Small Press Fest

A huge thank you to everybody who came to see the festival over the weekend. We had talks about radical publishing, basic book binding, do-it-yourself zine making, shared meals, discussions on the behind-the-scenes world of indie publishing, late night wines, a book fair, conversations about algorithms, poetry readings, disaster stories, heaps of laughs, even more sourdough bread, and the inspiration to do it all again next year. If you want to follow the journey: catch us at spf.eveningbooks.nz or @smallpressfest23 xo

Kia ora everyone,

Small Press Fest starts in 10 days. The schedule is now available both online and in paper format. Please check out: https://spf23.eveningbooks.nz/ or head into Evening Books or Yours or the Dunedin City Library to pick up your physical copy.

Looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

Frances

I was thinking about what the best way to thank you was and decided that it was probably to show you the schedule before it is officially released. So here you go:

Friday

2pm: whatever by 5ever - 5ever Press Workshop (upstairs)

5.30pm: Pocket Apocalypse Book Launch (Blue Oyster x Gilbert May) - hosted by Blue Oyster

7pm: Publishing as Critical Practice: The Story of GLORIA Books

8.30pm: Rat World: Anti-Niche: Rats Against Algorithms

Saturday 

12.30: Expensive Hobby on Distributing Independent Publications in Aotearoa

1.30: Brannavan: Building Community Talk

2pm: whatever by 5ever - 5ever Press Workshop

(upstairs)

3pm: The SPF23 Book Fair (downstairs)

4.30pm: Imperfect perfect binding with Compound Press

6pm: SPF shared meal at Yours - a chance to meet and greet

7pm: Panel Discussion - What is the gap you are filling in the literary ecosystem? with Katie, Brannavan, and Jen and Aidan (facilitated by Gabi)

8.30pm: Readings by Clare, Chris, Renae, Sasha

Sunday

12.30: Gabi: Cool, fun writing workshop

(downstairs)

2pm: whatever by 5ever - 5ever Press Workshop (upstairs)

3pm: Newzician panel discussion

6pm: SPF shared meal at Yours

7pm: Readings by the Dunedin Youth Writers

8.30: Val: On the urgent need of radical publishing now

Immense, immense gratitude to everybody who donated - big or small - and for all your kind words, and for sharing the Boosted campaign, and for getting just as excited as I did.

After receiving a small portion of funding from the DCC which I allocated to the ten presses / publications as an artist/speaker fee, I knew that I needed to get some extra funding for the people behind the scenes - this includes the amazing Tim Dustow (@grits.n.grams) who is not only the person behind the Evening Books logo, but also behind all the illustrations so far released for Small Press Fest (@smallpressfest23), as well as the photographer documenting the festival, and a koha to the amazing team at Yours (@yours_otepoti) who would have helped me with all my tech needs whether I paid them or not.

As many of you know, a lot of creative work for events, festivals, and the arts in general is unpaid work - there is a pervasive but unfortunate idea that exists within Aotearoa that if you love it, it shouldn't matter whether you are compensated or not. But the reality is that people who are engaged in labours of love deserve to have their work seen and appreciated for the ways in which it uplifts everybody within our communities. A world without the arts would be a very sad world indeed.

So thank you for seeing this project and understanding what it was trying to do.

Frances c/o Evening Books (@evening_books_aotearoa)

Huge thank you to everybody who has contributed to the campaign so far! We have one week left to go and have already reached 65%. I wanted to raise this money so that I could pay the creatives and behind the scenes people who are helping to make Small Press Fest possible. So, please keep sharing and spreading the word. These are the good folk who make sure you are having a good time.

Image: Grits n Grams (Small Press Fest's illustrator)

@grits.n.grams