Rick Black- Owner & Founding Editor
A poet and book artist, Rick is involved in virtually every aspect of the work at Turtle Light Press from editing manuscripts to designing covers, marketing, and meeting with customers.
Born and brought up in Bergenfield, New Jersey, he has studied various facets of bookbinding with Maria Pisano, Susan Mills, Carolyn Chadwick, Yukari Hayashida, and Carol Barton, among others. In 2003, he was awarded one of eight emerging writer awards to attend an intensive Letterpress Printing Seminar at The Center For Book Arts in New York. He has participated in national book arts and fine art exhibitions.
For more than twenty years, Rick was a professional journalist, including a three-year stint in the Jerusalem bureau of The New York Times. He also freelanced for numerous national newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Jerusalem Post, The Forward, Archeology, Cicada, and Cricket.
In addition to his work in journalism, Rick has been a haiku poet for the past fifteen years and has garnered several international awards for his poetry, including first prize in the James W. Hackett Award, sponsored by The British Haiku Society and third prize in the Betty Drevniok Competition, sponsored by Haiku Canada. His haiku have appeared in Frogpond, Cricket, RawNervz, Blithe Spirit, Still, and other journals.
When he’s not working at TLP, he spends time with his wife, Laura, and their daughter, gardening and reading in their hometown, Arlington, Virginia. He is a member of the Center for Book Arts in New York City, the Haiku Society of America and Haiku Canada.
