Ink & Ribbon Press Announces First Book

Sesquipedalian Rain Chant by Brooks Lampe to publish in 2026

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time. Today, I’m announcing that Ink & Ribbon Press will publish its first book.

The book is Sesquipedalian Rain Chant by Brooks Lampe.

This feels like a threshold moment. Ink & Ribbon began as an idea, only 4 months ago, about slowness, care, and the belief that poetry still deserves to be made, and read, with attention.

Signing our first book means that idea is now real. It has weight. It has pages.

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About The Book

Sesquipedalian Rain Chant is a poetry collection rooted in Oregon’s wet seasons and shaped by spiritual, poetic, and philosophical inheritance.

Structured as a passage through the year, the book treats rain not as backdrop but as practice—a recurring force that unsettles language and love. The poems move between domestic life and ancient voices, asking how coherence might be lived.

This is a book for readers drawn to poetry that holds depth and mystery, and who are willing to be changed not by certainty, but by the steady persistence of rain.

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Edition Details

This will be a limited edition publication, made carefully and deliberately:

• 250 copies in the standard edition

• 3 fine art editions, produced separately by McCall Bindery

We publish slowly, in small numbers, and with an emphasis on durability rather than scale.

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About The Poet

Brooks Lampe teaches English and poetry, specializing in world literature, poetry, , aesthetic theory, and composition; he is the poetry editor of Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal and edits the Substack Uut Poetry. His scholarship and poetry engage Surrealism, literary history, and his poems have appeared in journals including Utriculi, The Shore, and Peculiar Mormyrid; Sesquipedalian Rain Chant is his first book.

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What’s Next

Here’s the broad arc ahead:

• Pre-orders open: February 15th, 2026

• Printing: late spring 2026

• Publication: June 15th, 2026

Between now and then, I’ll be sharing excerpts from the manuscript, a conversation with Brooks, and glimpses into the editorial and design process—how a book like this actually comes into being.

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Open Reading Period Through February 14

Today’s announcement isn’t the closing of a door—it’s an invitation.

Submissions during the open reading directly support this book and help make the next one possible.

If you’ve been circling a manuscript, revising one last poem, or telling yourself soon—this is your nudge.

Thank you for being here at the beginning. I’m excited, a little nervous, and very grateful to share what comes next.

- G. K. Allum (President & Founding Editor, Ink & Ribbon Press)

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