Bear Scratch Press

With his colleagues, Robert Stubblefield and Peter Koch, David Axelrod founded Bear Scratch Press as a teaching press at the University of Montana in 2023. For Axelrod, a former student of Richard Hugo’s and a graduate of the UM’s MFA in Creative Writing, the founding of BSP was both a homecoming and fulfillment of a lifelong professional dream.

Having previously founded Basalt Press and taught himself letterpress printing on a Vandercook SP-15 at Eastern Oregon University, Bear Scratch Press provided an exponential leap forward in collaborating across the literary and visual arts as well as giving back to the U of M’s writing program which played such a fundamental role in shaping Axelrod’s life as a writer.

It’s been one of his most meaningful experiences as a teacher to work closely with the talented students in the MFA program and in collaboration with local, regional and national artists and writers.

Learn more about Bear Scratch Press:

• UMT Letterpress Practicum - November 8, 2023: Gallery of photos and videos.

• “Bear Scratch Press: UM Inaugural Printing Class Employs Donated Letterpress,” University of Montana News Service.

• “Letter by Letter,” Montana Quarterly, Spring 2024. Article by Scott McMillion. “By teaching tenacity and patience, Bear Scratch Press lets writers add layers of art and beauty through ancient techniques.” (Permission to republish granted by Montana Quarterly Magazine.)