Asheville BookWorks cohosts Vandercooked Poetry Nights bonus reading event

From a press release:

Asheville BookWorks, a community resource for print and book arts, joins with the Kay Falk Literary Project, helmed by Emilie White, to offer a bonus reading and printing event in its ongoing Vandercooked Poetry Nights series. The broadside printed at each event displays a poem written by the evening’s spotlighted poet. The upcoming bonus Vandercooked Poetry Night features poet Tony Hoagland, recipient of many honors for his poems, including the Poetry Foundation’s 2005 Mark Twain Award in recognition of his contribution to humor in American poetry, on Wednesday, October 29, 2014. Printing begins at 7:00 p.m. The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. Co-hosted by BookWorks founder and director, Laurie Corral, poet Landon Godfrey, and fiction writer Emilie White, the event is free and open to the public.

Asheville BookWorks hosts three Vandercooked Poetry Nights per year and presents prominent poets. Vandercooked poets are available to sign the broadsides at the events. Upcoming readings will feature Gabrielle Calvocoressi on February 7, 2015, and Matthew Olzmann on May 2, 2

At Vandercooked Poetry Nights, everyone is invited to print a broadside on a Vandercook printing press. The limited edition letterpress broadsides highlight different printing methods, from traditional hand-set lead type to contemporary techniques like using photopolymer plates for deep impressions. Master printers introduce the printing presses and organize the printing during the Vandercooked Poetry Nights event.

Frequent visitors to Vandercooked Poetry Nights will accumulate a complete portfolio of letterpress-printed broadsides. In addition to the open edition letterpress broadsides available at Vandercooked Poetry Nights events, BookWorks will offer a collectible annual portfolio of every print from the series.

Because the Vandercook printing press has become a rare object, Vandercooked Poetry Nights allow the public to experience an important but increasingly elusive printing technology. More than 30,000 Vandercook presses were manufactured in Chicago between 1909 and 1976; however, today fewer than 2,000 remaining Vandercooks have been identified in a worldwide census. Easy to operate, Vandercook presses have been adopted by artists and writers to control their own publications and to produce handmade objects.

Johannes Gutenberg invented the moveable type printing press in approximately 1440. This printing method has been improved upon, but it remains the same in fundamental ways: paper is pressed to inked type to produce a printed object.

For more information about the poets and the upcoming events of Vandercooked Poetry Nights, please click here.

Started in 2004, Asheville BookWorks is home to a vibrant book arts and printmaking community where learning and discourse are fostered through classes, exhibits, and an artists-in-residence program, all sharing in common an intense appreciation of print, book arts, and creativity. More information is available at www.ashevillebookworks.com.