The Small Press Traffic Archives encompass 50+ years of literary activity, including a Print Collection and Audio/Video Collection accessible via this website, and materials related to SPT’s history. These collections reflect happenings and genealogies — tracing publishing projects, reading series, and the poets who have called the Bay Area home.
About the ArchivesThe Print Collection can be found in the Small Press Traffic Reading Room, located at Et al. gallery & bookstore in the Mission. If you’d like to visit, please review our Visitation Policy and fill out the Visitor Form.
Visit the Reading RoomThe SPT Archives are in an early stage of development; what you see here is just a fragment of fifty years of small press culture in and around the Bay Area. We depend on the knowledge and support of our community members to maintain these archives. Please, get in touch!
Support the ArchivesOur Print Collection includes books, chapbooks, journals, literary magazines, anthologies, zines, and ephemera that collectively document small press culture; though our emphasis is on Bay Area production, lineages, and movements, these holdings reflect the ways in which artistic communities and lineages transcend strict geographic boundaries. This collection is a representation of the hand-produced, independent, and small press publications that are self-supported in collaboration and community, printed in limited quantities, and often distributed person-to-person at public events and gatherings. The majority of our materials cannot be found in bookstores and libraries, as our idiosyncratic collection is composed of books that SPT has inherited from its past, reacquired, or received as donations. Intentional work on the print collection began in 2022. We gratefully accept donations, which will allow the collection to evolve over time. Our archives are not intended to be a static snapshot of the past, but rather a living, changing collection. We are committed to filling in gaps, particularly with representations of literary activity from cultural groups that have been historically marginalized from our organization and others.