Red Hydra Press

 

A Starbucks team met Voice at his local coffee shop and recorded him for its Starbucks Presents: To Be Human series. Check out this amazing piece.

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The Kiss.

Linocuts by Julio César Peña Peralta

Introduction by Steve Miller
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Red Hydra Press, 2021. Edition of 28.

Eight large, erotic, skeletal linocuts by Cuban artist Peralta, with an introduction by Steve Miller, gathered, along with an title page and introductory page, into a silvery portfolio enclosure created by Anna Embree. It is 17” x 12”. This work can best be described as a Cuban Kamasutra. The title page is numbered and signed by the artist. This work has been in the hopper for five years while awaiting the linocuts, and then the pandemic, but well worth the wait for the maker. The letterpress work was done by Steve Miller at the Penland School of Craft. 

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Dreams. 

Linocuts by Ramón Vargas

Poems by David Sorrell 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Red Hydra Press, 2021. Edition of 45.
Eight mysterious, figurative, magenta-colored linocuts by Cuban artist Ramón Vargas, with accompanying poems by David Sorrell. The pandemic flows beautifully and quietly through these words. A 5” x 6.5” letterpress-printed, vital book in three sections, bound by Miller in passionate, magenta-colored cloth over boards, with a linocut printed on the front cover. The printer describes Dreams as a “mystery book that rests easily in the hand”. The copies are numbered and signed by artist and author. $175

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La Carrera / The Race
by Omar Pérez 
Translated by Kristin Dykstra 
Linocuts by Ramón Vargas 
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Red Hydra Press, 2018. Edition of 62.

6.25 x 9"; 45 pages. Includes seventeen 2-color linocuts. Text in Scala Pro type. Letterpress printed on Mohawk 100 lb. Text. Printed in English and Spanish. Bound in cloth over boards. Designed, letterpress printed and bound by Steve Miller. Signed by the artist, the poet, and printer. Numbered. Signed bookmark designed by the artist is included. $325

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These Winds Rarely Dial Down
by Steve Miller 
Drawings by Eric Coleman 
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Red Hydra Press, 2018. Edition of 50.

2.9" x 2.9"; 48 pages. Miniature. Letterpress printed. Bound in decorated paper-covered boards with cloth spine. Numbered. Initialed by Miller and Coleman. $145

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Colophon: "This is a collaboration between Steve Miller & artist Eric Coleman. For years Steve was drawn to the mysterious Castillo de la Real Fuerza at the edge of Havana Harbor. This is the result of the blending of tales of the Castillo with many trips to Cuba between 2002 & 2017. A very special thanks to Dr. Jose Vazquez Rodriguez, who noted of one part of the text, "This is only a legend, historically it was impossible, but many people still believe in this romantic issue.

We are believers."

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nails and bullets
by Steve Miller 
Photographs by David Sorrell 

6 x 9.25; 32 pages. Designed and letterpress printed, deploying the Poliphilus typeface, and bound by Steve Miller, with binding design and encouragement by Anna Embree. The photographs printed at Puritan Press Inc. using a unique digital tritone process. This is Red Hydra's first experiment in digitally printed photographs, and the results are truly sumptuous. Bound in maroon book cloth. Numbered, and signed by Miller and Sorrell in an edition of sixty copies. 2017, $415

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aloft
Word swarms by Mary Wehner
Linocut illustrations by Alejandro Sainz
Published 2016 in an edition of 55. 3.5 x 5.5"; 20 pages. Glorious linocuts. Designed and letterpress printed by Steve Miller. A sewn binding with a handmade paper wrapper with a linocut illustration on the cover. The binding structure is based on a design by Anna Embree. Numbered. Signed by the author. This book is a beauty. $125

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Zeke
by Steve Miller
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Red Hydra Press. Published in 2016 in an edition of 46 copies. 2.75 x 2.75"; a miniature book of 24 pages. This volume proves that a whole world can be encompassed within a small book. The type is Scala Pro and Scala Sans Pro. Designed and letterpress printed by Miller on Mohawk Text paper, and hand bound in Khadi Indian handmade paper wrappers with green endpapers. Signed and numbered by Miller. $55

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Until That Yellow Bird Returns


One hundred, 5-line poems by Tennessee poet Jeff Hardin, each on its own page, is letterpress printed on dampened Arches Text paper in Scala types on dampened Arches Text Wove paper. Katie Baldwin created eleven gorgeous, translucent one-, two- and three-color line drawings that define each of the 10 sections of the book. This is a hand-sized, hefty volume of thought-provoking words. The binding is designed and largely executed by Anna Embree. 3.5"; 82 pages. For being a square book of many pages, when held it is as light as a cloud. Letterpress printed and bound in muted yellow cloth over boards. The edition of 45 numbered copies was published in 2015. Signed by Hardin. $145

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Museum


Billy Collins penned a sweet new poem and this is its first appearance. The miniature book measures 2.75" x 2.75", and has been letterpress-printed in three sections, sewn, consolidated, then wrapped in handmade paper. Text slides up and down from page to page. The book is printed and wrapped in four papers from Papeterie St. Armand in Montréal. There are sixty-five copies for sale, signed by the author. Published in the Spring of 2014.
 $125

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I slid past a pencil drawing of a young girl,
a white marble statue of a warrior
as well as a vase that had managed to remain
unshattered for over three thousand years…

Twelve Fables


A book of poignant fables by Rodney Jones accompanied by ten astonishing bird nest images by Dana Moore, who collects bird nests. The binding has been designed and largely executed by Anna Embree—sewn and enclosed in Indian handmade paper wrappers stiffened with thin boards. Fifty-five copies of this book has been printed on dampened Arches Text paper, and are signed by both author and artist. 5 x 8”, 24 pages. Published in the Spring of 2014. $325

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Lion Froth Crown

is a collaboration begun in 2011, finished in 2013, and released in 2014, between author Cade Collum, bookbinder Anna Embree, letterpress printer Steve Miller, and artist Craig Wedderspoon.

 

Weaving all the parts of this book together was a lengthy process. All four artists put their heads together to build the book out, starting with the text. Some of the poems and drawings were printed on a translucent Neenah paper, so there is a subtle and sometimes dramatic relationship between pages, as parts of images or poems are revealed beneath the page being viewed. Complicated to design and print but worth the effort. It was printed in Frederick Goudy's Deepdene types in an edition of forty-five copies, plus nine artist proofs, on French Gray Grout and Neenah UV Ultra II papers, 6.25" x 9". One of Craig's drawings was letterpress printed on the mysterious silver book cloth (thank you Anna!), and hand bound in boards by Anna Embree. This book was made in Alabama. $375


To Sit With Animals


Linocuts by Cuban artist Sigfredo Mendoza, with words by Mary Wehner.
 Published in 2013 in an edition of 40, signed by the poet. 2.75 x 2.75"; 18pp. It includes eight poems and eight linocuts. This miniature book was designed, letterpress printed, and hand bound by Steve Miller. The text paper is from French Paper Company, and the letterpress printed wrapper is Mohawk cover. $75

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Steve Miller: "This is my fourth collaboration with Wisconsin poet Mary Wehner, and the second with Havana-born Sigfredo Mendoza. I met the artist while working on book projects in Cuba. He became a friend and has visited Tuscaloosa twice. On one visit I gave him eight linoleum blocks and asked him to cut them as he saw fit. I then sent proofs of the blocks to poet Mary Wehner, and, Voila!, a book was born.

Note to self: It is much harder to make a miniature book."

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There Are Things Too Marvelous To Be Spoken Of


A tornado-driven miniature book in an edition of 22 copies, written, designed, letterpress-printed and bound in black Arches printmaking paper by Steve Miller. It includes two reduction linoleum cuts by the maker. 2" x 3". Spring 2012. nfs


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Miller: "Several months after a 2011 tornado destroyed our home and pecan orchard while we were in the basement I was invited to participate in an Artist Educator Week at the Penland School of Craft. There were a hundred amazing makers there. We could choose whatever studio we wanted to work in for four days, and the natural thing would have been to choose a studio outside of one's comfort zone. But all I wanted to do was to be at the #4 Vandercook proof press in the letterpress studio and somehow get the tornado trauma off my back. This small book helped me recover." It is pictured on the landing page of this website.

The Dogs of Havana


Seven powerful poems by Cade Collum with eight evocative linocuts of dog skeletons by Cuban artist Julio César Peña Peralta. 7.75" x 5.25". This book is a collaboration between an Alabama poet, a Cuban artist, and an Alabama letterpress printer in 2008. Printed on Nideggen mould made paper, and wrapped in earthy Khadi, an Indian handmade paper. The chapbook is enclosed in a rust colored Khadi envelope, devised and made by Anna Embree. Edition of 75. $250



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Miller: "On a number of trips to Havana, Cuba I had been photographing the feral dogs that cluster under tables at night, or wander looking for food during the day. These creatures broke my heart... (see hyperlink above)

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...or the opposite


A gathering of a fifteen new poems by Mary Wehner, with as many drawings by Jane Marshall. The production was an extensive one, and we are very proud of the final work. This book was letterpress printed by Steve Miller at the Penland School of Craft in 2007. He roamed the perimeter of its letterpress studio to find object that could be incorporated into three different Sandragraphs (low relief printing plates). Each of the three book sections has a different Sandragraph background, printed in a different color. Enthusiastic color was a significant element in this piece. 5" x 7", $175

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Skin


by Dan Kaplan
Edition of 75. 5.5 x 8.5", 6 pages. Letterpress printed. The covers were printed in Havana, Cuba. Skin is available in a bilingual edition of three new poems translated into Spanish by Maria Vargas, with dramatic linocut illustrations by Cuban artist Julio César Peña Peralta, A Khadi handmade paper envelope designed by Anna Embree encloses the chapbook.

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Dan Kaplan is former editor-in-chief of Black Warrior Review, whose poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Third Coast, Indiana Review, and Quarterly West. “Today you are the man your mother pleaded / you not become….”  $175

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By His Own Labor, The Biography of Dard Hunter


by Cathleen A. Baker, a massive biography of the great papermaker, paper historian, and Renaissance book artist Dard Hunter, 2000. Edition of 150 copies signed by the author.

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7 x 11"; 368 pages. Two volumes housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box. Quarter-bound in leather with printed pattern papers created from a single leaf & stem punch cut by the author. Master engraver John DePol cut the Hunter portrait in wood. Michael and Winifred Bixler cast the types. Kathryn and Howard Clark and Travis Becker made the paper. Dard Hunter III made the end sheets using his grandfather's Bull's Head & Branch watermarked mould. This book is designed and printed by Steve Miller and letterpress printed by Miller and Cathleen Baker. The plate volume was printed by Meriden-Stinehour. Both the text and the plate volumes bound by Gray Parrot. Box by Judi Conant. Includes an index, a descriptive bibliography (271-286) and bibliographical references (296-320). 124 black-and-white and color illustrations of Dard Hunter’s work reproduced in the second volume. $1,800

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Unfolding The Tablecloth of God


Poem chapbook by T Begley & Olga Broumas, with a dramatic charcoal illustration by Pinkney Herbert, 1995. nfs

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The Search For A True History of Alabama


by Howell Raines. An e
ssay, with drawings by Christopher McAfee and calligraphy by Glen Epstein. 5 3/4 x 9 3/4”.  19p. 95 copies. 1994. $65



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The Hours

A poem cycle by Richard Foerster, with a wood engraving by the late, great John DePol. 6 3/8 x 10 1/2”. A paper wrapper folds back on the cover. The manuscript was selected as the winner of the Bess Hokin Prize awarded annually by Poetry magazine. Edition of 90 copies. 1993.

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North Star

Many stunning haiku by Clark Strand, with drawings by Douglas Himes, titlepage calligraphy by Eileen Wallace, and a blind stamped titlepage mark Heart by the poet. The hardbound copy pastepaper sides are by Claire Maziarczyk. 4 5/8 x 7 1/4”. The first fifteen copies are hardbound by Mick LeTourneaux. 73p. 90 copies. 1993. nfs

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Six Pieces of Wood


by Steve Miller, with wood engraved illustrations by John DePol. 4 1/2 x 6 7/8”. 11p. John DePol, at the request of Steve Miller, cut these amazing wood engravings for a Paper & Book Intensive annual summer series of workshops. Miller recognized that these were too beautiful to not make into a small book, with his comments as a forward. Of particular note is the Texas fire ant. 120 copies. 1992. nfs

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Death's Door


by Thom Gunn. A chapbook of poems illustrated with a North Alabama gravestone rubbing, with calligraphy by Anita Karl, 1989. nfs



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Projects with Cuban artists found at Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers LLC.

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Red Ozier Press, 1976-1988

 

Parallel Editions, the imprint of The University of Alabama MFA Book Arts Program, collaborative book projects, found at Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers LLC