Our Director, Helen Smith, is Professor of Renaissance Literature at the University of York. She is an expert in early books and printing and a leader in practice-led research, with a passion for letterpress.

Helen hates redundant possessives, injustice, and being too early for trains.

Lizzy Holling, our Manager, combines a love of letterpress with experience in delivering social and creative projects. She returned to the University of York in 2021 to lead StreetLife, a UK Government funded project bringing heritage and creativity-driven renewal to the city.

Lizzy hates seabirds and being late to catch the train.

Nick Gill is our Master Printer and the owner of Effra Press & Typefoundry. He has experience of a wide range of letterpress and book-arts skills, including running and maintaining presses, casting type, cutting typographic punches, engraving matrices, bookbinding and papermaking. He was awarded England Maker of the Year in the 2024 Heritage Crafts Awards.

Nick hates decaf.

Technician

Izzy Williamson is a York-based printmaker specialising in linocut. Rooted in the natural world, her work uses playful animism to explore themes in folklore, dreams, myth, and everyday joys. Since graduating from Leeds College of Art in 2015, Izzy has produced designs for packaging, branding and book illustration.

Izzy hates happy hardcore.

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Georgina Wilson is our postdoctoral research associate. She researches literature and book-making from the early modern period and beyond, and is co-editing with Helen Smith a volume about textual materiality and print. 

Georgina hates it when collections of nearly empty shampoo bottles gather in the bathroom. 

Technician

Phil Treble is a typographer, letterpress printer and bookbinder, publishing fine press books and printing typographic art prints under the name Muttons & Nuts. In his career he has worked for Cambridge University Press, Penguin Books and Sotheby’s and as a freelancer has designed books for the Cardozo-Kindersley Workshop. He is a member of the Fine Press Book Association and recently received an MA in Publishing from York St John University.

Phil hates butternut squash.