About Nawakum Press
Nawakum Press publishes exceptional, hand crafted, fine press books. We originate and manage the production of unique projects in highly limited editions. The book arts community is blessed with an outstanding array of gifted artists, papermakers, hand bookbinders, and letterpress printers. There are also many skilled purveyors of digital output bringing their creativity and expertise to the field. The Press draws from this remarkable collection of talent to help execute its vision of pairing singular works of modern literature with compelling art.
Nawakum Press began publishing in 1979 in a garage that housed The Feathered Serpent Press in San Anselmo, California. Don Greame Kelley, master letterpress printer, artist and author was proprietor of the Press. Don was, among other pursuits, teaching a letterpress printing and bookmaking class at the time. It was under his tutelage that the first printed book of Nawakum Press, Seven Birds, first came into being. It would be another thirty years before the Press would publish its second book, Undersea, by Rachel L. Carson.
During the intervening years there has been an evolution, some say a revolution, in how words and images are gathered together in books. The Press embraces the advantage of new technologies while maintaining a profound respect for fine presses of the past. In this publishing endeavor the Press also seeks to support those accomplished book artisans currently at work in the field. In their own special way, they are also the stories we wish to tell.
