Off to Oak Knoll Bookfest XVIII

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, Books, Broadsides, Fine Press Book Association, Heart of Darkness, If by Rudyard Kipling, Ladislav Hanka, Letterpress, Oak Knoll Fest, PR and Media releases, Saturnalia, The Intruder, The Mad Angler Poems, The Mad Angler's Manifesto, The Path, The Trout in Winter

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book arts, Books, Broadside, Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press, Delaware, fine press books, Letterpress, literature, New Castle, Oak Knoll Fest, Wood Engraving

This weekend, Oct 3rd-5th, I will be in New Castle, Delaware for Oak Knoll Fest XVIII. I ‘ll have plenty of my books, broadsides and a bit of ephemera along with me so if you are so inclined to make a journey to this little village that time forgot (George Washington slept here) come to the fest for a weekend of fine books from 39 other fine press printers from around the world.

The theme this year is “Craftsman to Collector: Selling and Buying the Fine Press Book.” Printers, librarians, booksellers, and collectors will discuss that theme in a free symposium (registration required) on Friday, focusing on the various avenues printers can use to share their work with the world.

The book fair follows on Saturday and Sunday. See this year’s exhibitors, including 40+ printers from North America and Europe, here.

We will also host talks by John Randle of the Whittington Press, Carolee Campbell of the Ninja Press, and Oak Knoll Books owner Bob Fleck, each speaking their own experiences in the world of books.

Here are some of the special goodies that I’ll be bringing along with me for the trip, the tan leather book with the fish is the only binding I didn’t do myself, it was done by Don Etherington:

: Presentation binding for John Smith book

: Don Etherington binding of The Intruder

: Don Etherington binding of The Intruder

: deluxe binding of The Intruder

The Mad Angler Poems – trout, ink and paper

28 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Book Bindings, Books, Letterpress, Printing, The Mad Angler Poems, The Mad Angler's Manifesto, Trout

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Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press, Fine Press, fine press books, fly fishing, Letterpress, Mad Angler, Michael Delp, Printing, Trout, Wood Engraving

I’m happy to announce the arrival of The Mad Angler Poems, the latest book of verse by Michael Delp produced here at Deep Wood Press. Twenty four poems accompanied by 5 hand colored wood engravings by Chad Pastotnik and an introduction by Jack Driscoll.

Ever since last falls release of Mike’s poem The Mad Angler’s Manifesto which I produced as a large broadside I have been working on this updated and complete body of poems that embodies the habitat of trout as sacred places and the defilement, which is man, of the balance of nature. While the theme may be angling, trout specific and a little angry these poems transcend the niche and are just as much about how we interact with the natural world and the compromises and justifications we make to do it. Most often this is also done with coyote charm and devilish delight – excerpted from The Mad Angler Speaks Truth to Power:

I say that water is better than money,
something wet and smooth to be taken in and coveted.
I say that long ago we spoke to water and it spoke back.

Water is a form of being saved, lying down,
something wise in our cells seeking gradients,
places to run and places to rest.
I claim that once, in a dream, I walked on water.
Storms came.
I entered the clouds and when I came back down,
I spit the truth.

Michael Delp is a writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction whose works have appeared in numerous national publications. He is the author of the following five books from Wayne State University Press – Over the Graves of Horses (1989), Under the Influence of Water (1992), The Coast of Nowhere (1997), The Last Good Water (2003), and As If We Were Prey (2010) in addition to six chapbooks of poetry and being the co-editor of the Made In Michigan book series from Wayne State University Press. He taught creative writing at the Interlochen Arts Academy, has twice been the winner of the Passages North/NEH Poetry Competition, and has won a PEN Syndicated Fiction Award.

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The regular edition is quarter-bound with a brown Harmatan Moroccan goat with a cotton/linen Asahi book cloth. Gold title on spine with a varnished panel on the cover cloth overprinted with the brown drake fly wood engraving and Hahnemuhle Bugra in mocha colored flyleaves back up the book blocks which are hand sewn on straps. The book is composed in 11 and 14pt Janson with Garamond in display sizes and printed in 2 colors on Magnani Revere Book cotton 120gsm paper. 8 7/8 x 6 7/8 x 1/2 inches, 33 pages.

Edition of 71 books, the first 5 are reserved for the deluxe edition and one special copy for the author. Signed, numbered and available for purchase on the Deep Wood Press website for $350.00.

from The Prayer of The Mad Angler:

“I pray that the water in the heart of Jesus might wash away the sins of fools who erect dams, channel rivers, build levies
and create false cataracts in the lobbies of hotels.

I pray for eddies, backwaters, the slow places where current cannot find its way and I pray for shallow riffles where gravel churns up new words constantly,
the river a book spoken in all kinds of weather.”

New Literary Journal ~ we’ve got a name!

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Deep Wood Press in A Deep Wood Journal, job work, Letterpress, Literary Journal, Printing

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C&P 8x12 OS, CD Packaging, Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press, Letterpress, Seth Bernard, Wood Engraving

It’s been some time now since the announcement of this project back in October of 2013 and the solicitation of name ideas. I wanted a name that “zinged” and though there were many responses both here and off the blog for suggestions none of them really hit me and after all these months I’ve decided to go with my first thoughts on the idea. I didn’t want to appear to be vainglorious of Deep Wood Press but in this age of SEO nonsense and our inundation of ephemeral media it just makes sense to go with the flow. So without further ado let me introduce the forthcoming

A Deep Wood Journal

In these months of silence on the subject progress has been made – my editorial partners on this project and I have been going over layout ideas, talking to some of our favorite writers and artists and working out a way that this can be done and not be overwhelmed by it – I’ve other books to print as well! I’ve talked to other publishers of such journals also, most recently in New York during the FPBA fair I had the good fortune of having a table next to John Randal and he was very helpful with some suggestions and experience based on his 31 issues of Matrix. We’ve decided to make this an annual publication and are working towards a tentative release date for this December or January 2015. I am working with a talented young designer to put together a web presence for the journal which will, hopefully, be online and have some content as well as subscription information. At this point we are not taking submissions but that will most likely change with time as I plan to be in this for the long haul. I will say that the author and artist list we have now will blow your socks off with the melding of prose, poetry and art in a luscious little finely printed gem. Aesthetics will be as important as content as far as I’m concerned.

It looks like a commenter back in October has won a prize as well but his avatar is currently not linking to an email so if Mark Mansfield is still reading this blog please contact me about your free copy of A Deep Wood Journal #1!

And finally, just so no one thinks I’m a complete slacker, here’s a little project that was cranked out last week for musician friend Seth Bernard. Not something I do on a regular basis here at DWP but since I’ve done his previous 2 albums and he’s such a good guy, comes to help the process along, plus we always have a good time and take the occasional break to strum a guitar – why not. With only a few days to design, layout and set the type I’m fairly pleased except for the broken serifs on the italic lower case “y”s on the front cover. The image on the right of the inside jacket is difficult to photograph because it is a metallic copper colored ink but in “real life” it comes off quite well and yes, that old wood engraving on the cover is getting quite a lot of extended use. All run through the old 1911 8×12 C&P platen press 4 times plus the foil stamp run – 2 solid days of printing for 1250 CD packages.