The Printers Ball is an annual celebration of literary culture founded by Poetry magazine and other independent Chicago literary organizations which showcases live readings, music, and performances and host letterpress, offset, silk-screening, rubber-stamping, and paper-making demonstrations (this year’s has passed but keep an eye out for next year’s.)

For the 2010 ball, a collaborative art book was produced by the Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College, the Chicago Printers’ Guild, and Poetry magazine will be released and ready for circulation. Twenty writers were paired with 20 printers to create a limited-edition (only 50 copies!), hand-printed art book. The book, a compilation of broadsides, features the work of Kathleen Judge, Steve Walters, Audrey Niffenegger, Ed Roberson, and others. 

I got to collaborate myself. I submitted this post I wrote up for Zulkey.com last year and printmaker Jessica Taylor brought it to life. Last week I finally picked up the Art Book and it’s such a thing of beauty I can’t even believe it. The PDF doesn’t do it justice but if you’d like to see the collaborative work between these local artists and writers, go here. Many thanks to the Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College, the Chicago Printers’ Guild, and Poetry magazine for being so awesome and creative.