Vendors at fair share love of books
The packed Buffalo Small Press Book Fair on Saturday in the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum felt like a meeting of the tribes.
Writers and artists sold poetry and chapbooks, along with comics and a few zines. There
were posters and T-shirts, note cards and works of fiction.
Above all, there was an unmistakable camaraderie and sense of togetherness that connected the nearly 80 vendors in attendance.
“There’s an informality about it that makes this special,” said Kristi Meal, owner of Rust Belt Books.
“It’s mad and lovely in here,” said Ted Pelton, a writer and publisher of Starcherone Books. “There are so many people, and you get to see all the different things going on in Buffalo, and things that came out of Buffalo, too.
“People don’t get a chance to show their stuff a lot. They get to pass them hand to hand, but to share them with the community, there’s nothing like it.”
Crow Pie Press, out of Rochester, with “chapbooks, ephemera and bath products,” neatly summarized the variety of offerings.
The event was started three years ago by Chris Fritton to provide a venue for work that has trouble finding shelf space and is often marginalized. This year is the largest yet; Fritton estimated up to 2,000 people would be there before the day’s end, based on the number of programs given out.
While most of the sellers were from Buffalo, there was a large number from the East Coast and a few from the Midwest.
Artist Elizabeth Switzer said she had sold a considerable number of tea-stained cards and was enthralled by the gathering.
“It’s fantastic. I’ve actually been doing book sales for about 1z years, and this is one of the best-attended sales I’ve been to.”
Photographer Michael Mulley of Queen City Gallery in the Market Arcade said the exposure was great.
“I get to talk to 10, 20 times more people than I would talk to in my store,” Mulley said.
Gina Pennock had a display to promote Felt Press, where she makes paper and prints, and does book binding. People were invited to feel paper made of abaca, a Japanese fiber, cotton sheets that had been colored and died and another made with snakeskin.
“Our intent is to be a papermaker for local writers in the poetry hub and alternative press. This is really great. We’ve been making connections and sharing what it is that we do,” Pennock said.
Designer and photographer Paul Panfalone, sporting an “H-O Oats” T-shirt for the former Buffalo grain elevator, was also enthusiastic about the attention.
“This gives me some exposure, lets me network with other artists in the community and gets my name out there, at least for a Web site,” Panfalone said.
Among the authors selling their books were Lyne Harris- Westbrook, who was offering an autobiographical work, and Garry Ross, playwright-in-residence for the Ujima Theatre Company.
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