American Amateur Press Association News

Last updated: June 23, 2008

Tampa Skyline

2008 Convention: Tampa, June 12 - 14

Forty-six members and guests gathered in Tampa, Florida, as AAPA President Leland Hawes hosted the 2008 American Amateur Press Association convention, which was held from Thursday, June 12, through Saturday, June 14.

Convention headquarters was the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel in downtown Tampa, across the Hillsborough River from the University of Tampa, where several sessions were held.

University of Tampa Press Director Richard Mathews, arranged for several sessions to take place at the Book Arts Studio, which has a Washington hand press and a Vandercook proof press plus numerous cases of type.

One of the speakers, Joe Diachenko, provided a PDF file containing his presentation "Print Differently," a discussion of graphic design & what not. Last year he spoke at the Portland convention on "Journal Design."

You can read about and see pictures from the convention on the Web:

American APA Blog contains reports by Linda Donaldson and Susan Petrone from the convention
The related photo album contains pictures mostly taken by Linda
Richard Matthews wrote about preparations for the convention in the Tampa Book Arts Studio Blog
Gary Johanson blogged about the convention on June 5, June 13, and June 20
Bob Turner's photos from the convention

Read about recent AAPA conventions, including highly successful Tampa conventions held in 1998 and 2003, from the AAPA Conventions Page.

New AAPA Domain

After being located on an AOL server since 1996, on May 6 the AAPA claimed its own Internet domain: www.AAPAinfo.org. All the content has been moved, with forwarding links left behind to guide visitors to the new locations.

There's always a chance that a link was missed or a page misplaced. Please check out your old bookmarks and report any problems to the Webmaster, Dave Tribby.

Ink Cahoots

Ink Cahoots is the American Amateur Press Association's annual cooperative publication, published since 1973. Individual members print a 4½ by 6 inch page, leaving at least ½ inch margin on the side to be bound.

For 2008, coordinator Dave Tribby requests 255 copies of each page (15 more than required by the mailer, to allow for file copies and miscounts). Deadline for submissions is August 30. For further information, write to Dave at dtribby@stanfordalumni.org

Laureate Awards

Results from the 2006-07 Laureate Board's deliberations:

Prose Fiction: No laureate

Prose Non-Fiction: Jim McDonnell, ``A 50th Anniversary Toast to Air Force Pilot Training Class 56-H''
Honorable Mention: Michael Coughlin, ``The Medical Miracle Worker''

Poetry: No laureate

Journal of Overall Excellence: Leland M. Hawes, Jr., Gator Growl

Letterpress Printed Journal: Ivan Snyder, The Amateur Observer
Honorable Mention: David M. Tribby, The Handset Journal

Non-Letterpress Printed Journal: Mike O'Connor, Spare Time
Honorable Mention: Tim & Penny Dye , Extreme Collector

Art: W. Gale Mueller, for his woodcut engraving of W. Paul Cook.

Laureate judges: Gordon Rouze (chair), Richard George, and Linda Donaldson.

You can view a list of all AAPA Laureate Awards since 1937.

New Pages

Recent additions to the AAPA Web site include

Recent issues of AAPA's official organ, American Amateur Journalist, in PDF format.
An introduction to AAPA E-Journals

2007-2009 Officers

Elected offices (term: October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2009)

President: Leland M. Hawes, Jr.
First Vice President: David M. Tribby
Second Vice President: Kathleen Deshotel
Official Editor: Sean Donnelly
Secretary-Treasurer: Ivan Snyder
Mailer: (through December 2009) Jack Scott
Manuscript Manager: Frederick J. Liddle
Board of Directors:

Schuyler ``Sky'' Shipley, Chairman
Dean Rea
Michael J. O'Connor

Appointed offices:

Historian: vacant
ALERT Coordinator: William B. Venrick
Laureate Board:

Richard George
Linda Donaldson
Ray Jerland