06/18/2026
Rosmarie Waldrop and Keith Waldrop founded Burning Deck in 1961, beginning with a small mimeographed magazine that would grow into an immensely influential presses for experimental poetry and prose. Based for decades in Providence, Rhode Island, the press operated outside commercial publishing structures while profoundly shaping contemporary avant-garde writing.
Burning Deck became known for publishing formally innovative writing, translation, hybrid prose, and poetry that moved across philosophical, linguistic, and aesthetic boundaries. Alongside their own work, the Waldrops published writers such as Lyn Hejinian, Barbara Guest, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Harry Mathews, Cole Swensen, Lisa Jarnot, Robert Coover, and many others whose writing expanded the possibilities of literary form.
The press was also foundational for bringing contemporary French and German experimental writing into English through dedicated translation series, helping establish transnational conversations between U.S. avant-garde poetics and European literary experimentation.
Burning Deck had an understanding of publishing as a collaborative artistic practice. Many early books and chapbooks were hand-designed and letterpress printed by Rosmarie Waldrop herself, giving the press a distinct visual and material character alongside its editorial vision.
Burning Deck officially closed in 2017 after publishing more than 240 titles across five decades, but its influence on experimental writing and independent publishing remains immeasurable.
Pictured: Pictured:
— Rosmarie Waldrop and Keith Waldrop, circa 1980s
— Well Well Reality by Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop (The Post-Apollo Press, 1998)
— Crosscut Universe: Writing on Writing from France, edited and translated by Norma Cole (Burning Deck, 2000)
— Rosmarie Waldrop speaking about Burning Deck Books
— A Century in Two Decades: A Burning Deck Anthology (Burning Deck, 1982)
