketing copy.” The ethical practice of refraining from use of such systems avoids the potential of having original content used by AI companies for training and/or contributing to AI-generated content.

In addition to practices in acquisition and marketing, we are working on a similar ethics statement to use in our contracts to ensure that authors are likewise contributing only original content. In consultation with our copyrights attorney, we find that at present such a statement seems to be a moving target, hard to set in a fixed format just yet. So, for now, we stick to our present contract terms, which state in brief: “Author will be the sole author of the Work [and] the Work is original with Author.”

Follow this link If you’d like to subscribe to Publishers Lunch (it’s free!).

by ndsupress

“the best thing I’ve done here!”

from NDSU Press Publisher, Suzzanne Kelley

Lexie Karst, who has earned her Certificate in Publishing while working with NDSU Press, pronounced her experience here as project manager as “the best thing I’ve done here!” Well, she’s accomplished a lot here at NDSU in her studies as a Music major with a minor in Creative Writing, so we’re glad her publishing experience is right up there at the top!

In addition to many other tasks, Lexie served as project manager for Aurora, poetry by Thom Tammaro, which we released on April 1. She was tasked with copyediting; developing marketing, publicity, & distribution plans; producing metadata and a creative brief for the designer; and liaising with her author. Pictured here is Lexie opening the first box of Aurora from the printer . . . you can see she truly is excited about having shepherded the manuscript through all the production stages, and now she’s seeing the final product for the first time.

Firsts. When someone is learning the history, business and practice of small press and university press publishing, there are a lot of “firsts.” The “firsts” of our enterprise include responsibility. Lexie took to heart the seriousness of checking for edits and industry standards throughout the whole process. And now she reaps the reward of her labor. We’re going to miss having her steady hand and cheerful outlook around here.

by ndsupress

In Memory of Adrienne Stepanek

from NDSU Press Publisher Suzzanne Kelley

Sadly, we report the recent passing of one of our authors, Adrienne Stepanek. I met Adrienne a few years ago in the cafe section of Books on Broadway in Williston, North Dakota. While sipping some of Chuck’s splendid coffee, we talked about a book project she was working on with her co-author, Doreen Chaky. We–including a book team consisting of Certificate in Publishing graduates Taylor Blumer, Mike Huynh, and Connor McCormick–published their manuscript in 2024. Grounded in research–one of Adrienne’s special skills–Lynched: Mob Murders on the Northern Great Plains, 1882-1931 went on to win:

  • Bronze, Independent Publishers Awards in the category of Nonfiction Regional, Plains
  • First Place, Independent Press Awards, in the category of Western History
  • First Place, Independent Press Awards, in the category of History, United States

Co-authors Doreen Chaky (at left) and Adrienne Stepanek visit with Suzzanne Kelley, editor in chief, at Books on Broadway, Williston, ND.

It was our pleasure to work with this dynamic team, and we mourn the loss of Adrienne’s continued contributions to history and her good nature.

Those wishing to make a donation in her honor are asked to consider the Williston Community Library or a charity of your choice.

by ndsupress

New Author Signing!

Please join us in welcoming Thom Tammaro to our author lineup! The NDSU Press is proud to be publishing his poetry collection, Aurora, in 2026.

Thom has produced a variety of work, from authoring poetry collections including Italian Days & Hours and Holding on for Dear Life, to co-editing anthologies such as Invisible World: Fifty Tiny Poems of Walt Whitman (with Sheila Coghill) and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present (with Joyce Sutphen and Connie Wanek). He has also co-edited several poetry collections inspired by the work of creatives such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Bob Dylan.

Thom’s extensive body of work has won a variety of awards, including Minnesota Book Awards, the Midwest Booksellers’s Honor Award for Poetry, and a WILLA Award for Poetry from the Women Writing the West Association. His work has also been featured in publications including American Poetry Review, Chicago Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In addition to his career as author and editor, Thom served as an English professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead for thirty-four years, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2017. During his time there, he co-founded and directed the MFA in Creative Writing program.

by ndsupress

Publishing Students to Print 10th Annual Chapbook on Antique Printing Presses

from NDSU Press Publisher Suzzanne Kelley

Students in the Introduction to Publishing class at NDSU Press will be printing the cover of the tenth annual poetry chapbook for NDSU Press on an antique printing press at Bonanzaville, Sat., Sept. 27.

The class will be hand-feeding the covers into a Chandler & Price press from 1897 in The Hunter Times building in Bonanzaville’s pioneer village. The students will work in shifts from 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Fall 2025 Intro to Publishing Students: (at front, left to right) Grace, Maddie, Hannah, Mason, Maverick; (standing, left to right) Morgan, Eliza, Maggie, Tara, Alison, Aidan, Dr. Kelley, Ingrid.

 

Past publishing students at The Hunter Times: (left to right) Abbie, Breanna, Jamie, and Anish.

The students will travel to Braddock, ND, to print the inside pages of the chapbook on antique presses at The Braddock News Letterpress Museum the weekend of Oct. 10-12.

This year’s winners of Poetry of the Plains and Prairies (POPP) Award are co-authors Josh Gaines, Portland, OR, and Ben Clark, Minneapolis, MN, for their manuscript After the Floating Barn.

In our archives, we’ve found copies of, and photos of, chapbooks being letterpress published by poet and faculty member Richard Lyons in the 1950s and 1960s. Decades later, in 2016, NDSU Press returned to publishing chapbooks on letterpress equipment. Now, as we produce our tenth POPP Award publication, I’ve expanded the enterprise by taking my publishing students into North Dakota communities; by publishing state, regional, and nationally located poets; and by providing national distribution for our prizewinning chapbooks.

The success of our project is the result of our collaborative arrangement between Bonanzaville and The Braddock News Letterpress Museum of the South Central Threshing Association and the dedication of Allan and Leah Burke, retired weekly newspaper publishers, who are the driving force behind the collection, preservation, and revitalization of letterpress printing. We also rely upon the generous nature and expertise of pressman Mike Frykman and the Iron Men (and women) of the threshing association.

Beth Jansen, executive director of Bonanzaville, said she is pleased to welcome the students to the pioneer village. “There is nothing better than to have students visit Bonanzaville to experience history through 19th Century technology,” Jansen said.

Introduction to Publishing is one of the required classes for NDSU’s Certificate in Publishing.

 

 

 

 

by ndsupress

A Safe Place

. . . where-in we share “A letter to Lance Richey,” author of Champagne Times: Lawrence Welk and His American Century (NDSU Press 2025) from Allan Burke, Secretary-Treasurer, Friends of the Welk Homestead, Inc., presented here with Allan’s permission.

Author Lance with a photo of Lawrence.

Lance,

I found one of your statements in the recent radio interview so profound that I spent considerable time transcribing it. I’m sure there is a way to transcribe it instantly with AI, but I did it the old-fashioned way by listening, typing, rewinding, listening, typing . . .

Here’s that section, which I’d like to title “A Safe Place”:

“Lawrence gave the people what they wanted. He was an entertainer. He wouldn’t describe himself as an artist. He loved Jazz music. He loved Dixieland. But he said, ‘I don’t play much of that on my television show because the audience wants something different.’

“Lawrence’s greatest success on network television actually came in the most tumultuous times, the 1960s. He hit the Top Ten of all television programs in 1968. In 1969 when the nation was coming apart at the seams with the Baby Boomer revolution, with the Vietnam War, with the civil rights movement. Because everyone knew for one hour a week I can check into Lawrence Welk and I’ll hear music I recognize, I won’t have politics in my face, and I can just for a moment step away from all the turmoil and enjoy a show that presents to me the America that used to be or that I imagine used to be. That was Lawrence’s secret.”

This section is what I think could be the heart of a marketing campaign for the [Welk] biography and documentary.

The times we live in today, highlighted by this week’s assassination of Charlie Kirk and earlier by the shootings of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband (not to mention school and other shootings), call for “A Safe Place.” At the risk of being declared sophomoric, I believe Public Television can provide that with the Welk documentary and The Lawrence Welk Show, and NDSU Press can market Champagne Times: Lawrence Welk and His American Century.

It seems to have gone unnoticed that The Lawrence Welk Show by Joyful Voices drew an estimated 600 people to the Welk Homestead on June 1. This past Sunday, Joyful Voices’ Lawrence Welk Hoedown drew several hundred people to a steamy machine shed at the South Central Threshing Show at Braddock, N.D. Contrary to the notion that Mr. Welk’s fans are dead, none of the people at the show in Braddock appeared to have left this life. In fact, there was some dancing at the end of the show.

In my opinion, public television stations across the country should be adding The Lawrence Welk Show . . .

Just some thoughts.
The best to you and Carol,
Allan


P.S. from Suzzanne Kelley, Publisher, NDSU Press: Here are some links to the Prairie Public documentary about Lawrence Welk (viewed already by 37,000+ people!) and the NDSU Press publication of Lance’s book Champagne Times: Lawrence Welk and His American Century. The biography (a 3-volume limited edition [just 500 copies, autographed and numbered], printed as hardcovers in a beautiful protective slip-case) contains photos and stories beyond the documentary with more insights to Welk’s motivation, aspirations, and success-driven route from farm boy roots to becoming a media mogul millionaire. A history of Lawrence Welk–North Dakota’s and the nation’s eminent entertainer of his time–is also part of a month-long exhibit at the NDSU Memorial Union Gallery, showcasing unique historical objects and running through October 9. For parking as the guest of NDSU Press, email NDSU.Press@ndsu.edu to obtain a free pass.Â