Michael Peich

The Well-Made Book: Publishing Poetry at WCU

Tucked away in a corner of Francis Harvey Green Library, an old-fashioned hand-crank press turns out pages of a book set entirely by hand. At one end of the crank is Michael Peich, West Chester University’s own master printer and founder of this often overlooked nook of campus, Aralia Press.

Peich founded Aralia Press in 1983, out of disappointment about the poetry being printed by commercial presses. He felt that poetry printed at these presses is not necessarily the best, but the best-selling, dictated by market research. “I got tired of reading the same old poetry that didn’t speak to me,” he says.

The goal of Aralia Press is to publish contemporary poetry in a finely designed format. He gives each book the attention, care and craftsmanship that the poet gave to the words contained within its pages. Aralia Press books are released in extremely limited editions, and each is designed differently, tailored to the needs of each unique manuscript.

Peich values simple elegance in the design of manuscripts. He wants the book to be so well printed that the reader doesn’t even notice it, and all the attention is drawn to the text.

“What is a book?” he asks. “It’s a vehicle, an environment in which to house words.” Though there are details to be seen if one looks closely at the design elements of the book, the designer is overall invisible, looking instead directly at the words of the author.

To create such a book requires a copious amount of physical labor and artistic planning. Peich is constantly returning to historically based book-making traditions when deciding the layout of the text, focusing on subtle nuances like the size of the margins and alignment of the titles. He pays careful attention to type font and color, selecting characters and tones that set the reader in a mood intended by the poet. Each letter of type, called a “sort” in typographic jargon, is set by hand.

Aralia Press has led to the development of a yearly poetry conference held at West Chester University, the largest of its kind in the nation. Peich usually prints one or two books for the occasion, and frequently, he later makes books of poetry by poets who have attended the conference.

This year, he is printing “A Poem Written on Learning that Shakespeare and Cervantes both Died on the Same Day” by Ray Bradbury, best known for his science fiction. As the title implies, the poem is written about the unusual circumstance of two great literary giants, William Shakespeare and Miguel Cervantes, both dying on April 23, 1616.

Due to the traditional meter of the poem, Peich is using a very traditional approach to the design. He sees this project as a way to celebrate poetry, by printing someone who isn’t frequently thought of as a poet.

Following this theme, this volume will also feature an afterword written by Orson Scott Card, leader of the next generation of science fiction novelists, celebrating a union of old and young masters. The volume will be released in very limited editions, 26 of which will be signed by the author.

With his students, Peich wants to spread an awareness of what a traditionally well-made book should look like. For the most part, these traditions have disappeared from both academia and mainstream culture. He wants to show aspiring poets and life-long book lovers that there are other options to commercially produced books.

Peich also believes that the technique he uses for crafting books, a constant return to its historical roots, is universal and can be extended to all other areas of study, regardless of subject. He also wants to foster a development of taste, to help students discover what they truly like, which applies to all areas of life: fine books, fine wine or baseball cards. Peich believes, above all, in the importance of appreciating well-made things in a disposable society.

Michael Peich teaches a class on poetry and fine printing at West Chester University. He is also the founder and director of the Poetry Center. The 15th annual West Chester University Poetry Conference will be held June 10 to 13.