Dear Friends,
Gratitude is something that we aim to practice and cultivate here at the Press. With the turn of the calendar year, we are especially mindful of this today and want to share some of what's at the top of our Thankful list:
YOU ~
Without your friendship and support, St Brigid Press would not be able to continue. We are so deeply grateful for your active presence with us on this creative journey, and for your enthusiasm for and patronage of the work we do.
MAKING BOOKS ~
2016 saw the publication of our first book printed on the iron handpress, Reverie. (If you missed that exciting process, check out these previous posts: "Printing a Poem on the Handpress" and "Printing With Plants".)
2017 begins with two books in process: Love Letters (an abecedarium honoring the beautiful work of American type designer Frederic Goudy, with an introduction by contemporary type designer Steve Matteson), and Wind Intervals (a new chapbook of poems by Jeff Schwaner, illustrated with nature prints). More on these projects soon!
TYPE ~
We are grateful to care for and print with an excellent collection of metal and wood type, and we give great thanks for folks who are still casting new metal type for us letterpress printers to use. Pat Reagh, of Patrick Reagh Printers in California, cast a gleaming font of Goudy Old Style for us this summer. And Michael and Winifred Bixler of The Bixler Press and Letterfoundry in New York created a gorgeous set of Bembo letters for us earlier in the year. These two castings will feature in the new books-in-progress.
In addition to metal type, we are honored to house the St Brigid Press Collection of Historic Wood Type. This collection received some wonderful TLC by graphic designer and 2016 Press intern, Julia Grammer. Julia identified, catalogued, and cleaned the type, and then produced some stunning letterpress printed type specimens of selected faces. We are very thankful for her excellent work of curating this collection.
THE FUTURE ~
In addition to the books-in-progress mentioned above, we have several new and extremely exciting irons in the Press fire. Over the next few months, stay tuned as we unveil these creative adventures, from a new wood type poster series to new vistas in poetry publishing! As always, we are grounded and guided by our mission to continually offer the daily bread of language, especially poetry, while practicing the traditional arts and crafts of printing and book making. Thank you, once again, for journeying with us!
With gratitude, and all best wishes,
Emily Hancock of St Brigid Press
