Award nominations put a spring in Graywolf's step

Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press received both national and international attention Tuesday after one of its novels made the Man Booker Prize shortlist and three of its collections made the National Book Award poetry longlist.

Graywolf will publish Hungarian writer David Szalay's novel "All that Man Is" in two weeks. Publisher Fiona McCrae said the Booker nomination for raises expectation of demand.

"We've already authorized a 5,000-copy reprint today, and that will come out with 'Finalist for the Booker Prizer on the cover," McCrae said. "And obviously if a book wins it goes through the roof, but that's never happened to us, so that would be a first. But it's thousands and thousands of copies."

The three Graywolf poetry collections, "Bestiary" by Donika Kelly, "Look" by Solmaz Sharif and "Blackacre" by Monica Youn, make up almost a third of the entire National Book Award poetry longlist.

McCrae credits the spate of honors to the breadth of work the press publishes.

"It's very gratifying to see the hits across the board and for different kinds of writers," she said. "We are not doing the same thing over and over again and winning the same award over and over again. It's a nice range."