A dozen NDSU students will take part in a hands-on learning experience Friday and Saturday, Nov. 2 and 3, when they run the 100-year-old printing presses at the Braddock News Letterpress Museum on the South Central Threshing Association grounds at Braddock, North Dakota.
Suzzanne Kelley, editor-in-chief for NDSU Press, will bring 12 students from her Introduction to Publishing class to the museum to learn about letterpress printing and to operate hand-fed Chandler & Price platen presses.
They will work the third chapbook printed on antique presses by NDSU Press. It is titled “Destiny Manifested,”and is a collection of poetry by Bonnie Larson Staiger of Bismarck, North Dakota.
The students will fold and assemble the pages, add a cover they previously printed, stitch the books and trim each book on an antique paper cutter.
“The students will be hand-feeding the covers into the presses and printing from metal engravings,” Kelley said. “It is essentially the same process that goes back to Johann Gutenberg in 1452.”
Staiger will join the students at the printing museum. “Destiny Manifested” is the recipient of the Voices of the Plains and Prairies Poetry Award from NDSU Press.
On Sunday, Nov. 4, Staiger will be honored at a book launching at The Capital Gallery in Bismarck. She will read selections from her book and be available to autograph copies purchased at the event. The NDSU students and Kelley are scheduled to attend.
The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be provided.
The production of “Destiny Manifested” is a collaboration of The Hunter Times/Bonanzaville, The Braddock News Letterpress Museum, North Dakota Newspaper Association Education Foundation, NDSU Press, The Capital Gallery and the NDSU Introduction to Publishing class.
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