Pania Press

Britain's Missing Top Model

2012-01-11T08:05:00.005+13:00

(December 25, 2011) Britain’s Missing Top Model. Poem by Jack Ross. Design by Bronwyn Lloyd. Auckland: Pania Press, 2011.

Jack's Christmas present this year was another artbook project in the tradition of last year's Pale Star or 2006's Wolfman pop-up book. It took the form of a portfolio of cut-up prints of his poem "Britain's Missing Top Model."

You can find details about the project here, at Mosehouse Studio, and a more comprehensive set of images at Works & Days.

Here's a few to be going on with, though:

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[Britain's Missing Top Model winner: Kelly Knox (2008)]

Here's a copy of the original poem:

Britain's Missing Top Model

I've only got
one hand
I'd like to be

a fashion model
Trying on her jeans
she finds a rip

on the morning
of her interview
with the Agency

This day can only go
uphill from here
heroic

nervous to the point
of near-paralysis
she manages to smile

at the brusque no-nonsense
manager
embrace the team

sit quietly while they
critique her
32 23 35

(too hippy)
23 (too old)
& then debate

her fate
cries when they say
they'll represent her

I need to tell my Mum

- Jack Ross (23-7/5/11)

It was based on a British reality TV show, designed as a kind of counterblast to America's Top Model and all its offshoots. The idea (presumably) was to show the cruel discrimination practised by the fashion industry in rejecting all but the most mainstream styles of beauty.

For that reason, each of the contestants had some kind of obvious disability, as you can see in the picture below: one used a wheelchair, one had uncontrollable moodswings, one had issues with balance and mobility, and one (the winner) had a missing hand.

[Britain's Missing Top Model]

The programme's intentions were, I think, good in the main, but the fact that the most ostensibly "normal" of the contestants was the overall winner, made it increasingly resemble a cruel farce as it went along. The others sussed pretty early on that they had no real chance of making it in the fashion industry.

The sheer bravery they displayed in fronting up day after day, and going through the appalling ordeals devised for them was beyond impressive, though. You simply couldn't look away. So don't for a moment think that I'm trying to take the mickey out of them: as far as I'm concerned, every one of them is a bona fide heroine.

Whatever the defects of the programme itself, they showed a courage and poise which far transcended it.

- J.R. (11/1/12)

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Pop Riveter

2011-06-08T11:11:00.006+12:00

Pania Press is very pleased to announce the publication of the poetry chapbook Pop Riveter by Jen Crawford.

When Jack first published this sequence (in a slightly different form) in Poetry NZ 38, this is what he had to say about Jen and her work:

Jen Crawford

Jen Crawford was born in Patea, Taranaki in 1975 and spent her early years in New Zealand and the Philippines. In 1994 she moved to Australia to study and later completed a PhD in Creative Arts through the University of Wollongong, for which she wrote on images of the child in New Zealand literature.

Her first short collection of poetry, ‘tigerbutter’, appeared in the collaboration Fathoms (scarp productions, 1996) alongside work by Australian writers Lucy Alexander and Porsche Herbert-Funk. In 2000 Five Islands Press published her narrative poetry sequence Admissions, which was highly commended in the Anne Elder award and shortlisted for the Dame Mary Gilmore award. Jennifer Harrison said of it in Australian Book Review: “The structure is brilliant.... the poems disintegrate into blocks of raw, pressured thought; time and identity distort.” Her most recent poetry book, Bad Appendix (Titus Books, 2008), has been described in similar terms as “a series of lightning strikes – strobe-like and disconcerting, drawing on the deepest aquifers of human need.”

She has taught English and writing subjects at the University of Auckland, Massey University and the University of Wollongong. Between semesters she works at a range of temporary occupations, including as a factory hand; a couple of recent factory stints gave rise to the “Pop Riveter” sequence. About “Pop Riveter” Jen writes:

These poems are my attempt to acquire a poetics apt in shape and diction to a particular industrial environment. I wanted to respond to certain factory conditions: sensory saturation, procedural monotony, proprietal language, the deceptive temporalities created by the movement loops of manual production and the alternately overlapped and repelling identity orientations created by working collectively as part of a physical function. The poems also record my pleasure and frustration both in this setting and in the people I shared it with.

“Pop Riveter” might perhaps be better seen as a series of pageworks or concrete poems than an attempt at conventional lyricism. One interesting aspect of the poems is the way in which this attempt to evoke directly and literally the pressures of an industrial environment has resulted in work which looks (superficially) very similar to L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry. It’s as if theory and praxis have brought her, by very different paths, to precisely the same destination.

If you give them time I’m sure her poems will end up speaking to you, too.

Since the above was written, Jen has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She's also published another chapbook: Napoleon Swings (Auckland: Soapbox Press, 2009).

Book specifications:

A6 (15cm x 10.5cm)
18 pages
Numbered edition of 30 copies.
Digitally printed text on Popset paper (Ivory) 120gsm.
Each cover is unique and decorated with a handmade collage using Canson card in assorted colours.
Each book comes in a handmade calico bookcloth envelope with a collaged detail.
Price (NZ)$30.00

To place an order for a copy of Pop Riveter, please contact Bronwyn at the email address in the sidebar.

Pale Star

2011-01-18T14:26:00.024+13:00

This is a unique book art project made as a gift for Jack, and inspired by his poem 'Pale Star,' which reads:

Pale Star:
K.M., 1923

(after Xu Zhimo)

Unintentionally imitating Chinese style
her hair was pitch black & straight

Her features seemed to me
like the purest Indian jade

or pristine snow in the Alps
Her brightly-coloured clothes

might have aroused some criticism
had they been worn by anyone else

on her they looked becoming
like green leaves on a flower

Her figure was so fragile
that a man standing beside her

felt his breathing to be too coarse

And here's Jack's account of how the poem came about:

The poet Xu Zhimo (1897-1931) visited Katherine Mansfield only once, shortly before his return to China from Cambridge, where he'd been completing postgraduate studies. The account he wrote of this visit (available in translation in A Fine Pen: The Chinese View of Katherine Mansfield, ed. Shifen Gong (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2001): 117-28), designed as a poignant pen-portrait of the dying beauty, reads - at times - rather more like a French farce, as the poor poet begs and cajoles the watchful Cerberus Middleton Murry to allow him just a couple of minutes alone upstairs with his wife ...

I thought myself exceptionally unlucky. There she was, confined to her own room, into which it seemed that only old friends were allowed. I was a foreigner and a stranger, and it would be impossible for me to gain access. It was now half past ten, and with some reluctance I stood up and said my goodbyes. [122]

Wonder of wonders, at this point Murry relents, saying "with great earnestness: 'If you wish to, you may go upstairs and see her.'

The conversation that follows sounds - to an outside ear, at any rate - extremely perfunctory on KM's part, extremely earnest on Xu Zhimo's.
Most of the time, she was giving her opinion on some of the novelists then popular in England: Rebecca West, Roma Wilson, Hutchinson, Swinnerton and one or two others ... She had always had a respect for China, and now she found herself becoming one of its warm admirers. She said that what she liked best was Chinese poetry in the translations of Arthur Waley ... But she was disappointed with Amy Lowell's translations. In this context she used one of her favourite expressions: 'That's not the thing!'

Towards the end of this brief twenty-minute chat, Mansfield seems to liven up a little, though:

She asked what I was going to do when I returned to China. She hoped I would not get involved in politics. Politics was such a cruel, wicked mess the world over, she said with great indignation.

After that we talked about her own writings. I said that her work was such pure art that it might be beyond the reach of ordinary people.

'That's just it,' she replied. 'Then, of course, popularity is never the thing for us.' [126]

No, indeed. At this point, Mansfield had less than a year to live. As it turned out, Xu Zhimo had an extremely interesting career awaiting him at home. Considered one of China's foremost modern poets, he was also legendary for his love affairs and romantic idealisation of the feminine principle in general.

The picture below comes from a recent movie about the triangle of lovers who dominated his short life:

[April Rhapsody:
The Love Story of Poet Xu Zhimo (1999)]

My own poem is extracted from certain phrases in the 3 or 4 pages of description Xu Zhimo dedicates to eulogising Mansfield's physical appearance and general elegance before even getting to the details of their discussion (another 5 pages are required to give an account of his stay in the Murry's downstairs downstairs drawing-room).

I guess I wanted to get across something of the poet's wonderful innocence and admiration for everything he sees, mixed with his slight reserve and distrust of the Bohemian ways of these radical European artists ...

One can see why (in the words of his Wikipedia entry, cited above) he is regarded "one of the first Chinese writers to successfully naturalize Western romantic forms into modern Chinese poetry", dedicated to "pursuing love, freedom, and beauty" all his life. It's as visible in this article as in the rest of his work.

Nice to see that he's now the hero of a feature film - and hopefully a more successful one than Leave All Fair (1985) ...

- J.R. (19/1/11)

Materials: 300 gsm acid free watercolour paper, wallpaper, Canson cardstock, acid free tissue tape, PVA glue.
Dimensions: 3o.5cm (w) x 21.5cm (h) x 4cm (d)
The text is printed on calico bookcloth using an HP printer.

Further images of the design and construction of the 'Pale Star' picto-poem can be viewed here.

It's also (now) been reproduced on the Katherine Mansfield Society website.

[Leave All Fair]

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Brandywine Bookman's Repository

2011-01-05T10:41:00.010+13:00

[Pania of the Reef (Napier)]

We've just received a very nice review from Australian-based fine printer Jurgen P. Wegner, in the thirtieth issue of his Brandywine Bookman’s repository for Australia & New Zealand [pp.9-10]:

30.4. The Pania Press

What are the limits of the private press or of fine printing today? With the advent of new technologies — or rather, the demise of traditional ones and the fact that it is increasingly difficult to source material and equipment, especially out here in the “colonies” — private printers are adopting a variety of new technologies for their work. A recent Australian private press book, for example, was printed letterpress from polymer plates ... which — so I gather — is quite the done thing nowadays. Is this an indication of the limitations of the private press or a sign of its expanding horizons? Anathema for the purist? But then artists’ book produced by photocopy are old hat ...

I was looking for the name of the chap who prints some rather nice stuff as the Fernbank Studio down in Wellington. Of course, nothing is to be found online. With the welcome serendipity of the Internet I did however find the name mentioned amongst notes of her favourite books on the “blog” of another press — the Pania Press. The press name harks back to her childhood in Hawke’s Bay where there is a bronze statue in Marine Parade of Pania of the Reef, a character from a Maori legend. Proprietor Bronwyn Lloyd is a freelance writer with a Ph.D. from Auckland University. The press is located in Auckland’s seaside suburb of Mairangi Bay “where I spend my time writing, crafting and making limited edition books for Pania Press, a bijoux publishing company that I co-founded with my husband Jack Ross in 2006”.

Note the use of the term “bijoux publishing”. Her website — or rather “blog” — provides a good descriptive listing of the items produced to date. I would have liked to have had some more bibliographical details such as libraries and collectors find useful: how each work is printed, the type of paper used, extent of the item, &c. Lloyd replied to me that “we produce such small numbers, often gift editions for family and friends, so our ‘audience/ market’ is fairly small and intimate and in truth, I hadn’t given much thought to potential collectors [sic]”[1].

The Press’s “blog” shows some of the wide variety of work produced. The texts are mostly fiction — poetry and short stories — though, as with all her publications, there is a great deal of inventiveness and craft involved. Writing about the origins of the Press she says that she and her husband:

“... were talking about how frustrating it was that our talented writer friends were struggling to find publishers. We thought that if we controlled the means of production [sic] then we could publish small editions of their work and get them some visibility. We have a very limited budget and we don’t have access to a printing press or any book-making tools, to speak of, so we opted for a design aesthetic that has handmade elements (stitched covers, hand-binding, screen-printing, collage (etc)) but with a commercially printed text. I source nice papers (normally laid vellum) through my local printer and I teach myself new construction techniques as I go, which is my favourite part of the process”.

And these publications are quite remarkable. Their overall design aesthetic I would regard as craft-based rather than trade, with inspiration from the recently very popular revival of making your own scrapbooks &c &c. From the illustrations provided on the “blog” the texts seem professional enough but the cover designs are really delightful. Each one is an experiment in design and production. I especially like the use of such things as sewing machine stitching not only as part of the design but as a means of creating whole illustrations[2]. An example of the latter is in the covers for Jack Ross’ Love in wartime[3]. Produced in a limited edition of 30 signed copies, each of the 10 specials has its own sewn illustration from cup and saucer to flower pot motif[4]. Another favourite technique is collage and a further work by Ross produced last year, Silhouette[5], is also comprised of unique copies with each illustrated with a collage of vintage fabric samples as well as fashion cuts from issues of 1950s Ladies home journal.

Other works include a collage of wallpaper and also one with a key! A favourite interest and illustration process is the pop-up (or pop-out) book. These range from a simple abstract design as found in Katharina Jaeger’s Fold[6] to the more complex constructions as for Jorge Luis Borges’ The minotaur[7] with its fine, fold-out series of steps and other protrusions. Then there is the extraordinary Notes found inside a text of ‘Bisclavret’ as well as a “wine box” theatre. And even an artists’ “book”: an edition of Guillaume Apollinaire’s Je donne à mon espoir[8] in a limited edition of 21 copies. Further craft/art information is available at her: http://mosehouse.blogspot.com/. Check out the websites and buy the books! The Pania Press titles are distributed through Parson’s bookshop in Auckland.

Name: Pania Press
Contact: Bronwyn Lloyd
Address: 2/5 Hastings Rd., Mairangi Bay, North Shore City 0630, Auckland, N.Z.
Email: bmlloyd@xtra.co.nz
Website: http://paniapress.blogspot.com/
Catalogue website: http://paniapress.blogspot.com/2008/02/catalogue.html

1. This and the following quotation is from an email to me from Bronwyn Lloyd dated 27/11/2010.
2. Ever since my own experimental portfolio of P.J. Proudhon’s What is government (Sydney : Blackdawn Press, 1986) which used a ripped and torn collage of papers, tickets, forms, &c, and sewing machine stitching for illustrations.
3. Jack Ross, Love in wartime, Wellington, Pania Press, 2007, (Pania chapbook; 1). Limited edition of 30 signed copies.
4. As above but a special “limited gift edition” produced in 2006.
5. Jack Ross, Silhouette, Auckland, Pania Press, 2010. A4, signed and numbered edition of 12; sold out.
6. Katharina Jaeger, Fold, Auckland, Pania Press, 2008, (Pania artbooks; 2). Includes an essay by Bronwyn Lloyd titled: The half-life of haberdashery; sold out.
7. Jorge Luis Borges, The minotaur, translated by Jack Ross from the poem Laberinto, Auckland, Pania Press, 2009, (Pania peculiars; 2). Fold-out pop-up in a hand-printed slipcase; edition of 21 copies; sold out.
8. Guillaume Apollinaire, Je donne à mon espoir, translated by Jack Ross, Auckland, Pania Press, 2009, (Pania peculiars; 1). Hand-written text with hand-printed imagery on deckle-edge cotton rag paper in slipcase; edition of 21 copies with 7 for sale at NZ$25.

[Statue and original (1954)]

I guess it's understandable that he finds it odd that we haven't put in full details, measurements, details of printing, etc. with each new title. The collector's market is, after all, the one we're most likely to access in the future. It's a good point, and one we'll certainly take notice of from now on.

As a book designer and printer himself, Jurgen Wegner seems to appreciate Bronwnyn's design innovations more than the actual texts of the books we've produced. His write-up is so positive overall, though, that there seems little place for misplaced author's vanity. Bronwyn's handcrafted covers and other design features are the innovative aspect of Pania Press, and it's nice to have this pointed out so unequivocally.

Thanks, Jurgen! I hope your own endeavours continue to flourish! A complete run of your newsletters would no doubt be extremely valuable in itself. I see the Australian National Library itself boasts only a partial set ...

- Jack Ross

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Michele Leggott's Northland

2010-09-14T10:25:00.013+12:00

Pania Press is proud to announce the appearance of its latest publication: Michele Leggott's new poetry collection Northland, available in a numbered, limited edition of seventy-five copies.

The chapbook contains five poems, and is dedicated to Susan Davis, Frances Edmond and Judith Binney.

Here's the table of contents:

spirits bay
listening
fat buds
degli angeli
never dreaming

And here's a sample poem:

Michele says of the book:

Nobody knows for sure who brought the first rose to Northland but chances are it came with the westerlies that blew everything else from Port Jackson (Sydney) to the Bay of Islands in the early 1800s. Certainly there were sweetbriar plants at Rangihoua, and their marvellous history of appearance and disappearance is part of what drew us north towards the end of last year. Once there we found ourselves footstepping other travellers: Robin Hyde (Iris Wilkinson) who got as far as Spirits Bay in 1937; the prophet TW Ratana who spent a night on the cliffs above Te Reinga before the lighthouse was built; and the poet Leigh Davis who spent as much time as he could at Whale Bay before his untimely death on 3 October 2009 ...

The books cost $55 each, and can be ordered either by leaving address details (which can be done completely confidentially) in the comments section of this blog, or by writing to Pania Press at 2/5 Hastings Rd, Mairangi Bay, Auckland. We charge full postage costs for overseas addresses, but postage within New Zealand is free.

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A nice notice here from Helen Rickerby on her blog Winged Ink (30/1/11):

Northland, by Michele Leggott (5/52)

Northland is a gorgeous hand-made book from Pania Press (Jack Ross and Bronwyn Lloyd). I was keen to get my paws on a copy because it's about, or perhaps rather set in, the same areas as my book Heading North. Northland is a gorgeously produced book, and it was lovely revisiting some of these places in poetry. I think my favourite of the poems was 'listening', with the repeated line at the end of the three stanzas 'unwinding the bird in my throat'.

Thanks, Helen! We've both been enjoying the latest publication from your own publishing house Seraph Press, Vivienne Plumb's Crumple ...

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Silhouette

2010-03-16T10:55:00.005+13:00

Cover Image & design: Bronwyn Lloyd

Our latest publication is called Silhouette. It's designed by Bronwyn, to a poem by Jack, reflecting our joint passion for Project Runway on TV. It's a big book, A4-sized, and very tactile (as you can see from the images below):

You can find more samples at Mosehouse Studio, along with the full text of the poem.

Remember, though (in keeping with our design aesthetic), that every copy will be subtly different: different cutouts, different lines - each numbered and unique.

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The Argo and The Wahine

2010-01-04T09:56:00.014+13:00

I guess you might have been wondering what had become of us. I'm glad to be able to announce, then, that Pania Press is back - with a Christmas gift book, The Argo & The Wahine, and lots of exciting book projects planned for 2010, which we will tell you about very soon. In the spirit of giving, each of the 30 copies in the edition are spoken for, but our next batch of publications will be available for sale either through Parsons, our favourite bookshop, or directly through us.

As you can see, each copy has its own unique handmade cover, and a text made up of a story by Bronwyn Lloyd and five poems by me, Jack. In keeping with the maritime theme, they've been bound in seagreen cardboard, with blue dustjackets and the text printed on cream paper.

The books have a extra special significance for us, though, as they commemorate Bronwyn's father's death in the middle of last month. Rest in Peace, Peter.

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New Titles

2009-05-16T09:37:00.018+12:00

The Minotaur
by Jack Ross
a translation of 'Laberinto'
by Jorge Luis Borges
Pania Press
April 2009

A limited edition of 21 copies 40cm x 8cm with hand printed slipcase. Available in a choice of two colourways: light-grey on yellow ground and green on charcoal ground.

Price: NZ $75.00

je donne a mon espoir
(after Apollinaire)
translated by Jack Ross
Pania Press
April 2009

A limited edition of 21 copies 8cm x 11cm, Hand written text with hand printed imagery on deckle edge cotton rag paper and hand printed slipcase.

Price: NZ $25.00

(only seven copies remaining)

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The Minotaur

2008-11-08T08:35:00.016+13:00

Here's the completed prototype for the pop-up 'Minotaur'. An account of the final stages of its construction can be found here.

I'm working on some other unusual prototypes at the moment which will be posted here shortly. In the New Year I'll begin the process of making small editions of our first batch of 'Pania Peculiars' for sale.

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Pania goes 3D

2008-08-06T09:09:00.040+12:00

A selection of Pania Press titles 2007-09

Despite the four month hiatus in Pania Press posts, exciting developments are afoot, so I want to offer you a preview of a range of projects that are underway in preparation for our next cluster of publications.

But first a little back story:

The Christmas before last I decided to make Jack a special book so I set about making an ambitious pop-up book adaptation of his very strange and dark werewolf story, "Notes found inside a text of Bisclavret." I saw that the narrative had a huge amount of pop-up potential with its tale of transformation from man into beast and interior and exterior scenes of castles and forests. The only problem was that I didn't know the first thing about paper engineering. But when I was gathering up the weekly paper recycle for rubbish day I noticed that a lot of cardboard packaging employs collapsible technology which is of course the central principle behind effective pop-up design. I salvaged the cardboard separator from a wine box and a number of six-pack carriers and spent a lot of time thinking about what I could do with them. This was the result:

The protagonist of the story is a noble baron married to a wealthy heiress. Unfortunately he transforms into a wolfman for three nights of every week. In order to prevent his wife from learning his terrible secret he hides in the forest and preys on other creatures until he turns back into a man, retrieves his clothing hidden beneath a stone by an old chapel, and returns home to his wife. Naturally she wonders where he gets to and suspecting that he is having an affair implores him to reveal his secret. When he tells her the truth he also discloses that should his clothing ever be taken from the hiding place then he would remain a werewolf forever. His fickle wife, who is in love with another man, immediately realises that this is the opportunity to rid herself of her husband. When he disappears the following week she commands her lover to steal away his clothes. He willingly does so, her husband never returns, and after a short period of mourning, the wife and her lover are married.

[The Chapel in the Woods]

I used the corner and first two slots of a beer carton for the pop-up mechanism and I found the perfect image of a lovely old chapel in a magazine and made a collaged forest backdrop from photocopies of illustrations by Gustave Doré.

The wolf is captured by a royal hunting party but the king immediately recognises that this is no ordinary beast. Our hero becomes a faithful pet, lives in the castle and sleeps at the King's side. But when the King holds a lavish banquet to which all the barons of his fiefs are invited, the knight who had married the baron's wife arrives and the wolf savagely lunges at him. The King is so surprised by his behaviour that the following day he returns to the forest where the wolf was captured to see if he could gather any clues that might explain the wolf's uncharacteristic display of aggression towards the knight. The baron's former wife, hearing that the King's party have made camp in the woods near her home, gets dressed up and takes a lavish gift to present to the King. Upon seeing his wife again the wolf is consumed by rage, attacks her and bites off her nose. The wise King puts two and two together and remembers that the woman used to be married to the noble baron who mysteriously vanished. She is forced under duress to confess her crime against her husband and return the baron's clothes. The wolf becomes a man again and the king restores his estate and riches to him and banishes the wife and her second husband from the kingdom. In a far off land she gives birth to a number of children but her line is cursed forever - all are born without a nose.

[Interior Rooms]

For the second pop-up I wanted to convey the idea of the hidden self so I used the maze like-structure of the wine box insert to create a series of interior spaces with another photocopied backdrop, this time the drawing room of a stately English home. The three front panels show a mirror that reveals nothing, a portrait of the baron's wife and a portrait of the baron. When an actual mirror is placed behind each of the portraits the dark soul of the wife is revealed (a drawing by Alberto Giacometti) as is the tortured state of our Wolfman hero (an Edward Munch Self-portrait).

Dark Soul

Those of you familiar with Jack's stories will know that straightforward narratives are not his thing and the Bisclavret story is no exception. The original story in French runs alongside the English translation and this is joined by a third, much stranger text, told as a sequence of marginal notes written by a 21 year old anorexic woman. The connection between the two characters, the wolfman in the main story, and the young woman writing the secondary text, is that both of their physical afflictions involve bodily transformation. Along with the obvious physical emaciation, one of the known side effects of anorexia is the development of a fine covering of hair over the face and body, called lanugo, which is a protective mechanism built-in to the body to help keep a person warm during periods of starvation and malnutrition.

The story written in the margins of the primary text is about a woman who takes two abandoned foundlings into her home even though she recognises from the start that the boy and girl are no ordinary children. The observations of the household staff confirm her suspicions: the way they tear at their food snarling and biting like wolves, their rough play, and obsession with hiding. They take to sleeping with the woman at night and she welcomes the maternal sensation that this unlocks in her. When her husband returns home, disheveled and grubby, after one of his frequent unexplained absences she reflects on the state of their marriage - that but for his absences she could love him still and on her tragic inability to bear him a child apart from the curious cub-like foetus that she had miscarried. To save her marriage she invites her husband back into the marital bed, they make love, but when she wakes in the half-light she finds herself alone. She looks out the window and sees her husband with the children crouched at his side making their way towards the dark forest. In the dream that follows she is one with them, among her family of wolves in the woods but in reality she must always wake alone inside her castle.

[Castle: Exterior / Interior]

In the final pop-up I wanted to create a sense of the woman's solitude and the absence of her werewolf family. I used the remainder of the six-pack carton to construct an incremental pop-up using photocopied magazine images of a wooded garden with stone steps leading off into the bush, the exterior of the castle, a curved interior stairway and a bedroom with an empty but slept-in bed.

When I took the book to a specialist book binder in Cuba Street to have a nice clothbound cover made for it the man took one look, laughed out loud and pretty much told me not to waste my money. That was a bit demoralising but on my way home I saw an oversized antique key in a shop window. I bought it, crudely bound the book in corrugated card, and stitched the key onto the cover for dramatic effect.

[Cover]

So there it was - my first pop-up book and Jack loved it. My sister Therese, who had seen the labour involved in putting it together and never once complained about the piles of cardboard debris around our flat, gave me a fantastic pop-up Alice in Wonderland for Christmas. Designed by Robert Sabuda, the undisputed modern master of paper-engineering, it has six main pop-ups of various scenes from the story but each page has a smaller insert with at least three more pop-ups.

Every technique under the sun is used in the book. There are concertina and tunnel pop-ups and countless figures that change from one thing into another, even the Queen of Hearts' roses change from white to red as you lift the page. The final page is breathtaking in its complexity as the deck of cards fall down on Alice's head and she awakens from her dream.

I could see that I was in danger of developing an obsession with pop-up books but instead of going out and buying a whole lot of them I decided that I would continue to make more of my own.

That's the end of the back story. It wasn't so little as it turns out but if you're still interested I'd like to show you a few of the 3d prototypes and projects that I've been making more recently.

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As a Christmas present for Michele Leggott last year I made a pop-up stairway to accompany a lovely stanza extracted from her poetic sequence 'hello and goodbye':

when I walk sea waves
as I turn glass mallets
and turn again wind chimes
sleeping with the last track
climbing the stairs in the dark

You can find the full text here.

[Michele's Card]

I really like the simplicity of the form and the optical illusion created by the contrasting card underneath that makes it look as if the tops of the steps are red.

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A few months ago my artist friend Katharina Jaeger asked if I would write an essay to accompany her exhibition at Campbell Grant Galleries in Christchurch in May. I've been a fan of Katharina's work since she exhibited at Lopdell House a few years ago when I used to work there as a curator. She works mainly with textiles and soft sculpture but instead of taking a soft approach to the medium, Katharina's art has a dark, sinister and disturbing side, which I like a lot. She creates strange taxidermic environments filled with stuffed, sheathed, sutured, draped, elasticised, and dangling objects that get under your skin. ‘I enjoy that haberdashery can be so mean’, she wrote to me recently and I have to say that this idea intrigued me a great deal.

In her latest exhibition, Fold, Katharina created an installation using ornate footstools, tables, and a box of broken pieces of antique furniture. She made fabric shrouds for the disembodied fragments and dangled them from the gallery ceiling and for the freestanding four-legged pieces she made swollen amorphous fabric forms that rose from the surfaces of the tables and footrests as if the objects were coming to life.

[Katharina Jaeger]

In response to Katharina's exhibition I wrote an essay titled 'The half-life of haberdashery', and printed it as a limited edition (30 copies) hand-stitched A5 catalogue. By way of a folded response to the haunted half-life of Katharina's Fold I made a slightly creepy two-piece pop-up form in the back of the catalogue that expands and breathes as you open it.

When Jack and I were talking recently about the various possibilities for future Pania Press publications we came up with the idea of starting a range of different series that could be added to over time. We'd already produced two poetry chapbooks, two art catalogues, and an anthology of stories and poems but we were keen to keep Pania Press fresh and expand our enterprise in new and interesting ways. We've come up with ideas for three new series so far:

Pania Peculiars:

An outlet for the more extreme end of fiction, poetry and art book publication. Our only proviso for the 'Peculiars' is that the darker and weirder the material is the better. Although it's a one-off I think we'd probably categorise the Wolfman pop-up book as our first 'Peculiar'. Interestingly, when we took the book down off the shelf to show to a friend recently two large mason bees flew out of the spine. Being the superstitious souls that we are we think that might be some kind of portent but we're not quite sure of what!

Pania Singles:

In this series we will be working with single poems or short stories that have design or illustrative potential. Jack's translation of the Jorge Luis Borges poem, 'laberinto' [Labyrinth] is our first experiment. Here's the poem:

The Minotaur

There'll never be a door. You're stuck inside.
These sunken casemates are the universe,
all the universe of signs: forward, reverse,
no centre to the web, no world outside.
Don't think the insane precision of your game,
monotonously counting every turn,
monotonously counting every turn,
will save you. The result will be the same.
Stop looking forward to the bloody charge
of the beast who is a man, who is your double,
whose shadow punctuates this seamless puzzle
of rubber walls contracted to a cage.
He isn't there. You're fucked. You'd better learn
not to expect the dark thrust of his horn.

Here's the prototype 'Minotaur':

[Minotaur Concertina Book]

I've divided the poem into four pop-up spreads. The first is a series of sunken casemates. The second is a trio of floating stairs. The third looks at the concept of the double and features a pair of contracting cage or mask forms. The fourth spread is a group of geometric shapes that on second glance form the face of the horned Minotaur. The book will either be assembled as a concertina format with a hand printed maze on the backing card or it will be bound as a carousel book that folds around on itself to create a labyrinthine effect.

Pania Play scripts:

The beauty of having such a diverse and prolific writer in the family is that I never have to look far for inspiration for my next prototype and I never quite know what Jack is working on at any given moment. It shouldn't have come as any surprise when he presented me with the script for his first play a couple of months ago. I'd told Jack about two wine box puppet theatres that I'd made as presents for my nieces and nephews - an adaptation of Petrouchka and a children's version of my favourite Italo Calvino story, The Baron in the Trees. My description of the two theatres obviously made an impression on him because he went off and wrote an adaptation of the Greek drama The Oresteia by Aeschylus - only Jack's version is called The Puppet Oresteia. The narrators are two children, Gene and Rusty, who are rehearsing a puppet show of The Oresteia that they intend to perform for their family.

Gene, Rusty's older sister, has obviously been reading up on Greek Mythology, because she's updated the play considerably to include a lot of commentary on her mother and father's recent divorce, the Iraq war, and a number of other things. She's also incorporated Euripides' two plays about King Agamemnon's eldest daughter Iphigenia into the plot, and these serve as bookends for the vicious family bloodletting which is the focus of Aeschylus's play.

It's important to remember that what we're watching is only a dress rehearsal, as it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the family are going to shut down the eventual performance of this very disturbing drama about five minutes in (as King Claudius does with the play within the play in Hamlet).

Our idea is to publish the playscript with images of the wine box theatre complete with its various scenes and puppet characters in action reproduced on the facing pages.

Here's an extract from the play:

Scene 3: The Palace at Mycenae [night]
Jacuzzi (exterior)
the queen, her lover & her son / Clytemnestra, Aegisthus & Orestes:

Gene: You were great as Daddy … as Agamemnon, Rusty. You do him much better than me.

Rusty: Thanks. You don’t think he’ll mind?

Gene: Nah. Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke, anyway. This next bit is a bit complicated, though – you’ve got to do both guys, Aegisthus and Orestes. Even when they’re talking to each other.

Rusty: Should I do it in different voices?

Gene: Yeah. Your own voice for Orestes, and that pompous, self-satisfied one of yours for Uncle Al – Aegisthus. I’ll stick with Clytemnestra …

That little bitch screamed like a stuck pig. Some prophet she was! She ran like a rabbit and fought like a mountain lion.

Aegisthus: Did you kill her?

Clytemnestra: Of course I killed her. Unless you know of any way of surviving having your throat slit from ear to ear, that is?

Aegisthus: Har de-har har. Very funny.

Clytemnestra: So much blood!

Aegisthus: Well, what did you expect? Did you think he’d just slip gracefully out of the picture, leaving a sigh and a faint odour of roses?

Clytemnestra: No, but … fuck, what a mess!

Aegisthus: You were going to say it’ll take a while to clean up, weren’t you?

Clytemnestra: No! Though .. Why would that be such a stupid thing to say? I mean, you don’t have to wash the clothes – or the floors, for that matter …

Aegisthus: Neither do you.

Here's the wine box theatre with five tiered scenery backdrops that are removed one at a time as the action unfolds:

[The Puppet Theatre]

In keeping with the plot, the design challenge was to make the theatre look like a child had made it - which wasn't hard for me because I can't draw to save my life so my art and craft projects always have a naïve quality about them. So there's the update from Pania Press. Lots of fun 3D projects on the boil so standby over the next wee while as we go into production and turn these prototypes into gorgeous finished objects.

- Bronwyn Lloyd

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Orange Roughy Sold Out!

2008-03-22T10:50:00.014+13:00

[cover design by Graham Fletcher]

The Orange Roughy launch two weeks ago, on Sunday 9th of March, was a great success by any standards.

[Before: setting up the garden]

Michele Leggott spoke briefly about the book, and then gave it a ritual send-off with a touch from her ceremonial tokotoko Poet Laureate's staff. Bronwyn read out a lovely, heartfelt message from Thérèse in Iowa -- and then the rest of us relaxed in the sun, eating, talking and drinking wine. Oh, and a fair number of books appear to have got sold as well.

[During: Michele Leggott & Bronwyn Lloyd launch the book]

Since then, the orders have been coming in thick and fast. Top of the selling pyramid would have to be Peter and Margaret Lloyd of Christchurch (25+), narrowly followed by Greg Lloyd and his able lieutenants Sheryl and Fiona (20+).

[After: Michele in conversation with (l-r):
Greg & Mike Lloyd, Mark Fryer, & Margot Lloyd]

[photographs 1,3 & 4 by June Ross/ 2 & 5 by Greg Lloyd]

On the one hand this is very good news. The whole idea was to make some money very very fast to send to America. On the other hand, I'm afraid we'll have to disappoint those of you who've been putting off ordering a copy.

I'm sorry. We would have held some back if we'd foreseen quite such a rush, but the combination of individually screen-printed, hand-coloured covers with such a star-studded line-up of writers, has proved irresistible.

I know you thought I was exaggerating when I urged you to get in quickly, but they really have all gone now. Better luck next time, with our long-anticipated editio princeps of Michele Leggott's poetry chapbook hello and goodbye ...

Here's the text of Tazey's message:

Hello Orange Roughians!

Thank you so so much to everyone who has come along to today’s launch of Orange Roughy – Poems for Tazey.

It’s an incredible feeling to know that there are all these lovely folk gathered together to celebrate the launch of this gorgeous Pania Press book.

I don’t want to sound like I’m giving an Oscar acceptance speech, but I really do want to say thank you to everybody involved, but a few people in particular.

Thank you to all the contributors who so graciously offered their wonderful words to this book. It’s humbling indeed to have my poems nestled alongside Michele Leggott’s, Bernadette Hall’s, Bill Manhire’s, Michael Steven’s, Emma Neale’s and …well, I won’t list all the authors because that would take too long … you can read all their marvelous contributions once you’ve purchased at least two copies of the book each!

A big thank you to Graham Fletcher for his cover design and exquisite drawings throughout, and for donating so much of his time over the past few weeks, screen-printing and, get this, hand painting all the little orange bricks on the cover!
What a hero!

Thank you very much to John and June Ross for hosting what is I’m sure a very lovely afternoon tea in their garden.

But most of all I want to say thank you to Bonze (sorry, Bronwyn) and Jack.

What started out as a needy call home for some financial aid, has resulted in the most amazing display of creativity, generosity, sheer hard work and incredible tenacity.

I only know of a smidgen of the long hours and hard work that Bonze and Jack put into this production, but I think it’s such an overwhelmingly generous project and I can’t thank them enough for dedicating so much of their time to this book, and for being so totally awesome (or aaah-sim, as they say here).

I wish I could be there to help celebrate, but I’m definitely there in spirit.

New Zealanders rock!

Loads of love and gratitude to you all

Tazey

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Orange Roughy Launch

2008-02-21T10:25:00.015+13:00

[design by Graham Fletcher]

This is an invitation to Pania Press's very first

BOOKLAUNCH

at

No. 6 Hastings Rd,
Mairangi Bay
North Shore City
Auckland

from 2 to 4 pm
on Sunday 9th March

And what's the book?

Orange Roughy: Poems & Stories for Tazey

is an anthology of poetry and fiction, including contributions by the following writers and artists:

Martin Edmond
Graham Fletcher
Bernadette Hall
Michele Leggott
Bronwyn Lloyd
Thérèse Lloyd
Bill Manhire
Emma Neale
Susannah Poole
Tessa Rain
Richard Reeve
Jack Ross
Tracey Slaughter
Michael Steven
Damien Wilkins

And why are we so anxious to sell this particular title? The text on the bookmark below explains the precise circumstances...

“Better than a sausage sizzle in front of the Warehouse”
– Damien Wilkins

It’s not always that easy for a young writer to make ends meet, especially when she’s far away from home. When we heard that our beloved Thérèse (Tazey to her friends), in Iowa on the 2007-8 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship, was having difficulty paying the bills, we weren’t (unfortunately) able just to write her out a cheque.

Instead we came up with this idea. Why not mobilise all of Tazey’s friends and writing mentors throughout both islands, and ask them to contribute to this little festschrift / anthology?

The response has been fantastic! The book we’ve put together includes unpublished or uncollected work from many of New Zealand’s foremost writers, as well as a stunning set of pageworks by artist Graham Fletcher.

Thanks, then, to all of the contributors, and to everyone who buys the book. Since all of us have donated our time and work for free, you can feel confident that every penny of the money will be going to a very worthy cause.

– Jack Ross & Bronwyn Lloyd.

Yes, it's a fundraiser. So, while of course we intend to wine and dine you in style, we would appreciate it if you came along with that in mind. Nobody involved in this project has taken a cent from it -- all the proceeds, not just all the profits -- are going to Therese in Iowa, so we're really anxious to sell as many of these fine books as possible, at the very reasonable price of $25 each.

More to the point, if you can't make it to the launch, send money or a cheque to Pania HQ and we'll be very happy to dispatch as many copies as you like of the book, post-free within NZ, for exactly the same price. Come on, you know you want it!

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Catalogue

2008-02-06T10:05:00.037+13:00

Here’s the backlist of Pania Press publications, which we’ll be keeping updated from now on.

Please note that our postal address has shifted from Wellington. We're now at:

Pania Press
2/5 Hastings Rd
Mairangi Bay
North Shore City 0630
Auckland

The way to order books (and make general enquiries) remains the same, though. You can either leave a comment at the bottom of any page on this blog, or alternatively email us at:

bmlloyd@xtra.co.nz

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In Stock:

[12] Michele Leggott, Northland (2010) [$NZ 55]
[5] Jack Ross, Papyri (2007) [$NZ 45]
[4] Graham Fletcher, The Eternals (2007) [$NZ 75]
[2] Thérèse Lloyd, many things happened (2007) [$NZ 45]
[1] Jack Ross, Love in Wartime (2007) [$NZ 45]

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Latest Title:

[15]

Britain's Missing Top Model

Poem by Jack Ross

Design by Bronwyn Lloyd

(Pania Press, December 2011)

Pania Artist's Books 3:
Gift edition of 10 copies,
A4-sized

[unavailable]

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Backlist:

14 - Jen Crawford. Pop Riveter. Auckland: Pania Press, June 2011.

Description:

Pania Chapbooks 5: A6-sized poetry chapbook. Numbered, limited edition of 30 copies.

[sold out]

•

13 - Jack Ross. Pale Star. Auckland: Pania Press, January 2011.

Description:

Pania Artist's Books 2: A4-sized diorama with poem.

[unavailable]

•

12 - Michele Leggott. Northland. 5 Poems by Michele Leggott. Auckland: Pania Press, September 2010.

Description:

Pania Chapbooks 4: B4-sized poetry chapbook. Numbered, limited edition of 75 copies.

[copies available, for $NZ 55.00 each]

•

11 - Jack Ross. Silhouette. A Poem by Jack Ross. Auckland: Pania Press, New Year 2010.

Description:

Pania Peculiars 3: A4-sized chapbook, each page handmade and unique. Signed, numbered edition of 12 copies.

[sold out]

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10 - Bronwyn Lloyd & Jack Ross. The Argo & The Wahine. A Story by Bronwyn Lloyd, with 5 Poems by Jack Ross. Auckland: Pania Press, Christmas 2009.

Description:

Pania Samplers 2: A5-sized chapbook, each with a unique handmade cover. Signed, numbered edition of 30 copies.

[sold out]

•

9 - Jorge Luis Borges. The Minotaur. Translated by Jack Ross from the poem "Laberinto." Auckland: Pania Press, April 2009.

Description:

Pania Peculiars 2: 40cm x 8cm-sized fold-out pop-up in a hand-printed slipcase. Edition of 21 copies.

[sold out]

•

8 - Guillaume Apollinaire. je donne a mon espoir. Translated by Jack Ross. Auckland: Pania Press, April 2009.

Description:

Pania Peculiars 1: 8cm x 11cm, hand written text with hand printed imagery on deckle edge cotton rag paper with slipcase. Edition of 21 copies.

[sold out]

•

7 - Katharina Jaeger. Fold. With Bronwyn Lloyd's essay, "The half-life of haberdashery." Auckland: Pania Press, May 2008.

Description:

Pania Artbooks 2: A5-sized, 8-page Exhibition Catalogue, each with a pop-up 'breathing' form and a photograph of Katharina's work.

[sold out]

•

6 - Orange Roughy: Poems & Stories for Tazey. Edited by Bronwyn Lloyd & Jack Ross. ISBN 978-0-473-13179-1. Auckland: Pania Press, February 2008.

Description:

Pania Samplers 1: A5-sized, 76-page anthology, with cover and pageworks by Graham Fletcher, and new pieces by many of New Zealand’s foremost writers, including Martin Edmond, Bernadette Hall, Michele Leggott, Bill Manhire & Damien Wilkins.

[sold out]

•

5 - Jack Ross. Papyri: Love poems & fragments from Sappho & elsewhere. (limited gift edition of 20 copies). Auckland: Pania Press, November 2007.

Description:

Pania Chapbooks 3: A5-sized, 20-page poetry chapbooks, each with a unique hand-drawn cover.

[7 copies available, for $NZ 45.00 each]

•

4 - Graham Fletcher. The Eternals. With Bronwyn Lloyd’s essay, "Tar-Babies and Taboos," and a chronology of Graham's work to date. Auckland: Pania Press, October 2007.

Description:

Pania Artbooks 1: A4-sized, 20-page Exhibition Catalogue, each with an original drawing by the artist of each sculpture in the exhibition.

[3 copies available, for $NZ 75.00 each]

•

3 - Jack Ross. Notes found inside a Text of 'Bisclavret'. Auckland: Pania Press, Christmas 2006.

Description:

Pania Artist's Books 1: A4-sized, 20-page cardboard pop-up book.

[unavailable]

•

2 - Thérèse Lloyd. many things happened (signed edition of 30 copies). Wellington: Pania Press, January 2007.

Description:

Pania Chapbooks 2: A5-sized, 20-page poetry chapbooks, each with a unique handmade cover.

[3 copies available, for $NZ 45.00 each]

•

2 (a) - Thérèse Lloyd. many things happened (limited gift edition of 13 copies). Wellington: Pania Press, December 2006.

Description:

A5-sized, 20-page poetry chapbook, with a unique handmade cover.

[unavailable]

•

1 - Jack Ross. Love in Wartime (signed edition of 30 copies). Wellington: Pania Press, January 2007.

Description:

Pania Chapbooks 1: A5-sized, 20-page poetry chapbooks, each with a unique handmade cover.

[2 copies available, for $NZ 45.00 each]

•

1(a) - Jack Ross. Love in Wartime (limited gift edition of 10 copies). Wellington: Pania Press, December 2006.

Description:

A5-sized, 20-page poetry chapbook, with a unique, hand-sewn cover.

[unavailable]

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Christmas again

2007-12-11T08:49:00.003+13:00

Here's Bronwyn, last Christmas, arranging the first set of Pania Press books for signing by Therese and myself in the flat in Grant Rd, Thorndon.

A year later, in Auckland, we've just put out another gift edition, this time of my Sappho versions, entitled Papyri: Love poems & fragments from Sappho & elsewhere. This time it's to celebrate our marriage, in the registry office in Albert Street, on the 23rd of November (a very happy event!).

If you're curious to sample the texts of the poems, you can check them out here. If you'd like to purchase another version of the book, Michael Steven's Soapbox Press edition is still on sale, and can be ordered from here.

Here's a sample of one of Bronwyn's exquisite hand-drawn covers:

So Merry Christmas to all Pania's friends and supporters over the last year. Watch this space for many more exciting publications and developments in 2008!

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The Eternals (Graham Fletcher)

2007-10-08T08:40:00.002+13:00

Pania Press's third publication (and first Art Catalogue) is now out - and available for purchase through this website.

The price is $75 (postage is included within New Zealand).

For this you'll receive an A4-sized, 20-page catalogue, with a cover designed and screen-printed by Graham Fletcher, in a protective handmade envelope/slipcase.

The book contains Bronwyn Lloyd's original essay, "Tar-Babies and Taboos," and a chronology of Graham's work to date.

EVERY COPY ALSO INCLUDES A UNIQUE, ORIGINAL DRAWING BY THE ARTIST !

That's the reason why this edition has had to be limited to 45 copies - signed and numbered by the artist. Each drawing is based on a particular sculpture on display at Graham's show "The Eternals," at the Anna Bibby Gallery (Newmarket, Auckland) from 2-26 October 2007.

Here's a sample of one of the drawings:

You can see another sample here.

You can order a copy either by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, or by writing directly to Pania Press at:

2/5 Hastings Road
Mairangi Bay
North Shore City 0630
Auckland

Cheques should be made payable to Pania Press.

We can also arrange direct bank account transfers on request.

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Love in Wartime (commercial edition)

2007-01-24T16:24:00.003+13:00

As promised in our blog entry for the gift edition, Jack Ross's poem sequence Love in Wartime is now available for purchase in a signed, limited edition of thirty copies.

Once again, each copy is unique, having a cover sewn individually by Bronwyn Lloyd.

The books cost $45 each, and can be ordered either by leaving address details (which can be done completely confidentially) in the comments section of this blog, or by writing to the Pania Press at 43b Grant Rd, Thorndon, Wellington. Full postage will be charged for overseas addresses.

The contents of the chapbook are as follows:

Carl sniffed
1 – Porphyry skyline
2 – Rhinoceros
3 – Entering the world again
SEX is natural
4 – Bright Flowers
5 – You just don’t have the sympathy
6 – Stops when you watch it

A sample poem is included in the entry above .

•

many things happened

2007-01-24T15:40:00.003+13:00

Pania Press's second publication is Therese Lloyd's debut collection of poems, many things happened, available in a signed, limited edition of thirty copies.

Therese will be off to America in mid-2007, having been awarded a year-long fellowship to study at Iowa university's International Writing Programme, as a result of her year doing a Masters in Creative Writing at Bill Manhire's International Institute of Modern Letters.

Congratulations, Therese! It's great to be able to offer our readers this opportunity to purchase a selection of her work before she leaves New Zealand for who knows how long ...

Each book is unique, the covers having been individually sewn by Bronwyn Lloyd (as in the earlier gift edition of thirteen copies -- now, alas, exhausted).

The books cost $45 each, and can be ordered either by leaving address details (which can be done completely confidentially) in the comments section of this blog, or by writing to the Pania Press at 43b Grant Rd, Thorndon, Wellington. Full postage will be charged for overseas addresses.

Here's the table of contents for the ten poems included in the chapbook:

The Word Tin
King Canute
Forecast
The Family Man
Fallot’s Tetralogy
Feeding the Rats
Above the Auto-dismantler Shop
many things happened
Gorecki’s Third
For Hira

We've also included this sample of Therese's work for you:

Forecast

They must have swum out early,
at least three hundred of them
surging back and forth.

People like moles
emerged from inside their homes
clustering under door frames and balconies
to watch them.

We put a crate on the deck
and each took turns at standing on it
making little gasping noises
when one jumped or turned.

Eventually, guiltily, we grew tired of them
and retreated back inside to the warmth.

It was late afternoon
before they crossed my mind again.

I went to the window
and in the far distance
the dolphins were still there
moving back and forwards,
not really going anywhere.

•

Love in Wartime

2006-12-09T09:15:00.004+13:00

New from Pania Press:

Our first publication is a limited gift edition of 10 copies -- with individual covers, each of them unique, hand-sewn by Bronwyn Lloyd on dark-blue felt -- of Jack Ross's poem-sequence "Love in Wartime."

If you're getting one for Christmas then you must be a very very lucky person who lives right.

The signed and numbered first edition of the book will go on sale next year. Again, the number of copies available will be very small, so if you'd like one it might be best to express an interest soon.

Kiwi Valley:
Café, Kindy, Maze & Rides
– cinema ad

Stops when you watch it
sun glinting off
the grains of sand

wind-squalls
north end of
Anawhata

out of the corner
of one eye
the marram grass

signs
signals
sings

it’s you

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Mission Statement

2006-09-25T09:35:00.001+12:00

Pania Press intends to publish small editions of local authors, in carefully-printed copies with individual handsewn covers.

Further posts wil be added to this blog every time we publish a new title.

Orders and other enquiries can be left as comments at the bottom of each posting.

NB: We will note the details of orders without publishing them online unless you specifically request otherwise. Your private contact details will in no circumstances be shared with other visitors to the website. General comments on our products may be cleared for display, however.

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