It’s time for the annual Raymond Carver Writing Festival in Clatskanie, Oregon, the birthplace of Raymond Carver! We’ve been busy at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry and Craft Printing House, casting type and printing bookmarks, keepsake posters, and “Steal Time to Write” writing prompts. Check out the full schedule of (free) events on the new festival website.
April is National Poetry Month!
For the last few months we’ve been working hard on a new poetry postcard subscription program, coordinated by the C.C. Stern Type Foundry. The promotional materials alone were fun to cast type for, a mixture of Linotype and Monotype composition. And now the project has launched! The first cards went out to subscribers a couple days ago, but it’s not too late to sign up yourself. Each month for a year a new poem will get cast and letterpress printed, so if you join after the April launch, we’ll send you the previous cards (the “back issues”) with your first month’s card.
Subscribe on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry website marketplace.
Announcing the publication of The Fiddler by Herman Melville
Letterpress, metal type (Monotype composition, Linotype and Ludlow decorative material)
Dimensions: 6” h x 4” w
I’m pleased that this chapbook is finally complete and out in the world. The Fiddler is one of Herman Melville's lesser-known short stories originally published anonymously in the years following the completion of Moby Dick. The chapbook is printed on Mohawk Superfine text weight paper. An edition of 26 lettered copies are bound in red and yellow book cloth on board. An edition of 100 are numbered and hand-stitched in Mohawk Carnival paper covers with Colorplan 270gsm turquoise wraps. The type is 8 point Monotype Bodoni 175 cast using a Welliver interface connected to a Lanston Monotype Composition Caster. The titling is 18 point Monotype DeVinne 11 cast on a Lanston Monotype Sorts Caster. Decorative border and ornamentation cast on a Linotype Model 31 and a Ludlow Typograph. All casting was accomplished at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry. Printed at Craft Printing House. Bound with guidance and assistance from Jules Remedios Faye.
Photo courtesy of Marie Watt Studio
Printing Circle with Marie Watt at UMFA
I have the honor of joining Marie Watt and members of her studio team at the Utah Museum of Fine Art this coming weekend for the opening of their installation of Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt. On February 21, we’ll be hosting a hands-on printing activity (printing circle) with members of the public as part of the exhibit kick-off. Participants will be guided in the process of making simple word-based card stock relief printing plates, and then have the opportunity to create pressure prints in the museum classroom. Duplicates of the resulting prints are sometimes used in future artwork, a variation of Marie’s practice of making patchwork textile tapestries drawn from multiple sewing circles. You can see an example of the use of pressure prints from printing circles in the piece Companion Species (Passage).
CODEX Book Art Fair: Feb 2026
I’ll be part of the team representing the C.C. Stern Type Foundry at the CODEX Book Art Fair February 7-10 this year, exhibiting alongside type casting peers and heroes of the printing craft. The table will be stocked with a selection of broadsides, chapbooks and prints. Look for a chance to purchase rare final inventory from Stern & Faye, Printers alongside new work produced by the C.C. Stern Type Foundry community (Peasandcues Press, fiddleink, Craft Printing House). Stop by to browse and say hello!
Guild Card
Letterpress, Monotype hand-set metal type
2.5" x 3.5"
The C.C. Stern Type Foundry issues new cards annually to supporters who donate to the organization. Each guild card is printed in a small edition.
Type is recently cast hand-set Monotype 10pt. Bulmer 462 and 18pt. Bulmer Italic cast in 2003 at Monotype University. The ornaments were recently unearthed in a reorganization of the galleys in the print shop and appear to be rarely used American Type Foundry BI1056 and BI1055 (reference is the Monotype Corporation Fleurons broadside). Unfortunately, I don’t recall where or when we procured this sweet little box of ornamental border material.
The Point v.6
The Point Volume 6 is out in the mail as of today! Cast primarily in 10pt Bulmer 462 on the Monotype Composition caster, with classifieds composed on the Linotype in 8pt Spartan Heavy. This annual newsletter for the C.C. Stern Type Foundry is 10 pages, folded to a 4” x 6” finished size. Available for donors to the Foundry at the Printer’s Devil level and above. This year all the lower case e’s were just fine. In fact, the Bulmer matrices seem to be in great shape.
r.i.p. pica the cat
This week we buried Pica, a small cat with a big personality. She never really took to the print shop, made morning coffee, or learned to collect the mail … but she was still a great friend to us and will be missed.
Typesetter's T-Shirts
I recently unearthed a box of these t-shirts from over a decade ago! Shirts are made in America, screen printed in Portland from a clean proof of wood type. Sales benefit the programming at C.C. Stern Type Foundry. Buy one here.
P.S. The lovely model is Emma Swartz of Squeezebox Press.
No Kings Day (Again)
On October 18, 2025 the streets of Portland were full of people with signs, wearing inflatable costumes, chanting and dancing. Rage with a smile. Three hours of walking the downtown march route and both the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges were still full of people on the move. If seven million showed up for this single day protest, we’re getting closer to the tipping point.
weathergrams
When printer-friends visited C.C. Stern Type Foundry and Craft Printing House in early September, we engaged in a fun last-minute project of making Weathergrams. Inspired by Lloyd Reynolds and his interpretation of the Japanese tansaku form, we set type for seasonal poetic notes and printed a small edition of 30. Tied to branches with string, these little Weathergrams were hung at the Autumnal Equinox and are doing their best to become soaked and tattered as the leaves themselves at the end of the season.
Printing Circle in Grand Ronde
I was lucky enough to be on the team from Marie Watt Studio that led a printing circle for youth at the Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center in Grand Ronde, OR this summer. Participants created pressure prints addressing the language of democracy using stitching and collage methods. This is part of a multi-year project in which Marie Watt will ultimately quilt these with other prints created at various community group gatherings, forming a public installation piece.
American Typecasting Fellowship Conference in Clatskanie!
In April, I cast decorative ornaments (Monotype 1258 and 1259) at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry as part of a project with Montana State University, and this month we had a chance to put them to use ourselves. Paired with Linotype Electra and Gothic No. 13, they make a nice impression in gold ink on red paper. This little project announces the 2025 American Typecasting Fellowship Conference which is scheduled for July 31 - August 3, 2025. The C.C. Stern Type Foundry is hosting 4 days of fellowship, including technical sessions, a panel of presentations, banquet, swap meet, letterpress fair and auction. Registration closes on July 15.
More information on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry and American Typecasting Fellowship websites.
Poetry Missives
Each week I check the PO Box in Clatskanie, and for the last couple months I have been greeted by a new poetry card from Clifford Burke. Initially I thought these little publications were Desert Rose Press's contribution to National Poetry Month, but as they kept arriving through May and June I realized they are a gift of activism using the language of poetry to register dissent and offer hope. Thanks, Clifford, for these messages that arrive by post and stay in my mind as we struggle through the dismantling of Representative Democracy.
No Kings! arm bands
Letterpress, hand-set wood type
3" x 12”
Inspired by the Suffragettes of the early 1900s and the Nazi Punks Fuck Off! arm bands of my Reagan-era youth, I printed a few red cloth bands for the Flag Day “No Kings” protests (June 14th, 2026).
enough! zine project
I’m officially a zine publisher again! As a way to ground myself during this country’s abrupt transition to authoritarian rule, I’m using the zine format to explore my personal values and share with friends. Twelve months, twelve issues. It’s good noticing practice, and has required note-taking in the weeks between issues, as well as some synthesis (digestion?) of my experiences in order to represent that in the publication. There’s no subscription, I’m just sending them as I make them, and letting that be “enough”.
Raymond Carver Writing Festival: May 3, 2025
The Raymond Carver Writing Festival takes place annually in Clatskanie, Oregon, the birthplace of Raymond Carver. The 2025 Raymond Carver Writing Festival is May 3rd from 10am to 8:30pm. Once again a committee of volunteers (of which I am part) has put together a great line-up of events centered at the Clatskanie Cultural Center, with readings and generative writing exercises at other venues around town. This year’s theme is “Call it a Polestar.” Featured presenters include Moe Bowstern, Allen Braden, Mandy Ellen, Martha Gies, Holly Hughes, Laura Moulton, Dayle Olson, and Armin Tolentino (Vancouver, WA). More information on the website.
Letterpress posters for this year’s festival will be on sale at the event, along with posters we’ve made for 2024 and 2023.
Partners in Print Grand Opening!
I’ve been involved with Partners in Print as an Advisory Council member for the the past four years, as the leadership team has established their non-profit structure and built their programming. Until a month or so ago, their physical equipment was in storage or being stewarded by various Seattle-area letterpress printers. In late 2024, the organization secured a facility and is now offering in-person print workshops and events!
Raise a toast to their efforts!
Sunday, April 27
2025
Open house 1–5pm
Toast at 4pm
Partners in Print
402 Cedar Street, Seattle, WA 98121
RSVP
Power of the Presses Exhibit
I’m honored that one of my prints will exhibited as part of Power of the Presses at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. The show of books and prints runs from March 7-June 8, 2025 and includes a number of opportunities for hands-on art making in the gallery.
Download exhibition flier
The Point V.5
The annual newsletter for the C.C. Stern Type Foundry is on press! This year we selected 12pt. Monotype Modern No. 8 (8A) for the body text, complemented with Linotype Bodoni and decorative border material. Seems like the process of casting was a bit rougher than years past — first a mould that we decided was too worn and needed to be swapped out, then a matrix for a single letter that was casting too low, followed by random substitutions of letters for unit spaces. Ack. All those issues meant that the print runs were also challenging, and far more time consuming than they should have been. As always, I learned a lot in the process, and was reminded of how much more there is to learn.
