Printing Poetry Workshop #4
and Layli Longsoldier
Poetry Reading with ARC

Saturday & Sunday, February 28 – March 1, 2026
Wednesday and Thursday, April 1-2, 2026

WORKSHOP

The CODEX Foundation is proud to host our fourth Printing Poetry Workshop in conjunction with ARC (Arts Research Center) through UC Berkeley. The workshop is currently full, but there will be readings and other events around the workshop where you can hear Long Soldier speak and and pick up a broadside during the April 1st reading on campus.

Layli Long Soldier is author of the collection Whereas (Graywolf Press, 2017), which won the National Books Critics Circle award, the 2018 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Please read more about this accomplished poet and writer on the ARC website linked below.

UC Berkeley ARC Readings

April 1: Layli Long Soldier: Poetry Reading
moderated by Geoffrey G. O’Brien
Wednesday, April 1, 2026 | 5pm
Maude Fife Room 315, Wheeler Hall
Book Signing to follow | free & open to the public

April 2: In Conversation: Layli Long Soldier & Solmaz Sharif
Thursday, April 2, 2026 | 5pm
Maude Fife Room 315, Wheeler Hall
free & open to the public

Printing Poetry Workshop #3

Saturday & Sunday, September 27-28, 2025
9:00 am – 5:00 pm with a one-hour lunch break

Full workshop fee: $340
Scholarship workshop fee: $150

WORKSHOP

Our third in a series of letterpress printing workshops with the goal of bringing people together around poetry and the printed word—an exploration of the visual and material qualities surrounding poetry and writing. This workshop brings poets and writers together with printers and makers. Open to all levels: this class is great for poets, designers, artists, publishers, printers, and others who might be interested in collaborating together while learning the basics of letterpress printing, printmaking, and pressroom equipment. This workshop will be letterpress printing in Spanish with an English translation.

Join master letterpress printer Jonathan Gerken at The CODEX Foundation Logan Book Arts Center to create a limited-edition broadside in our printshop in Berkeley. The class will be working with a poem by Alberto Blanco, a poet, translator, essayist, and a well-known visual artist from Mexico. The class will hand-set the poem using metal and/or wood types and print an accompanying illustration. Enough broadsides will be printed during the class for each participant to take home a handful of prints.

Participants are invited to attend the reading by Alberto Blanco (free) on Thursday, October 2nd at 5:30 pm where broadsides from the workshop will be handed out to all in attendance.

READING / LECTURE

Saturday, March 22, 2025
Light refreshments at 5:30 pm
Talk will begin at 6:00 pm

Jared will discuss the expansive possibilities for a poet’s words to take on enhanced meaning when given visual and material consideration. He will discuss when a book is a book and when it ventures farther away to become a poetic object living in the world. Broadsides from the workshop will be given out for free at the reading/talk to attendees. This lecture will be open to all with a suggested donation of $20 and will include snacks & drinks.

Workshop

Saturday & Sunday, March 15-16, 2025
9:30am – 5:00pm

Reading & Talk

Saturday, March 22, 2025
Light refreshments at 5:30 pm
Talk will begin at 6:00 pm

WORKSHOP

Our second in a series of letterpress printing workshops with the goal of bringing people together around poetry and the printed word — an exploration of the visual and material qualities surrounding poetry and writing. This workshop brings poets and writers together with printers and makers. Open to all levels: this class is great for poets, designers, artists, publishers, printers, and others who might be interested in collaborating together while learning the basics of letterpress printing, printmaking, and pressroom equipment.

Join master letterpress printer Jonathan Gerken at The CODEX Foundation Logan Book Arts Center to create a limited-edition broadside in our printshop in Berkeley. The class will be working with a poem by Jared Stanley who is a poet, writer, and interdisciplinary artist living and working in Reno, Nevada where he is an associate professor teaching in the MFA program for creative writing. The class will hand-set the poem using metal and/or wood types and print an accompanying illustration. Enough broadsides will be printed during the class for each participant to take home a handful of prints.

There are 8 spots available with 2 reduced fee scholarships reserved for individuals from underserved communities. Please contact us if you are interested in a scholarship position and/or to sign up for the workshop.

Hand Bookbinders of California:

Gavin Dovey

November 2024

Saturday, November 2, 2024: Eggshell Veneer Workshop

Sunday, November 3, 2024: Photo Transfer Workshop

November 6-10, 2024: Split Board Binding: A Bradel Binding Variation

A graduate of LCP and alumni of the University of the Arts London, Gavin started bookbinding in the late 1990’s acquiring a good deal of experience working in various trade binderies in Europe, as well as alongside several master binders. In many areas, though, Gavin is largely self-taught through years of work on various projects for a wide variety of clients, from collectors and dealers, to designers, architects, artists, museums and galleries, and was featured on the PBS show “New York Originals”. Although grounded in tradition, Gavin’s work has a distinctly modern design sensibility, using printing, photo-transfer and varied dyeing and airbrush techniques to achieve fresh perspective on an old craft. Gavin has taught as faculty at various art institutions in the USA, tutored several apprentices, and today takes private students at his workshop in Pound Ridge, NY.

PRINTING POETRY WORKSHOP #1 – Sherwin Bitsui

Saturday & Sunday July 27 & 28, 2024
9:30 am – 5:00 pm

Full workshop fee: $320
Scholarship workshop fee: $60
To sign up, please email co*****@*************on.org

Our first in a series of letterpress printing workshops with the goal of bringing people together to promote poetry and the printed word. Open to all levels: this class is great for poets, designers, artists, publishers, printers, and others who might be interested in collaborating together while learning the basics of letterpress printing and press equipment.

Join master letterpress printer Jonathan Gerken at The CODEX Foundation Logan Book Arts Center to create a limited edition broadside in our printshop in Berkeley. The class will honor Sherwin Bitsui who is a Navajo writer and poet. We will print a poem from his book titled Flood Song, which won the American Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award. The class will hand-set the poem using metal type and print enough broadsides for each participant to take a handful of prints. Participants are also invited to attend Sherwin Bitsui’s reading for the UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Series on Thursday, September 5 at 12 pm, where we will hand out copies of the broadside for free. This poetry reading series is held at the Morrison Library on campus and is free and open to the public.

There are 8 total spots available with 2 reduced fee scholarships reserved for individuals from underserved communities. Please contact us if you are interested in a scholarship position.

Union de Hojas: UH Book Structure with Sol Rebora

Saturday & Sunday, February 10 – 11, 2024
10 am – 6 pm (with a 1 hour lunch break)
$410 (includes most materials)
Please contact us for more information and to sign up for this amazing workshop!

Design + Conservation

Leather spine and Japanese textured paper, hard covers and rounded spine binding.

This structure proposes a case binding construction with fine finishing details, combining design and conservation concepts along the process construction. We are going to work with a book printed by Ediciones Urania: Ral Veroni – The Princess with an illustration of Ral Veroni. 

The sewing for the signatures provides a flat spine with a very even volume to create a nice rounded spine, and a small shoulder, which is going to be connected to the textblock by a hollow back.

On this structure the endpapers have a particular construction to work with very thin papers playing with possible transparencies, colors and textures, using this part of the construction as a beautiful way to get into the book. Conservation, design, and technology of the materials works for the structure to provide a perfect opening of the book.