The Best of 2011

Seattle Magazine has listed us as on of the best things in 2011 local arts! Thanks, Seattle Mag! Here's what they said:



Most Innovative Approach to the Literary Journal:  Filter

Sometimes, thinking outside of the box means thinking inside of a box. Jennifer Borges Foster’s hand-ornamented and hand-sewn literary journal Filter is always a thing of beauty, but for this year’s volume (the third), she went completely above and beyond the bounds of the literary journal as we know it. Foster and her team collected each of the new edition’s 215 copies of poetry, fiction, essays and visual art in a magnetized box with a gorgeous letterpress cover, and—acknowledging the fact that people rarely read journals in the intended order—left sets of pages loose, unbound. Which means readers can delight in surrounding themselves with the contents, much like kids dumping out Halloween trick-or-treat bags—and with the same sweet sense of anticipation. filterlit.blogspot.com




We are still making copies of Filter, so if you need the perfect gift for a lit-loving friend, go to tickerfinch.etsy.com and grab a copy!

Press Festing!

A SMALL PRESS EVENT

November 12, 2011
10:30–4:30 at The Vera Project
Seattle, WA
Free to the public!


On November 12th, Filter will be representing at the looks-to-be-wonderful Short Run, a small press event.

Stop by and say hi!

Party Tonight!

We've been piercing, stitching, folding, gluing, placing ribbon, pressing, assembling and stitching some more, 14 hours a day, 7 days a week for many weeks so that we can bring a boatload of Filters to the party tonight, and that's only ONE of the exciting things that is happening!

Pressed contents, ready to be boxed

Zachary Schomburg, John Osebold, Stacey Levine, Maged Zaher, Karen Finneyfrock, Ed Skoog, Elizabeth Colen, Elissa Washuta, Susan Rich, Sid Miller, Becca Yenser and Sarah Bartlett will be reading to you tonight. There will be booze. And revelry. Come join us at the Fremont Abbey - doors at 7, reading at 8.


Meanwhile, check out this great article about Filter III from The Stranger's Paul Constant: Party in a Box

See you soon!

We're on Art Zone!

The effervescent Nancy Guppy did a great little blurb about us on Art Zone this week! You should watch the whole thing, but if you are short on time, check us out at 23:40 -

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

Kate Lebo (poetry and non-fiction editor) Kim Drake (designer) and I just got back from a trip to the Rolling Huts. We rode horses, ate barbeque, and stitched together a million more copies of Filter with many other lovely ladies.

It seems we are almost ready for the release party at the Fremont Abbey - see you there!

(You can buy tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/178844 )

 

Full Speed Ahead

We're so hard at work right now that words (and sleep) have escaped me - but thanks to the documentation of David Nixon, you can see what we've been up to. Above = the contents of Filter III. Below, a time-lapse video of one day of working on the farm with 12 of the best volunteers in the world.

Time Lapse Video, Printing the Covers

We letterpress printed covers for 24 hours over 2 days.

Time-lapse video of 3 hours printing the covers of Filter Literary Journal Vol III. at Svc Letterpress. Cover design Fernandez de Leon with printers Jennifer Borges Foster, Stephanie Laursen, David Nixon & Kevin. Music and video by David Nixon.

Building the book

The binding has begun!
This is the first proof, all bound up and awaiting a cover. We have to tweak, coax and change a few things, as this stack of signatures is about an inch too high, but solutions are close at hand with so many good minds on the project.

I'm heading over to The School of Visual Concepts with Fernandez and Sons to begin printing the covers this Sunday, and we are having an assembly party at Smoke Farm next week!

We'll keep posting photos and videos as the books come together.

Hey, why don't you be our friend on facebook? We promise not to send you farmville requests. You can find us here: http://www.facebook.com/FilterLiteraryJournal

And don't forget, our party is right around the corner:

The Filter Vol. III Release Party will be: Friday, June 17^th, 8p.m.at The Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave North, Seattle, WA 98103

An evening of readings from Zachary Schomburg, John Osebold, Stacey Levine, Maged Zaher, Karen Finneyfrock, Ed Skoog, Elizabeth Colen, Elissa Washuta, Susan Rich and Sarah Bartlett . Freshly letterpressed copies of the book will be available for purchase.

It's a Party!

We are in the process of making Filter Vol. III RIGHT NOW!

The Filter Vol. III Release Party will be: Friday, June 17^th, 8p.m.at the Fremont Abbey, 4272 Fremont Ave North, Seattle, WA 98103

An evening of readings from Zachary Schomburg, John Osebold, Stacey Levine, Maged Zaher, Karen Finneyfrock, Ed Skoog, Elizabeth Colen, Elissa Washuta, Susan Rich and Sarah Bartlett . Freshly letterpressed copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Filter Vol. III has arrived. This 3^rd issue of the entirely handmade journal is a box of wonder: The cover has a paint-by-numbers theme, and the box structure is letterpress printed by Kate Fernandez of Fernandez and Sons. The book will be filled with brilliant work in individually bound chapbooks of prose and poetry, with art postcards and posters that you can remove and display.

The contributors in Filter III are:

Yusef Komunyakaa, Zachary Schomburg, Stacey Levine, Amanda Manitach, Maged Zaher, Sharon Arnold, Martha Silano, John Osebold, Rebecca Brown, Counsel Langely, Ed Skoog, Karen Finneyfrock, Sean Ennis, Sarah Mangold, Gala Bent, Rachel Contreni Flynn, David Lasky, Elizabeth Colen, Sandra & Ben Doller, Brandon Shimoda, Ben Beres, Brandon Downing, Sarah Kate Moore, Dan Rosenberg, Susan Rich, Susan Denning, Sid Miller, Sarah Bartlett, Shawn Vestal, Marie-Caroline Moir, Lucy Corin, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Jill McDonough, Jessica Goodfellow, Jessica Bonin, Friedrich Kerksieck , Erika Wilder, Elissa Washuta, David Bartone, Chris Dusterhoff, Britt Ashley, Becca Yenser, Anne Gorrick

Tickets for the Filter release party are on sale now through Brown Paper Tickets. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door, and $5 for students and seniors.

Copies of Filter may be purchased at: tickerfinch.etsy.com

About Filter Literary Journal
Filter is a literary journal made entirely by hand. Each issue contains erasures and other literary art alongside unaltered poetry, fiction and visual art. Filter seeks to represent the work it holds on a visceral level, so that the book is as carefully crafted as the poetry, fiction and art that it contains.

Filter Literary Journal is grateful to 4Culture for their funding and support.

Thanks For Stopping By!

Filter Volume II is effectively sold out. If you are a librarian or other art book collector and you would like a copy, please contact us, we have set aside copies for people just like you.

Being run by an old-timey bookmaker doesn't do much for Filter's web presence, and we apologize for that. This site was set up largely for contributors to choose their copy of the journal, and not so much to be pleasing for the general public. We do understand, however, that the general public does end up here, and we welcome you to look around at the pretty pictures.

More info about Filter Volume II:

Filter is a hand-bound literary journal that features original poetry, prose, art and erasures. The book is sewn together by hand using various colors of waxed Irish Linen thread and an exposed spine binding with a modified button-hole binding technique. End papers are hand torn and come from various sources including Japanese Washi paper, pages from Apgar’s Plant Analysis Adapted to All Botanies (1892) (some of which include the notes, illustrations and actual flower pressings of a Mr. D.A. Powell made in the Spring of 1904), and color plates from Travelling With The Birds (1933). Books feature an accordion-fold erasure booklet made from hand torn Rives Heavyweight paper, each hand printed using 10 separate ink screens and slipped into hand made envelopes created from pages of old books about magic and maps featuring nations that no longer exist. All of the color artwork is tipped in by hand. There are two different cover designs (Aardvark & Aardwolf) by Amy Jean Porter (Jubilat, McSweeny’s). The covers are each screen printed by hand, using 3-4 screens and 7 colors.
List of Contibutors:

Mary Jo Bang, Derek Beaulieu, Jennifer Borges Foster, Matt Briggs, Rebecca Brown, Elizabeth Colen, John Cross, Rachel Davis, Dana Elkun, Emily Kendal Frey, Joanna Fuhrman, Adriana Grant, Carol Guess, Matthea Harvey, Maggie Jackson, Ariana Kelly, Counsel Langley, Kate Lebo, Norman Lock, Erin Malone, Ben Mazer, Brian McGuigan, Tatyana Mishel ,Sierra Nelson, Nico Vassilakis, David Mitsuo Nixon, John Olson, Roberta Olson, John Osebold, Deborah Poe, Amy Jean Porter, Trisha Ready, Bob Redmond, Zach Savich, Amy Schrader, Claudia Smith, Kary Wayson, Deborah Woodard, Corrina Wycoff.

#186 - Taken by Maggie Jackson

#106

#105

#63 (resembles)

Book #63 was not available for a photo, but this book has the same cover and endpapers. 

#62 - Taken

Book #62 was not available for a photo, but this book has the same cover and endpapers.

#101

#56 - Taken by Counsel Langley

Book #56 was not available for a photo, but this book has the same cover and endpapers.

#100

#98 - Taken by Matthea Harvey

#96- Taken by Dana Elkun

#95

#94

#87

#86 - Taken by Deb Poe

#82

#78

#77 - Taken by Nico Vassilakis

#75 - Taken by Mary Jo Bang

#73

#70