American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 01609
United States
Poet Melissa Range will read from her new poetry collection about the nineteenth century abolitionist movement, Printer’s Fist (Vanderbilt University Press, 2026), winner of the 2025 Vanderbilt Literary Prize. Printer’s Fist tells the story of a political movement—its strides and setbacks, its unity and fractures—with a particular emphasis on its print culture. Drawing upon more than a decade’s worth of archival research into nineteenth-century antislavery newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, and more, Range highlights the expansiveness of the movement by focusing not on one, but a chorus of abolitionist voices. Range, who began research for this book as a Baron Fellow at AAS, will also discuss her research and writing process for creating Printer’s Fist.
Melissa Range is the author of Printer’s Fist, winner of the 2025 Vanderbilt Literary Prize (Vanderbilt University Press, 2026), as well as Scriptorium (Beacon Press, 2016) and Horse and Rider (Texas Tech University Press, 2010). Range is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the American Antiquarian Society, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and MacDowell. Originally from East Tennessee, she teaches creative writing and American literature at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.