Publishing
Welcome you to the launch of the first of 2025’s French Letter Society featuring Wendy McGrath’s poem “Leaves are vowels” and Beck Huong’s art titled “Stars”. All the French Letters are designed and produced by publisher Deborah Barnett.
Born out of a concept developed by Deborah Barnett and the late poet and artist Corrado Paina, the concept of the French Letter Society follows in the tradition of fine limited edition publishing and printing, where emphasis is place on incorporating short texts and original art into exquisite design and expert printing by hand. Each ‘French Letter’ is comprised of one poem and one original artwork, with design, typesetting, and manual printing performed in-house. The edition is limited to 60 copies.
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SOLO Launch: A Celebration of Art
When: 16 August 2025, 7pm
Where: SE Salon
SOLO Launch: A Celebration of Art
When: 16 August 2025, 7pm
Where: SE Salon
Karl Jirgens and Deborah Barnett collaborate to bring you Solo, a limited edition fine art print inked in two colours on handmade paper. The piece reflects both artists’ efforts to upset convention. Jergins’ poem challenges the distinction between text and image while Barnett disrupts and reimagines traditional techniques in her letter press work. Join the artists as they celebrate the launch of this exquisite art object at the Someone Editions Salon on August 16th, 2025 at 7pm. Jergins will read a selection of his poetry at the launch.
Karl Jirgens is a Windsor-based writer, editor, artist, and academic. He employs the shape of the printed word to create poems that operate as visual artworks. His poetry was featured in Bibliosais’s Best Canadian Poetry, 2023. He stood as the Chair of the Creative Writing program at the University of Windsor. From 1979-2016 he published and edited Rampike, an international journal of art, writing, and theory.
​For more information about the French Letter Society, or to support our artists and authors, please check out our Bookshop and French Letter Society page. You can also support us by subscribing to our Patreon where you can get access to interviews, special behind-the-scenes progress updates, and copies of our latest releases.