An Evening of Printmaking and Poetry
A rare printing press and a poet are the key draws for an upcoming literary arts event. Asheville BookWorks continues its reading series this month to deepen the appreciation of printed books and creativity.
This is the fourth year BookWorks has organized its Vandercooked Poetry Night for the public. The event on Saturday, October 1, at 7 p.m. encourages both listening to poetry and printing poems. Attendees will have the opportunity to use a Vandercook printing press, one of the unique tools the organization offers for community classes in printmaking and bookmaking.
“Vandercooked Poetry Nights allow the public to experience an important but increasingly elusive printing technology,” says Laura Ladendorf, studio manager of BookWorks in West Asheville. Easy to operate, Vandercook presses came out in 1909 and have become a tool of the trade for popular letterpress publishers and artists since the last machines were manufactured in 1976. BookWorks owns four Vandercooks of the few thousand that are still around. Two are hand-crank machines.
The evening involves a short presentation on printmaking and the opportunity for guests to create a print of the featured poet’s work. Asheville poet Jessica Jacobs will read from her collections and interact with attendees during the printmaking process. Jacobs is the author of Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press) and the forthcoming chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us (Sibling Rivalry Press).
Laurie Corral, founder of BookWorks, began collecting presses many years ago to be restored and used for creative works by people in the community. She sees the marriage of poetry and printmaking as symbiotic. “I love the written word and I love books,” she says. “And I love type and typography. I don’t think of myself as a writer, so this part of it brings something to me, and I can bring print to it.”
Printing begins at 7 p.m. and poetry starts at 7:30 p.m. at Asheville BookWorks, at 428 1/2 Haywood Road in West Asheville. Attendance is free. To make a print to take home, there’s a $5 fee. For more information visit ashevillebookworks.com.
