Alice Ladrick and Jonny Lohr, two Milwaukee-area poets and small press publishing hobbyists, started their press, Adjunct Press, in 2015.
“Originally, we’d get the pages printed at Clark Graphics and then do the binding during our volunteer shifts at People’s Books in Riverwest,” says Lohr. “Eventually, we collected our own means of production, and now we do almost everything in our basement and living room.”
Adjunct Press publishes small runs of hand-sewn poetry chapbooks. They generally publish two or three books a year in editions of 50 copies. Sometimes they print 100 copies, like with Susan Firer’s “A Roof of Birds.”
Firer was a beloved University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee poetry professor who passed away last year, and a mentor to Lohr.
“She was probably most instrumental in developing my interest in poetry,” says Lohr. “Over the years, she remained an inspiration and poetry hero.”
Last August, they received an email from Susan’s son, Bix Hazard, asking if they would be interested in publishing her manuscript.
“We were honored that she had kept us in mind for the manuscript and jumped at the opportunity,” says Lohr. “This collection looks at life and mortality in a really honest and moving way.”
Adjunct Press prints text pages with a Brother laser printer. They also use a Provisional Press, a DIY letterpress kit; a Prixel Press, a modular stamping kit; and Riso Print Gocco, a vintage Japanese screen-printing kit that they found at Goodwill.
“We like to combine the easy with the difficult,” says Lohr. “It’s kind of astonishing how good we have it today with xerography and laser printing. That being said, we would get bored if we were just hitting ‘print,’ so we try to play around with the available mediums to try to give each book something special.”
All of the books are hand-sewn and printed on recycled paper. Recently, the press was gifted a large supply of old paper from Woodland Pattern’s basement, collected by Milwaukee poet and publisher, Karl Young.
“We’ve been having fun using those to tie into the local history,” says Lohr.
Adjunct Press also published “Eight Memoranda” by Michael Begnal; “Walk a Little Differently Up Hill,” a collection of poems and letters from the late poet and professor James Liddy; and Squibs by former Milwaukee poet laureate Jim Chapson. Ladrick also released a double chapbook, “Isotope/Autobitchography.”
Ladrick and Lohr met in a poetry workshop in 2011. Lohr worked at the Capitol Drive Office Depot and made zines and chapbooks out of the copy center there. Ladrick had taken book arts, printing and paper marbling classes over the years. Currently, the couple lives in St. Francis.
“We wanted to combine our different approaches to the small press world,” says Lohr.
And so, they did.
Follow Adjunct Press on Facebook and Instagram. Visit the website here.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
