Running the Goat Books & Broadsides is a micro press specializing in letterpress-printed and limited-edition chapbooks, broadsides and poemphlets by Newfoundlanders and Newfoundland-based writers. The press’s name comes from a traditional set dance, originally danced in Harbour Deep on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula; Harbour Deep has been resettled, but the dance remains a distinct testament to the spirit and the culture of Newfoundland. In its publications, Running the Goat tries to capture something of the beauty and spontaneity, the joy and the intensity of that dance, and to celebrate the uniqueness of the writers who continue to live on, and write in response to, this island. Focusing on the work of Newfoundlanders is a way of thanking this community for the great reach of its embrace and acknowledging the richness and variety of its culture. I can recommend no other place so highly as a home for heart and mind, body and soul.

The press began, essentially, because of the encouragement of Tara Bryan, who invited me to visit her studio and to use her Vandercook SP15 printing press. One visit became two and then three, and soon I was tackling “the Goat’s” first chapbook. At every step of the way, Tara has kindly offered her insight and expertise. In 2002/2003, Tara and I received an apprenticeship grant through the province’s Department of Industry, Trade and Rural Development.

For the most part, the work of the press -- editing, designing, printing and binding, as well as publicity and distribution -- is a one-person operation. However, Tara has provided wonderful advice at some (often every) stage of each project, and I welcome the advice of the artists and writers whose work I undertake to publish. Each publication, then, is a collaboration, and although the press’s “staff” is limited in number, its spirit is collective. Occasionally my daughter, Rachel Dragland, and other friends are lured into temporary service cranking the press, collating and folding pages, or sewing books. I am grateful to all who have helped, in whatever way, in these first few years of exploration and education.

I have worked in libraries and bookstores, have studied and taught literature, and continue to review and edit it, as well as print it. At almost every stage of my life, my work has grown out of a love of, and delight in, books and language. It is my great hope that Running the Goat’s publications are further expressions of that love and delight.

Marnie Parsons
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