Lettre Sauvage

Welcome...

Lettre Sauvage is a family run letterpress printing and design studio. Every Lettre Sauvage note card, invitation, or fine press edition is a hand made original printed on archival, sustainable paper. Our restored vintage presses leave an impression that will add impact to any communication or event.

Effective timely communication is our central focus. We seek out archival and sustainable materials and methods. All work is made out of love, not just love of the results, but each activity and movement that creates the whole. We share our knowledge and preserve the best elements of printing history, instruction, processes, presses, and materials.

Featured items...


matchbook	poetry contest	nowhere	custom printing	windfall	long portrait

The Second Lettre Sauvage Poetry Contest...

The contest was judged by distinguished poet and scholar, Stephen Dunn. The first prize is an edition of chapbooks and the second prize an edition of broadsides designed and letterpress printed in our studio. Check out our editions for past winners and a sampling of our current publications.

Winners of the Second Contest

Lettre Sauvage is delighted to announce the winner of its Second Poetry Contest: Grace Curtis, of Waynesville, Ohio, whose manuscript The Surly Bonds of Earth was selected by Stephen Dunn.

The second place prize was awarded to Zayne Turner of North Garden, Virginia. Her poem, “H-R Diagram” was chosen by Stephen Dunn to be printed as a letterpress broadside.

Unless clearly stated otherwise, all content (C) & (P) 2008 Lettre Sauvage, any duplication, republication, or alteration, is strictly forbidden without permission from the specific content's originator/s. (In other words don't steal our designs, ideas, texts, or images without asking and being granted permission. Legal systems are mainly there to protect those who can afford them, so think about what you can afford, and then just make us an offer.) Lettre Sauvage, it's agents, employees, and creators make no guarantee regarding the fitness or suitability of this site to any particular purpose whether intententional or unintentional. Lettre Sauvage will not honor any claim or demand for compensation related to the veracity, currency, or stability, of the information offered on this site. Lettre Sauvage, it's agents, employees, and creators reserve the right to alter or deface or otherwise completely mess up any content or information stored on this site, at our discretion. By using this site you agree to abide by the contracts made availble on this initial body of text (body.htm) and thereby release any and all claims for compensation or damages related to the use, abuse, accuracy, or suitability of this site or any of it's content for any purpose, regardless of whether any percieved injury or damage is the direct or indirect result of any negligence, action, or inaction on the part of Lettre Sauvage, it's agents, employees, and creators. Lettre Sauvage does not store, retrieve, or make available any user data on this site. All data related to purchases and shopping initialized from this site are sent to secured servers at PayPal for verification storage and processing, Lettre Sauvage does not verify, store, process, or make available any payment or credit related information. Any and all email, or contact information, or texts provided by users through links or forms directly on lettresauvage.com become publishable property of Lettre Sauvage it's creators, maintainers, or agents. (In other words if you say something incredibly mean, or funny, or even totally nice to us... we can publish it, we do have presses and some knowledge about website creation, and we do read our email so this should be pretty obvious.)

This website was cobbled together using notepad, javascript, & CSS. All items printed and photographed by Lettre Sauvage (most likely within a 2 block radius of our home studio.) The revolution begins at home, start something.

	Chapbook featuring poems by Desiree Morales, Fiona Spring, Jackson Wheeler, Sophia Kid and John Charles Shippey and concrete poems by Cameron Leggett. The vivid cover printed in three colors including absence of color, was rendered using shredded pieces of waste polymer. Interior images include antique printing blocks and an abstract monoprint.
$15
The entire book was printed on cotton paper from hand-set type on the Vandercook SP-15. Numbered edition of 85.

	Genevieve Yue, author of Negative Sky: “In March 2006, I found a collection of old photographs in a novelty store in Taos, New Mexico. Very few of the pictures came with any identification, and it was evident that many had been torn out of albums and scrapbooks. I selected eight images and wrote pieces accompanying each. They were, to me, like ghosts: I knew little about where they came from, but was immediately struck, even haunted, by the expressions and postures that had been frozen in the photographs. I wanted Negative Sky, in writing and in print, to convey this sense of both intimacy and distance.”
$24
The book Negative Sky is a limited edition of 80. The old, faded snapshots were scanned and "translated" digitally in a mimesis of the poet's own claiming and distorting of the images. The resulting photopolymer plates were printed on the Chandler & Price platen press. The poems were printed from magnesium plates on the Pilot tabletop press to achieve the uneven quality that makes some of the words seem out of focus. A chipboard cover and rice paper spine finish off this collection of 8 poems and 8 snapshots. Lettre Sauvage 2006-2008.


matchbook sized stationery
inserted into replies or left on counter tops
1.5 x 1.5 - tear out perforated sheets 10 pages - salvage and tree free paper. Matchbooks can be printed with your own design and information. 150 pieces for only $300. See our custom printing page for other design ideas and examples.

The Second Lettre Sauvage Poetry Contest....

The contest was judged by distinguished poet and scholar, Stephen Dunn. The first prize is an edition of chapbooks and the second prize an edition of broadsides designed and letterpress printed in our studio. Check out our editions for past winners and a sampling of our current publications.

Winners of the Second Contest...

Lettre Sauvage is delighted to announce the winner of its Second Poetry Contest: Grace Curtis, of Waynesville, Ohio, whose manuscript The Surly Bonds of Earth was selected by Stephen Dunn.
The second place prize was awarded to Zayne Turner of North Garden, Virginia. Her poem, “H-R Diagram” was chosen by Stephen Dunn to be printed as a letterpress broadside.

	Windfall, a book of poems by Erin Bertram, is the winner of the first Lettre Sauvage Poetry Contest. "Spring-blown & ecstatic, the avid speech of Erin Bertram's poems awakens spirit to its core..." -Mark Irwin, contest judge 12 poems letterpressed and hand-sewn together on Crane’s Lettra #32 cotton paper. The cover art, printed on Stonehenge paper, is an original three-color woodblock print by John Charles Shippey.
$20
Limited edition of 102; designed and printed at Lettre Sauvage. 2010.

Business Stationery...

Letterpress is the decided preference for professional stationery from business cards to thank you notes. We enjoy providing personal, detail oriented service and meeting great companies. Hilary Sedgewick of 03 World Media shared this endorsement: “They look great and we have been getting great feedback on them (the red was spot on). They truly look wonderful. You were such a pleasure to work with as well because I have definitely had some nightmares with previous Printers.”

	The poem "As in Nowhere, No-One" by Kim Andrews was selected by Mark Irwin for the broadside award. From the Poem: "...Leap over the railing, into deep waters, reverse vertigo. / Swim towards the bottom. Away from the air." For the design of this broadside, hand-cut pieces of polymer were applied to a clean linoleum block and printed in multiple, overlapping colors.
$10.00
Limited edition of 75; designed and printed at Lettre Sauvage and signed by the author. 2010. 10" x 13"

	Long Portrait is a chapbook gathering 10 poems previously published in literary journals. Mark Irwin is the author of six full-length collections of poetry: Tall If (2008), Bright Hunger (2004), White City (2000), Quick, Now, Always (1996), Against the Meanwhile (1989), and The Halo of Desire (1987). For his poetry he has received four Pushcart Prizes and has held fellowships from the Fulbright, Lilly, NEA, and Wurlitzer foundations. He teaches in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles and Colorado.
$25
A limited edition of 80 chapbooks printed from hand-set 12 point Bembo Book typeface & 12 point Univers for the titles. The text paper is Crane’s Lettra pearl white. The cover is Stonehenge gray. 2007.