Worlds by Rae Armantrout with handpainted cover by Cynthia E Miller

Description

Worlds (no ISBN), 9 poems, published October 2026 by Chax Press, with handpainted, printed image by Cynthia E. Miller
$30

Worlds is the first completely letterpress printed book by Chax Press in about 8 years, and it’s a terrific return to the roots of our work of publishing poetry and of joining poetry to book forms that emanate from our understanding of the specific book. “Form is never more than an extension of content,” or, as a more honed statement, “Form is content.” In this case, nine poems by Rae Armantrout, printed with generous spacing, on a Vandercook printing press, by Charles Alexander, Rocko Foltz, and Ben Claus. The book exists in two versions. For this one, the cover contains a hand-painted print by Cynthia E. Miller (Chax artist) on Rives Heavyweight paper, and is folded with French flaps. The book is hand sewn as a single chapbook binding, using sage green Irish linen thread for the sewing. The people who helped in the binding are Cynthia Miller, Charles Alexander, Rocko Foltz, and Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. This version of the book exists in an edition of 110 numbered copies, each signed by the author.

The 9 poems in Worlds present nine different sorts of worlds, including “Poem-World,” “Art-World,” “Wonder-Land,” “Physical World,” “Dream-World,” “Miss World,” “Other World,” “Underworld,” and “Floating World.”

Rae Armantrout is one of the original poets of the West coast “language” poets. She is also a Pulitzer Prize Winning poet, and one of the most rigorous and fascinating poets of our time. Cynthia E. Miller is a poet and visual artist who makes the work of Chax Press always better. She has shown works in the American Southwest, New York City, and the UK.

The book is available only direct from Chax Press.