The Way Back

Published in celebration of W.S. Merwin's centennial, this landmark anthology inaugurates The Merwin Conservancy Books, a new series honoring one of America's greatest poets and environmental visionaries.

WS Merwin, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Poet Laureate of the US was renowned in his lifetime for his commitment to environmental stewardship, and to poetry. Both in his practice of land stewardship, as he vibrantly transformed destroyed landscapes, and in writing, as he blended human and environmental considerations through seven decades of poetry and prose. Just as he has single-handedly enriched a living landscape, Merwin is credited with having written some of the most remarkable poetry of the late 20th and early 21st century, gathering awards at every turn while deeply influencing the practice of poetry across the world. In celebration of his 100th birthday, The Way Back highlights Merwin’s literary and ecological legacy, while sampling from across more than 40 books of poetry and prose.

With this engaged retrospective, Copper Canyon Press is launching a new book imprint, The Merwin Conservancy Books, featuring previously unpublished Merwin works, reissues, and ecologically inspired titles dedicated to the literature of the environmental imagination. These books will be curated in collaboration with the Merwin Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to the stewardship of his literary legacy, as well as to the rare palm forest which Merwin planted through years of daily practice, with profits going to the preservation of Merwin’s majestic palm forest.