American Antiquarian Society
185 Salisbury Street
Worcester, MA 01609
United States
Poet Melissa Range reads from her new poetry collection about the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement. Printer’s Fist (2026), winner of the 2025 Vanderbilt Literary Prize, tells the story of a political movement—its strides and setbacks, unity and fractures—with a particular emphasis on its print culture. Drawing upon more than a decade of archival research into nineteenth-century antislavery newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides, and more, she 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 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). Originally from East Tennessee, she teaches creative writing and American literature at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She was a Robert and Charlotte Baron Fellow at AAS in 2013.