Announcing a new chapter for waywiser!

Philip Hoy founded the Waywiser Press in 2001, and it quickly earned praise as “one of the UK’s best publishers of poetry” (Christopher Ricks, New Statesman). Tom Sleigh called it a “press [to] admire for its integrity, intelligence, and heart.” Starting in 2005, Hoy partnered with senior American editor Joseph Harrison (1957-2024) to develop the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, which Richard Kenney hailed as the poetry world’s “new plum.” Since then, the Waywiser Press has run nineteen successful Hecht Prize contests resulting in the publication of exciting new voices, as well as publishing works by established writers. The press has grown with the support of a robust cohort of associate editors, authors, and friends. 

At the end of 2025, Philip Hoy will retire as editor-in-chief of the Waywiser Press. Associate Editors Katherine Hollander, Dora Malech, Eric McHenry, and V. Penelope Pelizzon, who have volunteered with the Waywiser Press for many years, are in the process of establishing a nonprofit successor organization, Waywiser Books, in the United States. As a 501(c)(3) organization, Waywiser Books will be on secure footing to carry the legacy of the Waywiser Press onward to a new generation of poets and readers. Waywiser Books will continue to run the Hecht Prize, publish new collections of poetry and other work, and support the extraordinary catalog developed by the Waywiser Press over the past 22 years. A new prize in honor of Philip Hoy and Joseph Harrison, the Hoy-Harrison Prize, is being established to celebrate their tradition of collaborative literary excellence and editorial leadership. 

We hope you will join us in looking forward to an exciting new chapter for Waywiser.