Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Poetic and Artistic Collaboration, 2005-2020

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Broadsided Press

Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Poetic and Artistic Collaborations, 2005-2020, an anthology that celebrates Broadsided Press’s mission of “putting literature and art on the streets,” will be released by Provincetown Arts Press in April 2022. We are beyond thrilled.

Do you teach?  The press is offering a discount for educators.  Email info@provincetownarts.org for more info.  We’ve also developed lesson plans for using the anthology in your creative writing, arts, or other classrooms.

ADVANCE PRAISE

The many moving examples collected here comprise a rich body of work that transcends the bounds of individual authorship by presenting cooperation, dialog, the blending of sensibilities, the profound combination of image and word.
— Mark Wunderlich, author of God of Nothingness

This book is at once beautiful and useful, which is to say that it is a necessary object. The collaborations are in turns beautiful, sweet, devastating, comical. We encounter a diverse array of authors at the forefront of contemporary poetry, photographs that document the geographies these collaborations enter and change, and—invaluably—author-and-artist insights into working processes: their surprises and delights.
— Tina Post, Assistant Professor of English & Theater and Performance Studies at University of Chicago

This radiant collection of broadsides shows us artists collaborating with writers to give elegant, playful, diverse experiences, engaging the reader on new levels.  I am grateful to see poetry so beautifully displayed in the world because of what Broadsided Press is doing.
— Bianca Stone, author of What is Otherwise Infinite

Since its founding, Broadsided has released one beautifully designed, original, letter-sized collaboration of poetry and art (a broadside) each month: a unique collaboration between a visual artist and a writer that is a work of art in itself. We publish digitally, so that YOU can easily print and share them.  Now, for the first time, more than fifty broadsides selected from the past fifteen years of Broadsided’s publications will be published in book form alongside the interviews with artists and poets who collaborated to create them and photographs of the work in public spaces.

Choosing just fifty broadsides from the 300+ collaborations we’ve published was no easy task.  We console ourselves when we agonize over those left on the editing floor by trusting that if this anthology is a reader’s first introduction to Broadsided, the book will bring them to the website and all the wonderful work that is available here (our archives are complete and open to all).

We love the modality we chose for Broadsided’s publications all those years ago.  We love giving poetry and art away each month.  We’re proud to have offered a low-tech, low-cost way for people to shift the visual conversations of their communities.  A piece of paper stapled to a notice board, wrinkled by rain and wind and the passage of time, is beautiful to us.  However, we are very excited to be able to honor the collaborations we’ve published in book form, on good paper, with all the vibrancy and detail of the original work.

The diversity of voices, images, and locations in Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Collaboration illustrates the scope of Broadsided’s work: Jane Hirshfield’s “Critique of Pure Reason” taped up on a Florida boardwalk, artist Amy Meissner posting her collaboration with Traci Brimhall on a signpost in Alaska’s bear country, Camille Dungy and Caleb Brown discussing how visual art can “magnify” aspects of a poem. Printed in full color on heavy gloss paper, the book showcases Broadsided’s groundbreaking work in literature and the arts.

Provincetown Arts Press has been publishing since 1985: both an annual, large-format, glossy magazine and an eclectic series of books: poetry, art books, novels, and more.  The epicenter of the press is Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod (where editor Elizabeth Bradfield lives), but this small town gathers writers and artists from all over the world.  The 2021 issue of the magazine featured writer Jaqueline Woodson and artist Esteban Del Valle.

There are many reasons Provincetown Arts feels right as a press for this anthology: from the spirit of artistic community the magazine illuminates to the inspiring company we’ll be keeping on their booklist to, last but by no means least, the gorgeous design and production value of their books.  Trust us.  You’ll want to hold this anthology in your hands.

Tagged: Announcements, Broadsides to Books, Changes at Broadsided