Get hands-on with the art of letterpress in this beginner-friendly workshop. We’ll explore the basics of printing on a press, from setting up a design to inking and pulling your very first prints. Along the way, you’ll learn about the history of letterpress, the different kinds of presses, and the tools and materials that bring this centuries-old craft to life.

Each participant will create their own small project to print and take home—whether it’s a card, a print, or a simple design—while experiencing the unique textures and tactile beauty that only letterpress can offer. No prior experience required—just bring your creativity and a willingness to get inky!

This hands-on workshop introduces the essential skills for safe and confident operation of tabletop and floor model platen presses. You’ll explore how to set up a form, adjust packing and impression, register paper, and pull crisp, consistent prints.

Join us for an evening of poetry inspired by the natural world and the art of letterpress printing. This special reading features many of the writers whose words appear in Watershed Moment, our current exhibit created in collaboration with North Bay Letterpress Arts.

Readers include both established and emerging voices, among them Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Forrest Gander and former Sonoma County Poets Laureate Elizabeth Herron and Gwynn O’Gara, along with judi goldberg, Eric Johnson, Adrian Lürrsen, and Cheryl Pfeil.

Come early or stay after to enjoy the Watershed Moment exhibit, on view in Heron Hall through December 19.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellations made more than 30 days before the event will receive a refund, minus a $10 processing fee. Tickets purchased at $10 are non-refundable. Cancellations made 7–30 days in advance will receive a 50% refund. No refunds are available for cancellations less than 7 days before the event. If we need to cancel the event, you will receive a full refund.

Join us for the first annual North Bay Print & Poetry Festival in the Graton Town Square. Poetry, music, and the art of printmaking come alive on a grand scale at this free, daylong community celebration. Watch massive linoleum blocks inked and printed beneath a classic street paver, hear the voices of acclaimed poets from Sonoma County and beyond, explore local vendors, and enjoy live music, food, and community.

Step into the timeless craft of letterpress printing by learning the art of handset type. This hands-on class introduces participants to the fundamentals of traditional typesetting, from understanding type anatomy and layout to composing text by hand with movable metal type. Students will explore spacing, alignment, and lock-up techniques, and gain a working knowledge of the tools, terminology, and processes that defined print for centuries. By the end of the session, each participant will set and print a small project of their own, experiencing the tactile satisfaction of bringing words to life on paper.

No prior experience required—just curiosity, patience, and a love for craft.

We’re thrilled to host two incredible poets, Brenda Hillman and Norma Cole, at NBLA on Saturday, August 9th at 4pm.

Brenda Hillman’s latest collection from Wesleyan University Press is In a Few Minutes Before Later, published in 2022. Her first collection of prose, Three Talks (2024), is available from University of Virginia Press. A recent recipient of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement, Hillman has edited and co-translated many books by others, including At Your Feet by Brazilian poet Ana Cristina Cesar. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Hillman lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is Professor Emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California and directs the Poetry Week at Community of Writers.

Norma Cole is a poet, painter and translator. Her most recent book of poetry, Alibi Lullaby, appeared from Omnidawn earlier this year. Other books of poetry include FATE NEWS, Win These Posters and Other Unrelated Prizes Inside, Where Shadows Will: Selected Poems 1988—2008, Spinoza in Her Youth and, Actualities, her collaboration with painter Marina Adams. Her awards include the Fund for Poetry, Gertrude Stein Award, the Richardson Award for Non-Fiction Prose and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Award for Poetry. Cole has taught at San Francisco State University, University of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, Naropa University, Otis College of Art and Design and others.

* FREE and open to the public
* Light refreshments and fantastic poetry served in equal measure
* Handset letterpress broadsides of work by the poets will be printed for the occasion and available with a donation to NBLA

Three writers associated with the bookmaking, writing, & reading community at North Bay Letterpress Arts for many years will appear together for a book launch/ reading/ discussion at the printshop in Sebastopol. 

We are: John Johnson, whose poetry collection, Toss Repeat, winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize, was published early this year;

judi goldberg, whose innovative memoir Common Currency is about change & the words we use to tell the stories we do, seen in part through the lens of a fictional character named Bess, an old woman coming of age as an artist, whose memoir this is.

Eric Johnson, whose recent book, Journeyman’s Dues, is a memoir of working as a union carpenter in heavy construction 50 years ago.

The books are quite different externally, but we have been friends and colleagues for fifteen years – steadily discussing the aesthetics of poetry and bookmaking – and that conversation will keep going at this event as we listen to each other and reflect on our separate arts.

Sunday, July 13, 2-4pm

* FREE and open to the public
* Refreshments, readings, and great conversation served in equal measure

Learn about the powerful tradition of protest posters while designing and printing your own message for change.

Throughout history, the poster has been a critical tool for social movements—amplifying voices, building solidarity, and creating visual symbols that capture the public imagination.

Experienced printers will guide participants through the process of designing and printing their letterpress own posters. All ages welcome. All materials provided. No experience necessary. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Date: Saturday, April 5, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Location: North Bay Letterpress Arts
Cost: $0-$35 (NOTAFLOF)

Space is limited. Sign Up to reserve your spot.

"As the poet Adrienne Rich wrote, 'Revision—the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction—is for women more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival.'"

Join us for an illuminating talk with poet and biographer Iris Jamahl Dunkle as she shares images and reflections from her book-length erasure project, which radically transforms The Grapes of Wrath. In her new biography, Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb, Dunkle reveals how Steinbeck appropriated material from Sanora Babb. As she worked on the biography, Dunkle was inspired to remake Steinbeck’s text, reclaiming her own family history in the process. Perfect for anyone interested in where poetry, history, and rebellion intersect.

Iris Jamahl Dunkle is the author of two biographies, Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020) and Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb (University of California Press, 2024), and four collections of poetry, including West : Fire : Archive, published by The Center for Literary Publishing, Interrupted Geographies and Gold Passage by Trio House Press and There’s a Ghost in This Machine of Air by Word Tech. She was the 2017-18 Poet Laureate of Sonoma County.

NBLA is thrilled to host a reading with acclaimed poet Elizabeth Robinson on Saturday, January 25th at 4pm.

Elizabeth Robinson has recently received Editors’ Choice Awards from Scoundrel Time and New Letters as well as a Pushcart Prize.  She has been a recipient of grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Fund for Poetry.  Recent books: Excursive from Roof Books, and, with Susanne Dyckman, Rendered Paradise published by Apogee Press.  In 2025, Solid Objects will publish Being Modernists Together and Northwestern University Press will publish Vulnerability Index.

• FREE and open to the public – your RSVP helps with planning

• Light refreshments and fantastic poetry served in equal measure

• A beautiful letterpress broadside of Elizabeth’s work will be available with a donation to NBLA

You are cordially invited to our our annual Open House & Holiday Sale. Come tour the shop, celebrate the work of our studio printers, and enjoy food, drink, and merriment. FREE and open to the public.

Sunday, December 8th, 1-4pm

North Bay Letterpress Arts

925-D Gravenstein Highway S. Sebastopol (behind Beekind)

& Open Mic - B.Y.O.P