Small press Throwback Books (formerly of Bend) releases two new handmade books for pre-sale: Unspeakable Light, poems by Megan Merchant about her son’s sudden loss of speech and Heavy Metal Fairytales, by Daniel M. Shapiro.
Merchant’s poetry collection will fade as the reader reads until the last two pages are left as unspeakable light. Merchant said, “I imagine the poems in my manuscript as printed in layers, so that as they are read, the words disappear– I think that (Throwback’s) visual element would greatly enhance and activate the heart of this manuscript–my son’s sudden loss of speech.”
Shapiro’s collection of short fables mash-up the history of heavy metal music and reimagined fairy tales. It will be printed in the font of the “heaviest damned typewriter we can find” and bound between two riveted sheets of aluminum. It will also incorporate images from May-Lan Tan layered throughout the book.
Originally founded in 2007 in Bend by longtime Bend Poetry Slam Master c.vance, Throwback Books first served as a way for c.vance to first publish his own work and then to print and champion other authors. Throwback Books, now co-edited by c.vance and author Rae Wood, is committed to finding works that focus on matching each piece of writing to a typewriter that fits the work in concept or design.