By Graduate Assistant Ellie Eggl 

Hello all!

We at NDSU Press are excited to announce the recent publication of NDSU Press’s most recent chapbook, The Distance That Isn’t Miles. I, as our Graduate Research Assistant, am happy to show you some of our process in making this book real and take you behind the scenes on our recent trip to Braddock, North Dakota.

Every year, the Intro to Publishing class puts on their aprons and inks up their brayers to publish a chapbook, chosen by the Poetry of the Plains and Prairies competition that is put on yearly by NDSU’s Publishing house. This year’s winner, Anthony Albright, joined us this year in Braddock to help publish his poetry collection. We had the help of talented experts in printing Allen Burke, Leah Burke, and Mike Frykman in using these turn-of-the-century letterpresses to individually hand-print each and every page of these chapbooks. We folded each page individually, collated them, and then used a stitching machine to put them together into a final book. Finally, we stitched a sage green ribbon through the covers to represent the journey that takes place in this chapbook!

The Distance That Isn’t Miles is a poetic narrative through the eyes of a Choctaw narrator recruited to be a parachute rigger with the U.S. Armed Forces. It follows his rigorous and identity-challenging journey through training, memories of home, and the responsibility one undertakes when there are lives at stake. This poetry chapbook incorporates the Choctaw language and shows deep connection with culture in the face of adversity. Our author also signed each individual copy, pictured below!

This experience was an extremely valuable one for me, and as the Graduate Assistant, I got to see where multiple different careers in publishing and printing could lead me in the future. As such, I’m endlessly thankful to the press, Dr. Suzzanne Kelley, and all of my fellow classmates. Let’s celebrate this accomplishment together!