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Fine Press Chapbooks
Michael Peich of Aralia Press has compilied an extensive checklist of Dana Gioia's fine press books, pamphlets, broadsides, and poetry ephemera entitled Dana Gioia & Fine Press Printing (The Kelly/Winterton Press, 2000).
"I am attracted to his work because Gioia's crafting of a poem is similar to the construction of a finely crafted book of poetry. William Everson remarked that '…the finest instincts of a printer are always going to be exercised and lavished upon the production of poetry.' Since every poem is different in subject and physical appearance, the typographer must adjust each poem to fit the page in a way that will preserve the poem's integrity. The designer, like the poet, engages in the creative act; every element of a book's production is carefully considered before it is added to the design. The final synthesis of the disparate elements of a text is a physical object created for the reader's enjoyment. If the designer has succeeded, the reader will engage the poetry without distraction in what appears to be a simple, unadorned, but beautiful book. Literary fine printing appeals to readers precisely because it unites talented poets with sensitive designers."
—Michael
Peich
from the introduction to Dana Gioia & Fine Press Printing