Abstract
In an attempt to defend literary life against standardized lifelessness, we’ve coined a new term, “handmade literacies,” and developed this issue of The Lion and the Unicorn to explore it. Because we thought that book-artists and book-makers could offer the best signature definitions, we invited authors Jack Gantos and Philip Pullman, and book artists Robert Sabuda and Barbara Henry, to riff—in the improvisatory manner of jazz musicians—on handmade literacies.