Alan Loney : The Books to Come

Of Alan Loney’s long-anticipated collection of essays entitled The Books to Come, Johanna Drucker has written: “Few people have mused with such imagination on the topic of the book as Alan Loney does in this volume. His reflections distill a lifetime of practice and reading, of knowing books and living with and around them. His thoughts about libraries, writing, texts, the codex, printed books, the artist’s book, fine press traditions, and bibliography are at once philosophical and poetical. Though writing in the tradition of Mallarmé, Jabès and Blanchot, Loney’s sensibility is contemporary and original, informed by his practice as a printer and a profound engagement with books as expressive objects and objects of contemplation." Foreword by Jenni Quilter. 

Alan Loney was a poet, handpress printer, and writer on the nature of the book. Recent poetry includes Crankhandle (Cordite), Heidegger’s bicycle(Paekakariki Press), Melbourne Journal (UWA Publishing), and Next to nothing (Red Dragonfly Press). His books about books include The printing of a masterpiece (Black Pepper), The books to come (Cuneiform Press), and In search of the book as a work of art (Opifex Books). Loney was printer at The Holloway Press at the University of Auckland, and has recently retired from Electio Editions. He published Verso : a magazine for the book as a work of art. He has been Literary Fellow at University of Auckland, and was awarded the poetry prize in the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards as well as The Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for a life’s achievement in poetry. Loney’s poetry has also been printed in limited editions by Granary Books, Ink-A! Press, Nawakum Press, The Press at Colorado College, Mixolydian Press, Greenboathouse Press, Ninja Press, and Barbarian Press, among others. He lived with his partner, artist and musician Miriam Morris, in Melbourne until his death in 2026.

Designed by Kyle Schlesinger and typeset in Fred Smeijer's Quadraat. First printing limited to 200 copies. Second printing limited to 500 copies.

FIRST EDITION HARDCOVER 2010. SECOND PRINTING PAPERBACK 2012. 5.5x8.5. 136 pages. 2010 and 2012.
ISBN: 9780986004018