Punta del Burro
With drawings by Jon Gregg
Poems by Kwame Dawes
Newark, Vermont: Janus Press, 2018.

9.75 x 12" case contains two items "Vallarta Drawings" and a chapbook of corresponding poems. Box covered in Barcham Green Renaissance IV and Twinrocker Black Abaca with maple wooden sides. In slipcase covered with Gruppo Cordenons Bakri paper made by Judi Conant. Signed by poet and artist. Numbered.

Vallarta Drawings: 8.5 x 10.5"; 52 pages. Original drawings scanned and then printed with an Epson SureColor P600. Prepared in the computer for polymer plates and printed letterpress by Andrew Miller-Brown. Bound in covers of Canal paper from St. Armand Papeterie in Montreal.

Chapbook of edited poems: 10.25 x 6"; 40 pages. Printed on handmade Japanese Kozo Natural in two different makings. Text set in Gill Sans. Printed letterpress by Andrew Miller-Brown. Bound in handmade St Armand linen with handsewn binding.

Janus Press: "Punta del Burro… with drawings by Jon Gregg that inspired poems by Kwame Dawes. The poems were handwritten directly on the photo copies images requested by Kwame from Jon. The accompanying chapbook contains the poems set in type. The page numbers of the books are synchronized with each other, though once one gets used to reading the cursive, it is very legible."

Colophon: "In 2012, whist at the Vermont Studio Center, Kwame Dawes saw a set of twenty-four Vallarta Drawings VSC Founder Jon Gregg had made in the town of Punta del Burro, outside of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. He requested and received a set of the photocopies and subsequently wrote poems around the drawings directly on the 11 x 17" sheets.Kwame has described his process in the accompanying chapbook of the edited poems.

Kwame Dawes, www.kwamedawes.com/about/ (accessed 11/26/2018): "Born in Ghana in 1962, Kwame Dawes moved to Jamaica in 1971 and spent most of his childhood and early adult life in Jamaica. He is a writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and plays. As a poet, he is profoundly influenced by the rhythms and textures of that lush place, citing in an interview his 'spiritual, intellectual, and emotional engagement with reggae music.'

"Kwame Dawes is the author of twenty books of poetry and numerous other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. … He is Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and teaches at the University of Nebraska and the Pacific MFA Program. He is Director of the African Poetry Book Fund and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival."

Jon Gregg, Brattleboro Community TV, telecast Jan 9, 2017: " Jon Gregg is well-known as the founder and president of the Vermont Studio Center, the largest artist retreat in the United States located in Johnson, VT. In the 33 years Gregg ran VSC he was also actively painting in his studio of the retreat. His paintings utilize Buddhist principles, treating the act of painting as a meditative practice, each resulting piece free of attachment and permanence."
$750