Our Staff

Bill Kelly

Founder

Kelly is the founder of Brighton Press and a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. His personal work is housed in numerous public and private collections in the United States, including the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts in San Francisco, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, and the Toledo Art Museum in Ohio. He has an undergraduate degree in philosophy and an MFA from Johnson State College. Kelly was awarded a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant in 2002 and continues making art and books in Vermont and California. He teaches in the art department at the University of San Diego.

Michele Burgess

Director

Burgess works in printmaking, painting, sculpture, and book art. She has an MFA in printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is the director of Brighton Press and collaborates with other artists and poets on projects that involve the book as an art medium. Burgesss’ artists’ books are in public collections across the country and have been exhibited at the Museé d'Art Americain in Giverny, France, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Fresno Art Museum, and Oceanside Museum of Art. She teaches in the art departments at San Diego State University and the University of San Diego. Her personal artwork can be seen at .

Nelle Martin

Associate Director and Master Letterpress Printer

Martin is a master printer and production designer at Brighton Press, where she began as an apprentice in 1987. She has a BFA in painting, printmaking, and sculpture from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a certificate in architectural drafting from the Phoenix Institute of Technology. Her published artwork is housed in numerous public and private collections in the United States. Her paintings and book arts have been exhibited both locally and nationally.

Sonja Jones

Binding Assistant

Jones started volunteering at Brighton Press in 1998. Being a librarian, she attempted to create order out of chaos with/in the archives. After several years and several bookbinding classes with Burgess and Kelly, she gradually progressed to production—and wondered how her life might have been different if she had discovered books arts when in her twenties. She was born in Florida, grew up in Alabama, graduated from Mt. Holyoke College, and received her MLS from UC Berkeley. Jones came to San Diego in 1960 as children’s librarian with San Diego Public Library, raised her family, and later worked at the Museum of Man, Balboa Arts Conservation Center, and Donovan State Prison.

Kathi George

Copy Editor and Administrative Associate

George has been the copy editor for Brighton Press since 2003. Under her own imprint, DougRegelRome Editions, she has published three limited-edition chapbooks and three framed broadsides, one with former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. George was the founding editor and publisher of FRONTIERS: A Journal of Women Studies (1974-87) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. As a freelancer, she has edited textbooks, nonfiction trade books, fiction, and poetry. She taught copy editing and proofreading at UCSD Extension for ten years.