Collaboration with Poet Ava Chin

I recently had the privilege of collaborating with poet Ava Chin on a broadside print of her poem, A Recipe for Forgiveness. This print was created for the Center for Book arts Broadside Reading Series and commemorated a reading that took place on November 3, 2017. Mariahdessa Ekere Tallie read from her work as well and both poets gave moving readings that infused their poetry with even more life and emotion. It is amazing how a poem is transformed when you hear it read aloud, everything from the poet’s voice, volume, inflection, and pacing, to the mood of the room affect how the poem is received, understood, and felt. It was a really wonderful event. I was so happy to be able to work with Ava and create this print to accompany her beautiful work. I really look forward to reading more of Ava’s and Mariahdessa’s writing. “A Recipe For Forgiveness” broadside was printed in letterpress and linocut in an edition of 100. Prints can be purchased for $20 through the Center of Book Arts online store or by stopping by or contacting the center directly.

Ava Chin, a Queens native, is the author of the award-winning Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal (Simon & Schuster, 2014) and the former Urban Forager columnist for the New York Times (2009-2013). She has written for the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Saveur, Marie Claire, the Village Voice, and SPIN. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, and an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. A New York Institute for Humanities fellow at New York University, she is an associate professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at CUNY. The Huffington Post named her one of “9 Contemporary Authors You Should Be Reading.”

The Center’s Broadside Reading Series produces 12 limited-edition letterpress-printed broadsides each year, featuring the poetry of New York-based writers of diverse backgrounds. The Fall 2017 series is organized by Guest Curator Tracie Morris, a page-based writer, sound poet, critic, scholar, bandleader, actor and multimedia performer.