Chelsea Wolfe and I made a video of a short piece I wrote last month, Animus Dreams (you can download the text from the Writing section), just finished it up last night. Naomi from Agent Ribbons helped us out with the score. Pleased as punch about this, Chelsea did a fantastic job.

ANIMUS DREAMS: THE WOLF AND THE RABBIT from chelsea wolfe on Vimeo.

Ice water and lime, the stars fading out for this new dawn, song birds in the orange trees, no sleep no sleep no sleep but instead: a new short story: In the Borough of Queens.

I have been wanting to have a page for my writing ever since I started this site, but it hasn’t come together until, well, tonight. Currently, there is a completed poem cycle and a short story in progress available for you to download. Follow here.

To say Hatch’s collection of wood type is impressive is a serious understatement. A tiny sampling of the materials:

Letterpress was used to print nearly everything until the ’70’s. Hatch did a great deal of advertising work in addition to show posters, and so letters in every size, from the minuscule to the enormous, were in order.

Stacks.

Case of small wood type.

Walls and walls of carved wooden and linoleum blocks. In the foreground, stacks of posters waiting to go to press or to be put up.

PS I added a rotating image script to the front page. Very pleased. Go look, I totally love it.

My scanner has totally been in the trunk of my car this whole time. Sometimes my air headed way of navigating my life astounds me, but what the hell, it’s here and that’s fantastic. I spent the better part of the afternoon scanning all my photographs from the last four months. It was so, so satisfying. Starting next week I’ll be updating this journal with photographs from the San Francisco Center for the Book and Hatch. Until then you can check out the Prints page for a tiny taste of things to come.

Not much to report on the home front. Hunkered down in Sacramento and spending most of my days furiously writing and editing and falling in love with my friend here all over again. Still trying to finish up the IS, IS books. I cannot believe how labor intensive they are. I finally got my photographs developed from Hatch but my scanner is in San Francisco SO, you know, a little longer yet before I can post those up…. Working on a significant addition to the am i human site which I’m excited to show off soon. I upgraded my Word Press and accidentally erased all your comments which was a huge bummer. I still can’t figure out how to change the color of the font when you type so you can actually see what you’re typing. Basically trying to tie up the loose ends of various projects before plunging into new things. Expect some serious blooming here as we saunter toward the Solstice.

The copies of Human Parts of Me Want to Eat the Flowers off of Trees have arrived! You can purchase them from the am i human website. The book is $12, shipping is $3 in the United States and Canada and $5 overseas. You may send checks or cash - a total of $15 for domestic and Canadian orders and $17 international - to:

Jessalyn Wakefield
1628 Bellevue Avenue
Apartment B2
Seattle WA 98122

This is a collection of stories I’ve been working on over the past year, centering on themes of God and women.

Special thanks to everyone who preordered, your financial support has been invaluable

Your anger is a gift.

O! I have been wildly busy enjoying summer and not on the Internet very much.

These are some photographs of the press I use and the island on which I use it. I don’t know anything about the history of the Asbern proof press, other than than it was manufactured in Germany. I’m supposing it’s a post-war creation. It’s a very pleasing proof press to work with. The packing is adjustable! In a Vandercook, one of the most common proof presses in use today, you have to go through a fairly complicated and time consuming ritual of packing and and repacking the tympan* to change the strength of the impression, involving latches and wrenches and twirls and locks. But with the Asbern you just turn a little dial and voilà! You have adjusted your impression. Love love love it. There’s also a ruler on the paper feed that corresponds to a ruler in the bed of the press, which is an incredibly brilliant innovation.

PS I’ve also added some books and prints to the site, if you’d like to take a look.

*The tympan, by the way, is the oiled manila sheet that covers the sheets of packing which change the strength of the impression (more sheets give a stronger impression, fewer a weaker one). The paper on which you would like to print is held on top of the tympan as it passes over the form. In a cylinder press like an Asbern or Vandercook the tympan is stretched tight over the drum of the cylinder. In a hand press, like the Albion, for example, the tympan lays flat and is lowered onto the form. At the San Francisco Center for the Book the tympans are covered with wipeable clear plastic which keeps them clean, a detail which I appreciate.

I’ve just uploaded new photographs for the books and prints on the main site. Much nicer than the jury-rigged scans I had before. Heartfelt thanks to Lilli, Jason, Lizzie and Ava for their help. We took some photographs of my limited run work, too, and I hope to get those up soon soon soon.