Making Chapbooks & Winterling Press

Today I am posting photographs of my latest chapbook printed by Winterling Press. Winterling Press is my own ongoing creative project in self-publication. I choose a plain white handmade paper for the cover and printed the title in grey which gives the effect of the text being barely perceptible. This idea of “being-perceptible” is carried throughout the short story by the moving letters of the five “word-ships”. The "word-ships" are often difficult to see or grasp as they form rapidly and move quickly, break apart and come back together, as the narrative progresses. The idea of "word-ships" came to me as I wanted the story to be centered around something that is conceptually abstract but that could also be concretized on the page (but not necessarily in a literal way). I like the "word-ships" because they emphasize the materiality of the language, narrative and the page as a space where letters, words and sentences are mobile and difficult to pin down.

I have used a basic single signature binding technique for this chapbook, using pale pink thread. I should also mention that this story is largely an investigation into 'voice' as it exists and the myriad ways it manifests, develops and shifts within a singular narrative. I initially thought of this story as a dialogue between two people. They are speaking to one another but then they are not. Theirs is a failed dialogue. I was thinking about communication as an impossibility and the ways in which full desired communication is always impossible. When we communicate we are made aware of the distance between ourselves and that which we want our voice to move toward. During the writing process I felt that I also wanted to consider 'voice' more as a singular entity. Multiple voices may be embodied by a singular entity, and shift amongst what is heard, said, imagined and remembered. I am interested in the simultaneity of 'voice' that is between, within and that never reaches. I also wanted to evoke a voice that is moving, particularly moving further away as the narrative goes on. It is interesting that the "word-ships" by contrast actually become clearer, visually, and more perceptible. However, their function as words on the page is perhaps still obscured by a 'voice' that is lingering on the page but can no longer be present.