Printing the Covers for Ghost Box Evolution in Cadillac, Michigan

In mid-June we gathered in Boston to letterpress the covers of this year's winning chapbook, Rosie Forrest's Ghost Box Evolution in Cadillac, Michigan. This year we printed at a new location: Union Press in Union Square, Somerville, enjoying the amazing help of Union Press’ Eli Epstein. Over two warm New England days, we mixed ink, set type, and cranked out over 400 beautiful 2-color covers on a Vandercook press.

Highlights this year included working with a large piece of artwork with both empty and ink-filled spaces (the broken windows at grace the cover), and creating a rust-red ink to complement the olive tones of the paper and artwork ink. Though many of Forrest’s stories feature teenagers, there’s a feeling of unease and decay in the background of most of these stories, so we wanted the cover colors and artwork to reflect that rusty, broken atmosphere. The covers came out great and the finished books look amazing, complete with rust-colored endpapers. The book launches August 5, and ordering is available now.

Here are some photos of this year’s printing process:

The beautiful print shop at Union Press

The green ink and artwork on press

Inks ready for mixing

Not a crime scene—rust-red ink in the making

So many to print!

Rust-red ink on press creating finished cover

The finished cover

The printing crew at the Vandercook with the finished cover! From left: Kathleen Rooney, Abby Beckel, Rebecca Saraceno, Eli Epstein. Photo by Katie White.

Huge thanks to Eli Epstein of Union Press for his help, expertise, and use of Union Press' equipment and inks. Special thanks as well to Maria DiPasquale for her help printing on day 1 and Katie White for her help printing on day 2!

The finished chapbook is now printed and bound and ready to read. Order your copy of this limited edition contest-winning chapbook!

The Making of Betty Superman!

Today is the official release of Tiff Holland's Betty Superman, winner of our 5th annual short short chapbook contest, judged by Kim Chinquee. Betty Superman can be yours by ordering here!

As with all of our chapbook winners, we printed the covers for Betty Superman by hand on a Vandercook letterpress at the Museum of Printing in North Andover, Mass. For two amazing days in early June, we cranked out 350 covers—twice, once with red ink and the smoking hand, and again with the metallic silver ink and text.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how the Betty Superman covers were created:
First we printed the smoking hand linoleum cut that designer Rebecca Saraceno (left, running the press) carved in red ink on the red paper. Also pictured is Rose Metal Press co-founder Kathleen Rooney,
who was at that time laying all the newly printed one-color covers out to dry. We all wo-manned the Vandercook printing press throughout the day.

Once the red ink dried it was time to set the type for the text and print the metallic silver ink!
Here is Rose Metal Press co-founder Abby Beckel printing the silver text on the formerly one-color covers.
Here's a finished Betty Superman coming off of the metal type we pulled and set by hand.
And the finished covers out to dry all over the Museum.
Check out this video of Betty Superman on press!



Once the covers were printed, the lovely folks at Red Sun Press in Jamaica Plain, Mass. printed the interiors and did the handwork to bind those interiors with our letterpress covers and very cool metallic midnight blue endsheets and create the finished chapbook!

The book itself is beautiful, but more importantly Tiff Holland's stories are amazing—contest judge Kim Chinquee writes of Betty Superman: “From beginning to end, Holland’s stories layer, offering colorful pictures that speak to one another, developing the angst and sympathy of the relationships between these family members into a complete whole. Each time I read this collection, I find more to love."

Buy your limited edition (only 300 in print) chapbook of Betty Superman now!

How Some People Make a Chapbook

We're thrilled to announce the release of Sean Lovelace's chapbook How Some People Like Their Eggs, the winner of our third annual short short chapbook contest. More details about the book are here.

Our fabulous chief book designer Rebecca Saraceno and I letterpressed the covers of How Some People Like Their Eggs at The Museum of Printing in North Andover, Mass. This has become a fun annual tradition for the winning chapbook cover.

Here's how we do it:
First we set the type. This foundry type is called Stymie.

Then we cut the paper down to size using this giant paper cutter.

Once we had cover-size sheets, we used a manual Vandercook press to roll out 350 covers printed with the first color (black).

Then we put each cover back through the Vandercook to print the second color (yellow) and set them out to dry on every possible flat surface. Rebecca carved the silverware linoleum cuts herself.

After a 14-hour day of printing each cover by hand, we celebrated the beautiful covers with exhaustion and a flat tire on 93. But it was worth it to have each cover carefully and lovingly made to house Sean's amazing stories! Special thanks to The Museum of Printing for the use of their equipment and to Red Sun Press for carefully collating and binding the printed interior and the covers and endpapers we supplied. The chapbooks are produced in a limited 300 copy run, so order yours here today!