Today is the big day: Small Press of Toronto Spring Fair starts at 11 am to 5 pm and is held at Hart House (7 Hart Circle)! Not to rush anyone, but as part of their finale, they’ll be hosting several readings at Parkdale’s Parts and Labour. Here’s the line up:
Damian Rogers, Paper Radio
Karen Shenfeld, My Father’s Hands Spoke in Yiddish
Melanie Janisse, Orioles In the Oranges
Dane Swan, Bending The Continuum, and
Goran Simic, Sunrise In The Eyes of The Showman
As our finale, Broken Pencil spoke with Sarah Pinder of Bits of String Press to send you on your way to the Fair.
Final Questionnaire: Good Morning, Bits of String Press.
Based in Toronto, Bits of String Press is the home of Sarah Pinder’s writing and zines. For over a decade she’s been making zines, and has been shortlisted for the Expozine Small Press Awards, NOW Magazine’s Best of Toronto, and has had work appear in the She’s Shameless anthology.
Most recently, Sarah has been working in the ever-popular “end of times” theme, writing “a long-form poem called ‘collapse,’ and a suite called ‘The Rye House.’” “It’s a long, anxious narrative,” she says, “about teetering on the edge in the present, looking towards the future. ‘The Rye House’ is a series of short poems based on a box of decades of meticulously annotated photographs found on the curb in Toronto. I laid out a selected series of images and wrote poems about each of them, imagining a narrative for this family.”
“I’m still attached to the immediacy of zine making,” continues Pinder.” The community she’s been able to foster through this medium has encouraged a sense of commitment, both in the people and in the art making process. “I know there are folks who have been doing this for a lot longer than me, but it’s a bit intense to realize I’ve been doing something for over ten years.” On the idea of expanding Bits of String more broadly to encompass publishing other people’s work, Pinder is still drawn to the idea of using what’s available at that exact moment: “it’s exciting to figure out how to make a project with what you have on hand, and to know you don’t need to wait on someone else to put it out in the world for you.”
Growing up in a small rural community, and being the only zine maker in town for quite some time, Pinder says she couldn’t wait to move into a city and be able to participate more in an art, writing, and zine community. “Our town didn’t even have a copy shop!” explains Pinder. “I scammed my copies from the high school staff room.” “Whenever I go to small press events in this city, my teenage-self still feels giddy at the sight of crowds specifically there to read, see, sell, and show off their independently published writing and comics.”
You can find out more about ‘collapse’ here. And ‘The Rye House’ here.
Thanks Sarah, see you today at SPoT.