WEST FARGO, N.D. – Thirteen students in the Introduction to Publishing class at North Dakota State University, Fargo, will be printing the cover of a poetry chapbook on an 1897 hand-fed printing press on Saturday, September 16th from 9am to 2pm. The class is taught by Dr. Suzzanne Kelley, publisher, NDSU Press. This is the eighth year Dr. Kelley’s students have printed a chapbook cover on the Chandler & Price platen press in The Hunter Times building at Bonanzaville, West Fargo. They print the inside pages and bind the book at The Braddock News Letterpress Museum, which is part of the South-Central Threshing Association at Braddock, N.D.

The chapbook is created through NDSU’s national competition—The Poetry of the Plains & Prairies Prize—they select one collection of poetry, about 35-40 pages in length. The winner receives $200 and our standard contract, which includes 10 free copies, our authors’ discount, royalty payments, and national distribution. The winner serves as the finalist judge in the following year’s competition. This year’s winner is Brendan Stermer for his poetry collection called Forgotten Frequencies.

Assisting Dr. Kelley and her students will be retired newspaper publisher Allan Burke of Linton, N.D. Burke is a volunteer curator of the Braddock Museum. He was an apprentice (printer’s devil) at The Carthage News, Carthage, S.D., where he started working when he was 11 years old.

Beth Jansen, executive director of Bonanzaville, said we are pleased to welcome back this year’s class of students to the Hunter Times. “There is nothing better than to experience history hands on and that’s what we are all about living history” Jansen said.