The nuts and bolts page:

Founded in 1995 by Tony Gorsline, the home offices of Bedbug Press were originally located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but in January, 2004, Tony returned to his U.S. home town, Brownsville, OR., and now occupies his newly constructed offices just across the street from the Brownsville Community Library and right next to the historic Brownsville mill race.

OUR HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

"Going Over the Falls," a collection of poetry, was Tony's inaugural publishing effort. The author was Tony's long-time friend, Gretchen Sousa. Gretchen studied under Mark Strand and Robert Peters at U.C. Irvine, has published in Sojourner, Image, and Mars Hill, won awards from the National Association of American Pen Women and the San Diego County Christian Writers' Guild, and has taught at Writer's Conferences in the San Diego area and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Gretchen had self-published three collections of poetry, but as she began work on a fourth book, "Going Over the Falls," she asked Tony to provide some editorial direction, and to supervise design and printing. And this he was happy to do. Original art for the book was created by Gretchen's daughter, Kimberly Maier. Kimberly's most recent showing of her work at a prestigious New York gallery drew critical acclaim.

The Bedbug Press imprint was on the copyright page, so "Going Over the Falls" became the first book to bear the proud name of Bedbug. The book sold all its 500-copy print run. Despite this (admittedly small) publishing success, Tony continued with his work as a documentary video producer.

After Tony retired from his work as a documentary video producer, he decided to let his life-long love of books and writing and reading lead him into the full-time operation of a small press.

And. . . serendipitous people and events began appearing in Tony’s life

Dr. Chris Anderson

Dorinda Clifton, another life-long friend, asked Tony to provide editorial advice and assistance with a memoir she was writing. Dorinda introduced Tony to Dr. Chris Anderson, a published poet and essayist on the faculty of Oregon State University. Chris showed Tony a collection of his poems that he wanted to see published and Tony said, “YEAH! Let’s do it!” And Bedbug Press was off and running on its first book of poetry. Serendipity struck again as Chris Anderson introduced Tony to his friends at the Corvallis-based magazine, RUBBERSTAMPMADNESS (RSM). RSM is a highly successful magazine devoted to a quirky---and vastly popular---art form: rubberstamp and mail art.

The Team:

Roberta Sperling, Editor/publisher
Michael Malan, Managing Editor
Peter Sears, Conventions Director

In 2000, Peter Sears and Michael Malan edited and produced "Millennial Spring - Eight New Oregon Poets," a poetry anthology featuring Northwest poets. Under the imprint of Cloudbank Books and marketed thru a series of readings by the poets, the book was---for a book of poetry---wildly successful, selling out its initial print run.

The success of "Millennial Spring" was due in a large part to the experience and astute direction of Peter Sears. Peter is a graduate of Yale and the Iowa Writers Workshop, has taught at Reed College , and has served as Dean of Students at Bard College and as community services coordinator for the Oregon Arts Commission. His work has appeared in many literary journals and he was the winner of the 1999 Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize.

Almost before you could say "Cloudbank Books, an imprint of Bedbug Press," the RSM people and Tony and Chris Anderson agreed to join together---Bedbug Press providing the working capital, Roberta, Michael, Peter, and Chris providing editorial direction, and RSM providing production services. This arrangement worked very well for Tony, indeed so well that by the summer of 2005 Tony took over all the work himself. He has since handled all editorial and production with the very able assistance of Cheryl McLean of ImPrint Services who provides book design and layout and much astute advice based on her many talents as a book designer coupled with her years of experience in this field.

It was decided early on that Bedbug Press would begin publishing the work of noteworthy regional poets; this has resulted in a series of books called The Northwest Poetry Series. The first two books in the series, Chris Anderson’s book, "My Problem With the Truth," and "Insects of South Corvallis" by Charles Goodrich, were published in 2003. "Out of Town" by Lex Runciman, the third in the series, was published in 2004, and the fourth book, "A Bride of Narrow Escape" by Paulann Petersen was published in January of 2006.

In addition to the Northwest Poetry Series, Bedbug Press has published noteworthy manuscripts by other American poets. The first of these was "The Soul's Habitation," by Gretchen Sousa, who lives in San Diego, the second, "Night Highway," by Barbara Koons, whose home is Indianapolis, the third, "Red Kimono, Yellow Barn," by David Hassler, who lives in Kent, OH, and the fourth was “In a Stone’s Hollow,” by Freddy Frankel of Boston, MA.  Freddy was first runner-up in the 2006 first book poetry contest, the Rhea and Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition.

Barbara Koons was a runner-up in Bedbug Press'  2003 inaugural Rhea & Seymour Gorsline Poetry Competition.  The winner of the 2003 contest was "Textbook Illustrations of the Human Body," by George Estreich.  The 2004 contest winner was "Solar Prominence," by Kevin Craft. The two co-winners of the 2005 contest were Susan Davis, "Gathering Sound," and Juan Morales, "Friday and the Year that Followed," and the 2006 contest winner is John C.Morrison, “Heaven of the Moment.”

We are proud of the many awards our poets have received: Paulann Petersen was selected as a finalist for the Oregon Literary Arts 2006 Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry and  Literary Arts also presented The Stewart H.Holbrook Literary Legacy Award to Paulann for her outstanding work on the board of the Friends of William Stafford.  Barbara Koons was 1st Finalist for Poetry in the 2006 Best Books of Indiana Awards given by the Indiana State Library, David Hassler was 2006 Ohio Poetry Day Association Poet of the Year award, and Freddy Frankel won the New England Writers Robert Penn Warren First Award.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE In 2006, we inaugurated a new poetry imprint, Fairweather Books. Henceforth all our poetry books will be published under the Fairweather imprint. We are continuing to publish more manuscripts submitted as entries in the Poetry Competition, some that will continue the Northwest Poetry Series, and others that will add to our books by poets from other parts of the country. We are encouraged by the good reception our poetry books have received from readers and reviewers, and, now that Small Press Distribution, Inc. is distributing our books, more and more book stores and libraries across the country are carrying our books. The future is bright. There are so many good unpublished manuscripts. We are excited about the possibilities!