Mount Analogue, Cold Cube Press, Gramma Press, and a handful of visual artists are opening up offices in Pioneer Squares TK Building this August/September. Its going to be rad.
Three new-ish local presses and a handful of visual artists secured office space in the TK Building this August/September. It's going to be rad.

Mount Analogue, Cold Cube Press, and Gramma are set to open up shops in Pioneer Square's Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts later this summer.

You know Mount Analogue because they published two beautiful, one-of-a-kind books this year—Ted Powers's Manners and Halie Theoharides's Final Rose. You know Gramma because they published two incredible books of poetry this year—Sarah Galvin's Ugly Time and Christine Shan Shan Hou's Garden For Lonely Girls. And you know Cold Cube Press for publishing two gorgeous and fascinating risograph comics and literary arts anthologies, plus Taylor Dow's terrific comic book, Apocalypse Dad.

Mount Analogue will have its own suite in the building, and Gramma and Cold Cube will share a suite. The spaces will double as offices for the presses and event spaces for the public.

Mount Analogue founder/operator/book magician Colleen Louise Barry says her shop will be "focused on art books, small press, and printed matter from around the world, with some art objects sprinkled in." It will also be a community and art/performance space.

Starting September 5, Mount Analogue will be open Wednesday through Sunday noon-6 p.m., and for special events.

"The majority of the work we are stocking in Mount Analogue doesn't exist anywhere else in Seattle, and it feels really good linking our amazing community with the rest of the world's art book and small/independent press communities," Barry said in an e-mail.

Drew Swenhaugen, editor of Gramma, says he plans to name the office he shares with Cold Cube "Zzz," a reference the fact that they're in the building's "Z suite."

That office will be open to the public during particular hours TBD, and they'll be hosting events such as "workshops and classes, as well as book releases, readings, and art shows," according to Cold Cube publisher Aidan Fitzgerald.

"We're still figuring out exactly what programming will look like for Zzz, but we're excited to be showcasing as much work in as many different forms as we can," he said.

Since Cold Cube collaborates with Gramma and Mount Analogue—they're the in-house small press printer for both presses—Fitzgerald says he conceives of the two spaces as "a sort of meat factory / deli situation: MA slangs the sausages, and around the corner we make those sausages."

He encourages all to come down and see how the sausage is made. "It's a beautiful thing," he said, adding, "Also we are vegan friendly. The analogy doesn't work in that sense. Perhaps it's vegan sausage? Made of paper, and ink."

No matter your dietary ethics, this is good news for Seattle book-lovers. Despite this town's thriving reading scene, it can be hard to find venues to host independent writers and artists on national DIY tours. It seems like these publishers will be well-positioned to offer up space for that kind of thing. And if all goes according to plan, it also seems like they'll help train up the local folk in the arts of printmaking and bookmaking and writing good.

With longtime antiquarian bookstore Arundel Books aiming to host more events, readers might find themselves in Pioneer Square more often than they're used to, which ain't so bad neither.

Stay tuned for more as this story develops.