HOW THE INK FEELS
September 17 - December 14, 2001

The broadsides are the product of inspired collaborations among the writer, the printer and the artist –woodcut illustrator, calligrapher and papermaker. Most pieces were printed using manually operated letterpresses, a technique that has changed very little since the Middle Ages.

The title "HOW THE INK FEELS" is taken from a William Stafford poem, "The Trouble with Reading." William Stafford (1914-1993) was one of America’s most celebrated poets. Author of over sixty books, Stafford served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, was Oregon’s Poet Laureate from 1975-1989 and is the only Oregon poet to have won the national Book Award. Stafford also won the 1992 Western States Book Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry. 

Among the other 37 writers represented are winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, Western Heritage Award, NEA grants, American Academy & Institution of A~~s and Letters in Literature, L.A. Times Book Prize, P.E.N. Translation Prize, Shelly Memorial, the Lamont, to name a few. A panel of experts for The Oregonian (Portland) selected ten Northwest WRITERS OF THE CENTURY and among those are Denise Levertov, Richard Hugo, Gary Snyder, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ivan Doig and William Stafford whose work can be seen here.