Breach Press Launch Party

OMG! Pastelegram is launching a new publishing project!

Join us at grayDUCK gallery to celebrate the launch of BREACH PRESS and the release of our first book, The Poet and the Prostitute.

Dedicated to translation work, Breach Press publishes bilingual editions of stories, plays, poetry and other short form writing in letterpressed and handbound books and broadsides. For each publication, our editors work with the translator to develop a new visual format in conversation with the original text.

The Poet and the Prostitute features a 17th-century story from Bengal about a poet who finds Krishna through the teachings of a prostitute. It’s an adventurous, surreal tale, and one of the rare instances in the Bengali tradition in which women appear as teachers of men. The text was translated by literary scholar Ishan Chakrabarti and includes illustrations by Natalie Bradford. Bound horizontally, the format of the book references traditional Bengali manuscripts, handwritten on long palm leaves.

The Breach Press edition of The Poet and the Prostitute was hand-printed and bound by Pastelegram’s Allison Myers in an edition of 75. Copies will be on sale for $30. They are also available for pre-order online.
 
**At 7:30pm Ishan Chakrabarti will perform selections from the original Bangla text, traditionally sung out loud.**