Introducing SOMEONE EDITIONS
Someone Editions is Dreadnaught Press, reinvented. Deborah Barnett and Beatriz Hausner head up the team of creatives, focusing on publishing fine art books that highlight both visual art and literary traditions. Expanding the reach of contemporary print culture, Someone uses traditional letterpress printing and design expertise to create new methods of print and publishing.
Deborah Barnett is the creative director for Someone studio, and a founding member of the studio in its previous incarnation as Dreadnaught. As publisher, she is the heart of Someone Editions. Deborah will be leading this project and executing the vision of a stunning fine art book with a focus on art, poetry, and the history and appreciation of letterpress techniques. Deborah heads up a team of experts in a wide array of related disciplines. With a unique insight for fine art in a digital age, she will be overseeing the design and print production of the folio.
Beatriz Hausner is a poet whose work is rooted in the legacy of international surrealism. She has edited many publications, including the SomeoneWater Series and several issues of the journal Open Letter. Recent poetry books include: Sew Him Up (2010), Enter the Raccoon (2012), La costurera y el muñeco viviente/The Seamstress and the Living Doll (2012). Beatriz was a publisher of Quattro Books from 2006-2012 and is a seasoned editor and translator. She lives in Toronto. As Editor of Year of the Quiet Sun and will be finalizing all editorial components.
DREADNAUGHT
Dreadnaught Press was founded in the 1970’s by Robert MacDonald, Elizabeth Abraham, Ross MacDonald, David Jang and Deborah Barnett. A fine printing cooperative, it brought together artists and designers who wanted to publish poetry. Letterpress equipment was becoming readily accessible as the printing industry changed, and the Dreadnaught team put together a working pressroom. They were the first incorporated worker co-op in Canada.
'In the mid-1970s I had the good fortune to be introduced to the principals at Dreadnaught, a group of about four individuals obsessed with excellence in design and relief printing.
At a time when the mainstream media were trumpeting the merits—nay, the very salvation of mankind--which would soon be wrought by computers and all things digital, Dreadnaught persevered in creating exquisite examples of the letterpress book arts, in creating masterpieces of page and type design. Dreadnaught’s work was praised to the skies by, among others, Alan Fleming, the man who I believe was the finest designer that Canada has ever produced; Alan’s endorsement of Dreadnaught was unequivocal when I met him to ask if he felt I was well-advised to do editorial work with the group.
My anthology, Whale Sound, was designed by Dreadnaught, and the group also produced a beautiful, limited edition of the work. The superb design of Whale Sound was surely a factor in the book’s runaway success—the mainstream publisher told me it was the bestselling trade anthology of poetry in Canadian publishing history.
I also edited an anthology of 52 poems for Dreadnaught, each by a different and noted Canadian author. The spectacular design of 52 Pickup has to be seen to be believed. Every poem was printed on different stock, every poem had its own typeface, and every poem was accorded a singular respect by the designers such that no anthology, before or since, has attained—not just in Canada, but in the world.
I trust that if they are given the modest funds they seek, the successors to the Dreadnaught mantle will do Ludwig Zeller proud—and will continue to make this country proud as well.'
Greg Gatenby, October 15, 2013
The Dreadnaught collective expanded. With the participation of Greg Gatenby, editor of the legendary 52 Pickup and Whale Sound, Dreadnaught became known for publishing the early works of the foremost Canadian poets and artists of our time, including Margaret Atwood, Artie Gold, George Bowering, John Robert Colombo, Steve McCaffery, Toni Onley, Harold Town, Ken Danby, William Kurelek, Naoko Matsubara, and Michael Snow, among many others.
Dreadnaught became a design studio, and eventually ceased publishing operations to focus on building websites. It turned into Someone.ca, a professional design studio, and in 2010 Someone revived its hand printing and publishing operations.
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