Books aren’t just blocks of text. They’re also physical objects, and in some cases they become art themselves. Hand-sewn chapbooks (from “cheap-book”) are a simple and timeless way to preserve words and even art. Join Frances Donovan (Poetry, June 2019) and peruse a collection of chapbooks that show the various techniques used to make them. Then make your own! You may choose to make a blank book, to write in it, or to send some text in advance to be printed and incorporated into your book.

All supplies included. Bring any writing you’d like to include in a book, but the program will provide blank pages for a blank-for-now book.

Instructor: Frances Donovan’s book Arboretum in a Jar (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2023) was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her chapbook Mad Quick Hand of the Seashore was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Donovan’s poems have appeared in Lily Poetry Review, Solstice, Heavy Feather Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Her interviews of other poets can be found at The Rumpus and on her website, www.gardenofwords.com. Donovan holds an MFA in poetry from Lesley University and is a certified Poet Educator with Mass Poetry. A poem of hers has been displayed at Boston City Hall. Donovan’s work deals with themes of home, family, intergenerational trauma, and sexual and gender identity. She remembers fondly the summer of 1998, when she drove a bulldozer in a Pride parade while wearing a bustier.