Sunday, December 02, 2012

The art of the book

One of the nicest things that happened this week was the reading and chapbook launch at the public library in North Delta. More than just a reading, as you can see from the photo, it was a celebration.

The event was the culmination of a workshop I led this fall on the topic of making a chapbook. It helped, of course, that it was such a terrific group -- 6 women and 2 men -- each writer with their own distinctive voice and style.

Although most of the books contained poetry (one was fiction, four linked short stories), the range of poems was remarkable -- from rhyming poems for kids with the words based on High Frequency Sight Words, to thoughtful reflections on family, the mundanities of daily life, the mysteries of defining one's relationship with God. One was inspired by the poems of Walt Whitman, and included several multi-media experiments.

One book was laminated (since it's for kids, good idea!), most were hand-sewn, though one was bound by a tidy row of black machine-stitching. Nice intersection of technologies! I especially liked the choice of colours offered in Zero to Sixty. It was hard to decide which one to pick. I was tempted to buy one of each.

Even though this workshop won't be repeated until fall of 2013, I'm already looking forward to it and wondering what surprises will result then.  

3 comments:

Jenn said...

Love this :-) it's a wonderful reason to celebrate, the sending of new little words and art into the world. Next class in the fall of 2013, you say...?

hg said...

Thank you, Jenn. I'm glad you agree that the cause was celebration-worthy. I like the thought you planted in my minf -- of all those little words going out and into the world. Weirdly, I imagine them rising, like when I was little and used to watch the bubbles in a glass of 7-Up, wondering always, Where did they go?

And yes, a poetry class will run from the end of January to March, but the chapbook sessions won't start again until September. More info at fvwschool.blogspot.com

hg said...

Uhhh... 'minf' ... make that 'mind'.

Clearly, some days my mind is pretty minfy.