Other Islands Book Fair Imagines What Publishing Could Be

The Other Islands Book Fair is, as its organizers put it, a practice in publishing—where publishing is not only the making of books but the act of gathering, the creation of a public, and the shaping of a shared space.

Held annually on Pratt’s Brooklyn campus, Other Islands (OIBF) is organized each year by Chair of Graduate Communications Design Gaia Hwang and Visiting Assistant Professor of Undergraduate Communications Design Cristina Gabriele, alongside a group of graduate assistants who help bring it to life. The event is the result of a collective effort: “It is shaped by the insight and feedback of the thesis faculty, realized through the work of MFA second-year students, and made tangible by the independent publishers who populate its tables,” the organizers say.

Visitors to the event, scheduled this year to take place on April 26 and 27 in the Student Union, encounter a space where books are artifacts of thought and exchange. This philosophy informs the fair’s name. As the organizers put it, “Other Islands is conceived as a metaphor to honor the lineages of publishers and student-led movements throughout history who have used printed matter as methods of organizing and gathering their communities and building urgently needed discourse that is otherwise rendered invisible by mainstream media.”

“Here, publishing is not an act but a process of exchange—where the lines between making, publishing, and engaging dissolve.”

They underscore that the fair is not simply an event; it is a demonstration of how publishing itself is about coming together. “Here, publishing is not an act but a process of exchange—where the lines between making, publishing, and engaging dissolve. To publish is to make something public and at the same time to build a public for it; but it is also to make in public: to shape knowledge, material, and discourse in relation to others,” the organizers say. “Making is not separate from publishing, just as publishing is a form of making. And engagement is not an act of reception but an active shaping of what is produced, shared, and circulated.”

For Hwang, this is central to the student experience in the MFA Communications Design program: “We view graduate school as an opportunity for inquiry-based learning, where students enhance knowledge through their creative work,” Hwang says. “The fair embodies this convergence, offering a space where publishing unfolds as a collective, evolving practice and reflecting what communications design is today.”

Connecting Student Work with a Community

In Graduate Communications Design at Pratt, the thesis is more than a research document; it is a complete creative body of work that translates years of inquiry into a material form. Each book reimagines the relationship between content and format, articulating its argument through design, materiality, and production methods.

For some time, faculty members discussed ways to present this unique form of knowledge to a broader audience. Graduate students across majors typically produce a thesis as a culmination of their study, which, while accessible in libraries, can be somewhat difficult for the public to engage with. Historically, for archival purposes, thesis books have been uniformly bound. But in the Communications Design department at Pratt, the form, design, distribution, and production methods of a book function as an argument for its content, and so it is critical to honor the complexity of these diverse elements when sharing it.

The fair offers such a platform. “We wanted a way to celebrate both the content and the physical form of the book, embracing it both as a vessel for content and an argument in itself,” says Hwang. “We did not want it to be done for our students in a sheltered space; we wanted it to be done together with the community of publishers, printers, artists, editors, creators, and bookmakers we are surrounded by. At the same time, we want to support that community through the resources we have.”

Engaging with a Practice and a Public

For Gabriele, OIBF serves as a vital bridge connecting Graduate Communications Design students to professional networks, meaningful industry relationships, and the broader independent publishing community. It also provides prospective applicants to the MFA program with a unique opportunity to engage deeply with the department’s culture, pedagogy, and offerings.

“As the Thesis I & II Affinity Lead—a role I’ve held since the fair’s inception—I see OIBF as a crucial space for graduate students to explore publication as both a creative and critical practice,” Gabriele explains. “It fosters an environment that supports publication design, production, and distribution while offering opportunities for community engagement. Through OIBF, students can present and discuss their work beyond academic and institutional boundaries, positioning their publications within a wider cultural and professional discourse.”

Within the MFA program, Hwang emphasizes the responsibility of educators in guiding students to contribute meaningfully to the field through publications: “Micheal Dyer, a spectacular book designer and incredible thinker, told me ‘to make books is to resist the planned obsolescence of the objects we interact with.’”

“Publishing . . . is about creating publics, forming alliances, and making knowledge visible.”

Since its inception, the Other Islands Book Fair has brought this vision to life. The event offers students the chance to exhibit and distribute their theses alongside professional publishers, in a format much like Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair and the Brooklyn Art Book Fair.

One thing that sets Other Islands apart is its location within a higher education institution, with a spectrum of disciplines and practices reflected in its visitors—from writers, to illustrators, to cultural scholars—and its participants, such as 2025 vendor Christopher Rey Pérez, a faculty member in the Writing Department.

Another differentiator is its completely free access for both vendors and visitors. “This decision reflects our belief in the role of institutions in supporting communities of practice and the recognition that making a profit from book fair sales is increasingly challenging for vendors. Our aim is to foster critical relationships amongst new and established publishers, designers, and artists as much as possible,” says Gabriele. “It is a warm, slow space of connection. Our hope is that students and visitors will engage in dialogue, build relationships, and extend these encounters beyond the fair itself.”

This approach has already led to significant outcomes. In 2024, Tzu Yun Wei, MFA Communications Design ’24, met the poetry publisher Ugly Duckling Presse at the fair and later joined them as a teaching artist. Meanwhile, Xinyi Huang’s thesis book about how gambling can reveal important information about the process of design ideation in human history won the Graphic Design C2 award in 2024. Dream Labor Press, a collective founded by a group of female Chinese graphic designers and authors, initially participated in the fair as MFA second-year students and, since their graduation, have returned as independent vendors with their expanding press. Fellow alumni from publishing collectives Super Professional Press and Sequence Giftshop will come as vendors this year as well.

These partnerships are central to what Gabriele values most about the fair. “Publishing is not just about books,” she says. “It is about creating publics, forming alliances, and making knowledge visible. The people who find us are the people who need to find us. Other Islands is more than a book fair—it is an ongoing experiment in what publishing can be.”

Read more highlights of Pratt traditions, clubs, happenings, and hidden gems in “Ways of Seeing,” from Prattfolio’s Looking at Us issue.