Le Hinton Poetry

A poet turned publisher - Book Reviews

Today's writer: Harrisburg native Le Hinton grew up with six siblings and a mother who read the Bible and the poetry of Langston Hughes aloud.

He started writing poetry at age 16, "only for myself," and went on to major in English at St. Joseph's University. Over the years, the Lancaster resident has had about 50 poems published in various places before deciding to become a publisher himself. He established Iris G. Press in 2004.

"I did not want to publish a book simply because I could afford to," he explained. "I wanted to have publication credits in other places that validated the work and indicated that what I was writing was worthy of publication in book form."

Hinton says people often ask him how he can afford to publish poetry. He tells them they could too, if they paid off their car loan and didn't buy a new car. (His 2001 Toyota Camry has 175,000 miles on it.)

It's clear that sharing the work of talented poets and presenting his mother with a volume of her own poetry for Christmas move him farther and faster than a new Lexus could. Nom de plume: I usually write as Le Hinton. However, I have used the name Marissa Allen or 2HEL (my initials backwards).

Initially, that allowed me to explore writing in a different style or on different subjects. (I've written about abuse from the perspective of a female.)

I say, "Don't look at me; read the poem." Because of stereotypes, looking at me people may expect African-American-themed poetry. Anything I write is African-American-themed, though it may not have anything to do with race. We all want the same things in life, to fall in love ... to keep our children safe ... Those are African-American themes too. Highest literary accolade: I haven't ever received an accolade for writing. I avoid entering contests and generally want to tell other people about other talented poets. Our Web site carries our philosophy, which is centered on the work and less on the person.

Iris G. Press has nominated six poets for a Pushcart Prize, an award for work published by small presses. My goal: I want to publish work by wonderfully talented and humble poets whose work I love. Humility is important to me.

Initially, I decided to use my own money, knowing that as poetry, nothing would be a big seller.

My Letter to the World

Catalogue of the ... central lending library

Life and letters of James Hinton

Poems from the Sangamon, poems

The Library table ...