‘The Hollowing of the Calgary Herald’ is now a book!
It started as radio. Now it’s in print.
Whenever I make a Sprawlcast episode, I ask myself a question: Will this story still be interesting and informative in a couple months? A couple years, even? If so, keep going.
As much as possible, I want each Sprawlcast report to have a long shelf life.
Today, I'm happy to announce that one of our all-time best episodes will indeed have a long shelf life—literally.
The Hollowing of the Calgary Herald, my Sprawlcast episode on the slow decline of Calgary's once-mighty newspaper of record, has been published as a 64-page book by Hingston & Olsen, an independent Alberta literary press. And it's out today!
That's right: this particular Sprawlcast is now available as a special hardcover edition, in a limited run of 500 copies.
I have long been a fan of H&O's playful experimentation on projects like their Short Story Advent Calendar. H&O was an early inspiration for The Sprawl, showing me that publishing doesn't need to be drudgery. With a little creativity, it can be genuinely fun—for both reader and publisher.
The Hollowing of the Calgary Herald is part of H&O's Permanent Record longform series, which is "dedicated to standalone non-fiction features that combine inventive storytelling, careful reportage, and characters and ideas that are worth preserving."
Mine is the fourth book in the series, sitting on a shelf alongside stories by Jana Pruden (The Globe and Mail), Michelle Cyca (Maclean's) and Jason Fagone (HuffPost).
Each book has a letterpress-printed title band, foil-stamped iconography and is printed on strikingly colourful paper. For The Hollowing of the Calgary Herald, H&O very appropriately selected a vibrant Sprawl green.
Also included is new afterword I wrote for the story with a few letters to the editor in response to my original piece. I also hand-numbered and signed each copy.
I'm particularly thrilled about this edition because it brings together some of my most beloved pursuits—documentary radio, Calgary history, letterpress printing—in one elegant package.
It is doubly special because the title bands are printed by my friends at Feast Studio + Press, who have been a tremendous help to me over the past year as I've been lugging The Sprawl's pop-up press around town and learning the basics of letterpress printing.
The folks at Feast have been incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. So their mark on this project, using their Vandercook SP20 proof press (and fluorescent ink from my shop!), feels like the perfect finishing touch.
All this to say—snag your copy of The Hollowing of the Calgary Herald today!
Better still, order the book and then join me and H&O at Wordfest on Tuesday, September 24, as we launch the book with a special live show about the Herald. I'll be joined on stage by Herald alumni Bob Blakey, Catherine Ford, Gwendolyn Richards and Shelley Youngblut, who all witnessed the newspaper's heyday and slow decline over decades.
When you order your book, you can choose to a) pick it up at the Wordfest event on September 24th; b) pick it up at The Next Page in Inglewood; or c) get it shipped. Your choice.
Thanks so much for reading—and enjoy the book!
Jeremy Klaszus is founder and editor of The Sprawl.
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