Joe Singer Papers, 1976-1993

Joe M. Singer, was a writer, poet, and founder of the imprint Mother of Ashes Press. Born in Powell, Wyoming in 1950, Singer purchased his first printing press in 1980 and Mother of Ashes took root after he settled in Harrison, Idaho in 1984.

Under the Mother of Ashes imprint, Singer published poetry chapbooks, novels, newsletters, ephemera, his graphic arts magazine The Printer's Devil, and his literary magazine, The Village Idiot, which he founded in 1970. Other than Judith Shannon Paine's work as the editor of The Village Idiot beginning in 1987, Singer single-handedly produced Mother of Ashes publications until his death in 1993.