Banditry Press is led by me, Hillary Savage. I've been printing my own work and laboring as a letterpress production printer for over a decade, having worked in the northeast and in the Bay Area of California. I have been the lead printer for the Beehive Design Collective and Bread and Puppet Press. I also design and lead workshops in block printing and language arts. 

History:
In 2018, I was grappling with how to remain living a rural life on the island of Vinalhaven (12 miles off the coast of Maine), but also engage with a creative community, political movements and get back to printing. It all seemed quite impossible, until a craigslist ad popped up: Printing/Bindery Equipment for sale. MUST GO NOW. After finding a press in Portland, ME a bit of magic occurred in a whirlwind few weeks of May and the press made its way via dump truck to Vinalhaven instead of to the scrapyard.

Through the help of friends and neighbors, we pulled it off and started to build a space for the 3400 pound beast. Mostly making do with whatever was available for free/cheap; bartering, dump-picking, and scavenging while working full time cobbling together income from postal work and the hustles that come with a seasonal economy and building the project on someone else's land.

The project was slow, built on trust and relationships, honesty, and care-fullness.

In January 2020 I was awarded grants from the Kindling Fund and Maine Arts Commission to finish the building and press restoration. Sadly, a couple of months later as the COVID pandemic hit, Banditry Press got the wind knocked out of it and we had to leave Vinalhaven and the island print-shop dreams there behind. Not knowing what would happen, I eventually ended up in Northern Vermont. We still don't know what might happen, but keep trying nontheless.