PORT TOWNSEND — Sam Hamill — a poet, translator and founding editor of independent publisher Copper Canyon Press — has died at the age of 74.
Hamill died Saturday at his home in Anacortes following a series of health complications.
His death was announced by Copper Canyon Press, the company he co-founded in 1972 to foster the growth of poets in many stages of their careers. He left the company in 2004 but continued to write and read poetry.
“During his many years at Copper Canyon Press, Sam was a fierce advocate for poets and poetry. Copper Canyon would not be what it is today without his influence,” said Michael Wiegers, the company’s editor-in-chief.
In addition to his work at Copper Canyon Press, Hamill initiated the Poets Against War movement in 2003 which he organized in response to the Iraq War.
Hamill was invited to a poetry symposium at the Bush-era White House and rather than declining the offer as a way to express his opposition to the war, he solicited and received anti-war verse from poets across the country. He made plans to present them at the event which the White House canceled.
Hamill is the author and translator of numerous poetry collections and has edited an impressive number of anthologies. His most recent collection, “Habitation: Collected Poems” (2014 University of Washington Press) presents poems spanning a career of more than 40 years.
His poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Hamill was awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Mellon Fund. He has won the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
“In co-founding Copper Canyon Press, which he helped lead for over 30 years, he did much to open the poetic imagination of this country, its writing, reading and publishing by others,” said Rick Simonson, an original Copper Canyon Press board member.
“He was a passionate defender of those he loved, and had a determined, yet open mind when it came to new discoveries. Sam was a mentor, friend and model for living with a great commitment to poetry,” Wiegers said.
Hamill is survived by his daughter, Eron Hamill, of British Columbia.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladaily news.com.
