Skip to main content
Video Resource

Online

Translation Mini-chapbook Factory

Translation Mini-chapbook Factory

The goal of this session is to explore how the presentation of translation affects its meaning, by hand-binding a chapbook live. Attendees are welcome, but not required, to follow along and build their own chapbooks.

Meaning-making happens collaboratively in the space between author, translator, reader, and—fundamentally—in the means of production and distribution. Whether pixels or print, the processes of a work’s creation and translation help determine who sees or hears it, and how those audiences receive it. From samizdat to digital libraries of banned books, the physical production of texts has also been a way of welcoming interactivity and subverting orthodoxies. The organizer will share a list of recommended (affordable) materials and digital templates before the session.

Materials

You can copy and use these free Google templates to create 4 1/4″ x 6.5″ chapbooks (16-page portrait, 16-page landscape, and 24-page portrait).

You don’t need many materials to construct a sturdy, elegant chapbook!

  1. Pages. Regular printer paper is fine, 60-pound uncoated is more “professional.”
  2. A cover. Regular 8.5×11 cardstock is fine!
  3. Something to perforate pages. Awls are handy (around $4), but even a nail and hammer will work.
  4. Something stronger than regular sewing thread. Waxed or unwaxed bookbinding thread are great, but yarn, fishing line, or even floss will work.
  5. Something for cutting in a straight line. “Guillotine” paper cutters are fantastic ($20), but a flat paper cutter ($10) or even a box cutter + ruler will work.
  6. A sewing needle. Any size (larger ones may be easier to work with).

You can also find basic bookbinding kits like this one, which include everything but a paper cutter. While I’ve shared Amazon links in this list, if you don’t want to take your business to Amazon, you can find all of these materials (or equivalents) at craft and/or office supply stores.

If you don’t have access to any of the above materials, we’ll also run through the process of creating a small, 6-page zine using nothing but a single sheet of paper!

…

Moderator

JP Allen’s translations of poetry from the Spanish have appeared in The Offing, Willow Springs,Waxwing, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere. He is Assistant Poetry Editor for Narrative Magazine.