Monday, February 2, 2015

A chapbook in the making

Don Domanski is a marvellous poet in the true sense of the word, his work full of natural marvels. Years ago the "Globe and Mail" asked me to review the finalists for the Governor General's Award for Poetry, including Don Domanski's book, "Wolf-Ladder." I still remember (more or less) a line I wrote then: "Giving the Governor General's Award to Domanski would be like giving first prize at a dog show to a wolf." (In fact, it would be a few more years before he won.) Espresso Books is a limited-edition chapbook series edited by Rebecca Comay, Bernard Kelly, and me. We all act as editors while Bernard does the design and typesetting, Rebecca and I choose the cover stock, and I sew the books and bind them in paper wrappers with pasted-on labels. I am in the middle of binding a series of poems by Don Domanski called "Fetishes of the Floating World." The cover paper is a heavy Japanese linen. In the first photo several copies are being glued into their covers. The second photo is our logo (from the previous chapbook) and the third is our series to date, which I keep out in my work room. They always sell out, although there are a few copies left of the previous one, Sandra Alland's "Naturally Speaking." You can read about (and order it) here: http://www.paperplates.org/naturally_speaking.html.