Seattle is a notoriously bookish place. But after the departure of Northwest Bookfest (it moved to Kirkland) and the demise of Pilot Books (RIP), which staged its own independent press fest, our city didn’t have a small press festival to call its own.

Short Run hopes to change all that. Tomorrow’s all-day event brings 74 exhibitors to the Vera Project to show off their self-published books, literary magazines, zines, comics, and graphic novels. New work by the Seattle Experimental Animation Team will screen in the Green Room all day, and there’s a bake sale to keep you fortified as you browse.

Ask Jennifer Borges Foster, editor of Seattle’s literary journal Filter, to show you her hand-stitched booklets with letterpress covers, and don’t miss the latest work by local artist Eroyn Franklin. A bit of a polymath, Franklin works in everything from installations and photography to jewelry and graphic design, but it’s her graphic novel writ (very) large that created a buzz last year. For Detained, which showed at Gallery4Culture, Franklin created 25-foot-long scrolls illustrating the story of two immigrants held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. She’s since turned the project into a book, which she’ll feature alongside her heartbreaking graphic novel about divorce, Another Glorious Day at the Nothing Factory.

Seattle artists Gretchen Bennett, Matthew Offenbacher, and Wynne Greenwood will also offer their new mail-order catalog Seacat, intended to be an open-ended (and gallery-free) way to buy and sell artwork by local talents they admire. Works range from $10 zines to $8,000 sculptures.

For a full list of participants, visit shortrun.org.

Short Run is at the Vera Project on Sat, Nov 12, 10:30–4:30. After-party and art exhibit are at Fantagraphics Bookstore, 6–9. Both events are free.