Summer Workshop 2026

The Writer & the Witch + Mr. Penumbra’s All-Night Reading Room

$33 Buy the bundle

If you wanted a bundle, but didn’t snag one in time, there will be other editions, print and/or digital, in the future. Thanks for your patience and interest!

This is a bundle of two short books, each produced in an edition of 1,000. The first ships to you immediately; the second ships next month.

The Writer & the Witch is one of my earliest short stories, published online in 2009, never before available in print. This 20-page saddle-stitched booklet is printed with a Risograph SF9450 on Favini Crush paper, with endpapers from Awagami Factory, made with radish leaves.

Note foil-stamped cover

The text is a substantial revision, and, for this edition, I drew fresh illustrations.

There’s our guy

Mr. Penumbra’s All-Night Reading Room is a blank-page rewrite of my 2009 short story about a 24-hour bookstore — not just revision, but reimagination. The interplay between books and technology is today even richer than it was back in 2009; San Francisco is burning bright with new money, weird science; and Ajax Penumbra has things to say about all of it.

The saddle-stitched booklet will be either 28 or 32 pages; the story’s text will for sure be printed on Favini Crush paper. As for the other components … we’ll see!!

I’ve got my eye on that marbled paper

This book ships in August.

First edition: 0 ⁄ 1000 remaining

Magic Postcard

Series 1:
Thinking of you

$9 Buy with stamps
(recommended) Buy without stamps
(outside the U.S., etc.)

Magic Postcard allows you, the sender, to attach a piece of media — photo or video — that your recipient can view immediately upon delivery. It works with any phone that can scan a QR code, and requires no special app or account. You’ll attach the media after you have the postcards in hand.

This is a pack of three postcards, each a different design, all reflecting the Series 1 theme: Thinking of you … 

Circe sits with books and wand, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
An alchemist wearing a tall hat, sitting at a table containing his chemical instruments, Frank Howard
A scholar pores over a book, searching for inspiration, David Teniers the Younger

Magic Postcard’s back looks like this:

Scan the code, the video plays. There’s no app, no login, no subscription … this is really just a postcard! You buy it, you use it: just like a postcard. The experience is fast and light: just like a postcard.

Of course, it’s trivial to transmit a photo or video to the phone of someone you love … but, turns out, it is VERY FUN to send it to their mailbox instead.

Magic Postcard can also serve as a talking gift note. Record your greeting (and perhaps your explanation) and slip it in alongside your gift.

Magic Postcard is end-to-end encrypted, which means the media you attach is accessible ONLY by the bearer of the postcard. Penumbra Print Shop can’t see it, and, poetically, if the postcard is destroyed or discarded, the media is effectively deleted. This brings the logic of the real physical postcard into digital space, insisting, this is how things ought to work.

Magic Postcard is printed with a Risograph SF9450 on French Paper Kraft-Tone cardstock, foil-stamped with our logotype.

Series 1: 500 ⁄ 600 remaining

Orders go out on Mondays. We don’t accept returns or exchanges. Questions? Email shop@penumbraprint.com.

We ship items via USPS First-Class Mail. When we print your address label, you’ll receive a tracking link. Inside the U.S., delivery takes 2-5 days. Anywhere else, delivery takes 1-3 weeks. (International orders are tracked until the USPS hands them off to your local postal service.)

Countries to which we have dispatched items, so far: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.