Two Plum Press began at the IPRC, when Justin Hocking was the Executive Director. First, when Andrew was an intern and sharpening his letterpress skills during after hours. Later, at the Division space, with a big dream to make a perfect bound chapbook start to finish at the center. It can safely be said that it wouldn’t exist as it does without the generosity and warmth of Justin Hocking. Justin left the IPRC to start teaching writing shorlty after the publication of The Great Floodgates of The Wonderworld, which was the winner of the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2015. We were thrilled when he submitted a book to the press, the beguiling exploration of letters and ideas shared between Walt Whitman and Bram Stoker called PS: The Wolves.
It was a delight to host another well attended reading at the IPRC, also featuring Joshua James Amberson and Karliegh Frisbee Brogan (who were both MFA students of Justin’s and are in the same writing group together) + our dear Chris Maday, whose new book Exercise Poems is the next title to be published.
We are good snacks and drank good drinks and kept the Halloween spirit going for another day.
