The Festival is free and open to the public, though some events require advance registration, as indicated below.

View and download the poster!

Wed, Mar 28
at the Center for Book Arts

28 West 27th Street, NYC

10am-1pm and 2-5pm
Hands-on Chapbook Workshops: Binding and Printing
With Susan Mills and Karen Randall
Registration required: 212 481-0295

6:30pm
Panel Discussion: Community and Publishing
MC Hyland, Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Guy Pettit, Flying Object
Chuck Stebelton, Woodland Pattern

Thu, Mar 29
at The Graduate Center, CUNY

365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, NYC

Noon-7pm
Book Fair: Day 1
C Level
Featuring:
Agnes Fox, Argos Books, Augury Books, Belladonna*, Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop, Binge Press, Bridge Journal, Chax Press, Cy Gist Press, DoubleCross Press, Drunken Boat, Dusie Kollektiv, EOAGH, Epiphany, Flying Guillotine Press, Factory Hollow Press, Forklift, Ohio, Greying Ghost Press, H_NGM_N, Hyacinth Girl Press, Immaculate Disciples Press, Instance Press, Least Weasel @ Propolis Press, Magic Helicopter Books, Minutes Books, Monk Books, NOEMI, Pen Press, Pilot Books, Poets Wear Prada, Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, Publishing Genius, Projective Industries, Slapering Hol Press, Small Fires Press, The Corresponding Society, The Physiocrats, Toadlily Press, Ugly Duckling Presse, X-ing Press/Agriculture Reader

12–3pm
C Level
Lunch Poems–marathon poetry reading
curated by:
Stain of Poetry, EOAGH, Earshot, Triptych, Popsickle, PeopleHerd Readings at Milk&Roses

3pm
C Level
Workshop: Nuts and Bolts for Publishers
Ryan Murphy, Reservoir Editions
Iris Cushing and Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Argos Books
Organized by Poetry Society of America

Free registration required for all workshops.
To register, e-mail ksullivan@gc.cuny.edu.

5pm
C Level
Workshop: Digital Chapbooks
Adam Robinson, Publishing Genius
Martin Rock, Epiphany
Lucy Ives, Triple Canopy
Organized by the CUNY MFA Affiliation Group

Free registration required for all workshops.
To register, e-mail ksullivan@gc.cuny.edu.

7pm
Martin E. Segal Theatre
Panel Discussion: Translation & Alternative Publishing
Ammiel Alcalay, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Esther Allen, Baruch College
Anna Moschovakis, Ugly Duckling Presse
Damir Šodan, POEZIJA Magazine, Croatia
Organized by The Center for the Humanities

Fri, Mar 30
at The Graduate Center, CUNY

365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, NYC

Noon-7pm
Book Fair: Day 2
C Level
See above for featured publishers

12–3pm
C Level
Lunch Poems–marathon poetry reading
curated by:
Stain of Poetry, EOAGH, Earshot, Triptych, Popsickle, PeopleHerd Readings at Milk&Roses

3pm
C Level
Workshop: Nuts and Bolts for Writers
Jean Hartig, Poets & Writers Magazine
Cara Benson, Dusie Kollektiv and Belladonna*
Nathaniel Otting, minutes BOOKS and Agnes Fox
Nate Pritts, H_NGM_N BKS
Organized by Poets & Writers

Free registration required for all workshops.
To register, e-mail ksullivan@gc.cuny.edu.

5pm
C Level
Workshop: Chapbooks Saved My Life
Brian Teare, Albion Books
Organized by Poets House

Free registration required for all workshops.
To register, e-mail ksullivan@gc.cuny.edu.

7pm
Proshansky Auditorium and Lobby
Reading: PSA Chapbook Fellowship
Sarah Arvio, Timothy Donnelly, EJ Garcia, Deborah Landau, David Lehman, Marni Ludwig, Alison Roh Park, Gerald Stern, and Angela Veronica Wong
Introduced by Alice Quinn

Reception to follow

An exhaustive report on the Chapbook Festival on Bookslut with many lovely interviews with and photos of publishers & roving poets!

Suddenly I see Christian Hawkey, author of Ventrakl (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010). I ask if he’ll comment on the chapbook’s place in our contemporary world. “Chapbooks,” Christian muses. “They’re small, they’re portable. You can read them anywhere. And you should store them in the freezer along with your passport, cash, and family photos.”

Talk of the chapbook brings to mind the arch flattery by which the ancient poets defend what they like.  Suppose they choose to write in shorter forms.  They might try the eclogue, or some other suitable form.  Whatever their liking, to take to these hills they will accept attention given, but they must duck onerous demands on their resources:  “Though you are so wonderful, my patron, please do not ask me to write an epic poem.  My wings, poor things, cannot encompass the weight, and besides, smaller poems can be good, too, good to please and good for the soul.”

The Interstitial Arts Foundation reports from the Chapbook Festival:

What does the future hold for this refreshingly cooperative human form? The unique nature and inherent limits of fine-press, handmade production makes it an unlikely market conglomerate, but in an increasingly wired, mass produced society, poet and CUNY professor Kimiko Hahn suggests the chapbook will provide “a place where established writers can experiment.”

A very long and wonderful report from the Festival by Lily Ladewing in Faster Times includes interviews with publishers!

The design of the book always comes from the poems. When we read a manuscript we try to enter the imagined space in which they were created. Then it’s up to us to create a physical world for the poems to live in.

-Betsy Wheeler (Pilot Books)

Coldfront Magazine reports from the Chapbook Festival!

It’s important to note:

“In addition to selling chapbooks, representatives from Belladonna Books accepted donations that will be used to reprint Akilah Oliver’s chapbook The Putterer’s Notebook. Anyone interested in donating can contact Belladonna Books here.”

And keep in mind:

Zachary Schomburg of Octopus Books said it was sort of like an AWP “aftershock.” “In poetry, geography doesn’t matter,” said Schomburg.

We love our physical media. Chapbooks are the vinyl of literature. That we can print books on acid free paper, bound with waxed thread (in lieu of staples that will eventually rust) wrapped in thick covers that protect the more delicate pages allows us to make objects that unlike the vast majority of the original chapbooks will have a chance at lasting hundreds of years in physical form. I think if a publisher believes in a work strongly enough to bring a book to form they should take aims to produce an object that the readership will want to protect and preserve.

-from Chapbook Festival Notes by Andrew Kenower, presenter at the “Nuts and Bolts for Publishers” workshop

read & download the piece here:

Greying Ghost Press documents the flora & fauna of the Chapbook Festival.

And Lily Ladewig photographs the books on display!