This year has been a year full of letterpress printing. I love that letterpress is getting traction in both ZSR and academic settings at Wake Forest. I was urged by Stephanie Bennett to write about the printing that happened in 2024, and so here is the Letterpress Annual Report for 2024!

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I began the year reprinting some bookmarks I did years ago. I like to keep a stock of each printed piece. I added a new caption on one bookmark- Find a Perch at ZSR.

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I printed a Maya Angelou quote as a keepsake for the Maya Angelou Garden Party It is held in Bailey Park in downtown Winston Salem every year.

SCA totes

Special Collections & Archives often hands out tote bags at events with the Wake Forest seal printed on them. I printed these totes on our small copy press.

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For a poetry reading with poet, Joseph Bathanti, called “Demystifying Poetry” in April I printed his poem, The Dogs at Salisbury.

Typesetting Intro with ENG381

Megan Mulder, Sauda Mitchell, our book artist in residence, and I worked with Rian Bowie’s ENG381 class, Black Women Writers and the Archives during Fall Semester. This image is a typesetting intro, where three student groups set the type of each line. They worked separately, but you can see they had one thing on their mind: Fall Break was coming up.

These three images are the final projects for Dr. Bowie’s ENG381 class. They combined their words and imagery with the words of African American women writers. This was a labor of love, and an exciting project.

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For our Edward Gorey in Special Collections & Archives event, I printed this keepsake along with Shannon Bothwell, who is the current President of the ZSR Library Board of Visitors and is an SCA volunteer.

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In November, the ZSR Board of Visitors visited our letterpress and they all got to print this unique piece!

It was loads of fun to see each board member step up to the press and pull a print!

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Rebecca May and I reprinted this keepsake celebrating 200 years since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.

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I’m hopeful the letterpress will continue to be a part of ZSR, our students and the academic environment.