Wayzgoose is Coming!

The 2009 Gaspereau Press Wayzgoose

Gaspereau Press is preparing for its twelfth annual Wayzgoose and Open House, which will be held on Saturday October 22 at the Gaspereau Press printing works.

This year, we are pleased to have letterpress printer and wood engraver George Walker. George is presently promoting his new trade book, A is for Alice, which was published by our good friends at The Porcupine’s Quill in Erin, Ontario. Click here to see an amusing video of George and the Inksters at The Porcupine’s Quill.

We’re going to keep George pretty busy while he’s here. He’ll be give a workshop in the morning, help entertain guests during the open house in the afternoon, and present an illustrated talk on the future of the book in the evening.

The evening will also feature readings from new books by Montreal novelist Norm Ravvin and Cape-Breton-based poet Sean Howard. I will also be giving brief tributes to two important and recently lost figures in the constellation of Canadian letters: Douglas Lochhead and Glenn Goluska.



The great Canadian typographer and letterpress printer Glenn Goluska, who died last week, was a great frequenter of the Gaspereau Wayzgoose. I stumbled on this short and truly amateur video clip of Glenn at last years’s event, when he met his Alabama counterpart Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., who was the guest artist at last year’s event. Shortly after this video was taken, Amos informed Glenn that all the wooden type in the world belonged to him, but that he was okay with Glenn using it for a while if he treated it nicely.


Robert Bringhurst and Glenn Goluska at the Gaspereau Wayzgoose

We’re still ironing out the details, but in a week or two we’ll be posting a schedule of wayzgoose events and happening. The only two activities that have limited space and require preregistration are the workshops. They will run on Saturday October 22 from 9:00 until noon. There is a $40 registration fee for the workshops. Each workshop is limited to 10 participants and are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. You can register for them by emailing info@gaspereau.com or calling us a 902 678 6002. This year’s wayzgoose workshops are:

BOOKBINDING. Participants will complete a binding with the help of expert conservationist an binder Ruth Legge. Materials are provided.

THE JOYS OF PRINTMAKING. George Walker will demonstrate and discuss a number of letterpress printmaking methods. No experience required. This workshop is intended to introduce the participants to the history, tools, techniques and artistic possibilities of printmaking.

Other activities in the works are a letterpress-related film screening in cooperation with Wolfville’s Fundy Film, an author’s salon, our famous offcut paper sale, and the usual hanging-out in the printshop, talking, printing, papermaking and typecasting. The wayzgoose is always an amazingly good time, even for those of us who host it, so I hope that you’ll be able to join us.


Casting slugs at the 2010 Wayzgoose

ANDREW STEEVES ¶ PRINTER & PUBLISHER