Tom Killion, author and printmaker, will speak on “Illustrating the High Sierra: Adapting Japanese Woodcut Techniques for Letterpress Printing” on Friday, March 10, at a Friends of the Madden Library event. A reception will be held at 6 p.m., followed at 6:30 by his presentation in the Alice Peters Auditorium at the University Business Center
Killion studied history at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he was introduced to fine-book printing. In 1975, he produced his first illustrated book of woodcut prints, “28 Views of Mount Tamalapis” on UCSC’s Cowell Press. After extensive travel in Europe and Africa, Killion returned to Santa Cruz in 1977, founded Quail Press and published his second book, “Fortress Mann.”
Killion, who holds a doctorate in African history from Stanford University, did research in Europe and Africa, learned more about multicolor woodcut printing and worked as administrator of a medical relief program for Ethiopian refugees in Sudan.
He has taught at Bowdoin College in Maine, at San Francisco State and Stanford, while running Quail Press, which in 2000 published, “The High Sierra of California.” It features 36 original prints and excerpts from journals of Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gary Snyder.
Friends of the Madden Library members are admitted at no charge; nonmembers pay $2 at the door and students $1.
Reservations are required by March 8. Friends of the Madden Library meetings are accessible to the physically handicapped. A sign-language interpreter will be provided upon advance request.
For more information, call 278.5790 or visit www.lib.csufresno.eduilibrarvinformation/maddenfriends/welcome.html.
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