On this rainy Thursday morning, I was reading our twitter feed and came across this link (when Submittable tweeted it to ask, “if you were a chapbook, how would you be bound?”). Sampson Starkweather offers some thoughts on chapbooks and how they’re completely amazing, including this gem:
Chapbooks also have such a materiality and visceral physical life, because they are mostly handmade and handbound and come in all shapes, sizes (from Small Fires matchbooks to The Pines LP records) and textures imaginable (god I love texture!), made from old military uniforms, childhood blankets, prison cups, cardboard, vinyl, rubber, bolts, matchbooks, you name it. It is this handmade element and imagination and of course each chapbook’s limited nature that gives them such value, and ties them to history and an archival existence. Chapbooks are a link to the human that I think is more important than ever right now in the face of ever increasing digital media and publishing, Chapbooks are like Sarah Connor and her son (John Connor) facing the Terminators in Terminator 2: the hope of all mankind and the future of the human race lie in their hands. Also, they are perfect to read on the subway! | read more
We agree; chapbooks are handbound artifacts of human-to-human creativity and communication, and it’s why we take the time to make these editions. It’s why we insist on producing them on paper, in a lasting, portable, fondleable form, to be carried about and opened up in those moments between gadget fiddlings.
So, if you were a chapbook, how would you be bound?
Porkbelly Press 