Grief is love with nowhere to go. Sometimes it gets locked up inside for years.
LETTERBOX: The Geometry of Loss is deeply moving and beautiful book that addresses how a person can deal with personal loss, feel the bottomless pain, yet manage to move on. Written by former New York Times reporter Rick Black, it is the story of a young man’s coming to grips with the unexpected death of his mother from cancer and other traumatic memories from his years as a reporter in the Middle East. The sparse poetic prose—which consists of only a few words per page—is choreographed for the page by visual literature pioneer Warren Lehrer. His typographic settings give delicate and surprising form to the interior, emotional and metaphorical underpinnings of Black’s words. Together, the writing and visuals create a moving, beautiful, and distinctively cinematic book experience. Letter Box: The Geometry of Loss is a vehicle for readers of all ages to process their own emotions through a visual and literary odyssey.
Rick Black: is an award-winning journalist, poet and book artist. His artist books are represented in private and public collections, including the Library of Congress, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the University of Michigan, Rutgers University and others. Awards include: The 2019 Isaac Anolic Jewish Book Arts Award, the 2013 Split This Rock Best Poetry Book Award, Poetica Magazine’s 2012 Poetry Chapbook Prize for contemporary Jewish writing, and the 1998 James W. Hackett Award from the British Haiku Society. His poems and translations have appeared in The Atlanta Review, Midstream, U.S. 1 Worksheets, Frogpond, Cricket, RawNervz, Blithe Spirit, Still, and other journals. Black earned his B.A. from NYU and subsequently won a two-year scholarship to study Hebrew literature at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A journalist for many years, Black worked overseas from 1988-1991 in the Jerusalem bureau of The Associated Press and The New York Times. He also has contributed articles to The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning News, The Jerusalem Post, The Forward and many others. While he enjoyed reporting, he was intent on pursuing his love of literature and books. After studying at the Center for Book Arts in New York City, he won a fellowship there for a letterpress printing and fine press publishing seminar. In 2005, he founded his own imprint, Turtle Light Press. In 2017, Black completed The Amichai Windows, a ten-year project of translation, research, design, letterpress printing and hand bookbinding. A collection of 18 poems by renown Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, The Amichai Windows opens a window onto love, war, and being Jewish today. Other publications include Star of David, and Peace and War: : A Collection of Haiku From Israel. A New Jersey native, Mr. Black now lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and daughter. He gives talks and workshops at universities, libraries, synagogues and JCCs and has participated in national book arts and fine art exhibitions. He teaches at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center in Hyattsville, MD, and the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC.
Warren Lehrer: is a writer/designer known as a pioneer in the fields of visual literature and design authorship. His books, acclaimed for capturing the shape of thought and reuniting the oral and pictorial traditions of storytelling with the printed page, include: A Life in Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley; Jericho’s Daughter; Riveted in the Word; Five Oceans in a Teaspoon (with Dennis Bernstein); Ouvert Oeuvre: Openings (with Adeena Karasick); Crossing the BLVD: strangers, neighbors, aliens in a new America (with Judith Sloan); The Portrait Series (four-book suite); GRRRHHHH: a study of social patterns (with Bernstein and Sandra Brownlee); French Fries (with Bernstein); i mean you know; and versations. He has received many awards for his books and multimedia projects. Honors include: Ladislav Sutnar Lifetime Achievement Prize, Center For Book Arts Honoree, the Brendan Gill Prize, the Innovative Use of Archives Award, the IPPY Outstanding Book of the Year Award, the International Book Award for Best New Fiction, three AIGA Book Awards, two Type Directors Club Awards, two Design Incubation Awards, a Special Recognition Award from the Society of Typographic Arts, a Media That Matters Award, and fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Foundation for the Arts, Rockefeller, Ford, Greenwall, and Furthermore Foundations. His work has been exhibited widely and is in many collections including MoMA, L.A. County Art Museum, The Getty Museum, The Walker Art Center, Georges Pompidou Centre, and Tate Gallery. Lehrer is also a performer, and has co-written four plays, one opera, co-composed two audio CDs. He is a frequent lecturer and presenter at universities, art and literary centers, and bookstores throughout the U.S. and internationally. Lehrer is a founding faculty member of the Designer As Author & Entrepreneur MFA program at the School of Visual Arts, and Professor Emeritus at Purchase College, SUNY. With his wife Judith Sloan, Lehrer founded EarSay, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to uncovering and portraying the lives of the uncelebrated in print, on stage, on the radio, in exhibitions, concert halls, electronic media, and through educational programs in public schools, community centers, and prisons.