Gaylord Schanilec (born 15 April 1955) is an American wood engraver, printer, designer, poet, and illustrator.[1] He is the proprietor of the press Midnight Paper Sales, located in Stockholm, Wisconsin. He has used the traditional wood engraving process to create illustrations for hundreds of works.[2][3]
Schanilec grew up in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. He earned a BA from the University of North Dakota. Influenced by the spirit of place poetry movement of the Great Plains, and by the work of poet Thomas McGrath in particular, his early career was spent in the Twin Cities of Minnesota illustrating books of small press poetry. In 1981 he began printing books and established his own imprint, Midnight Paper Sales. The name of his press came from when he and other artists would salvage paper from a nearby paper company's trash bins.[4] In 2023, in an interview for the release of his latest book with Patricia Hampl, he said, "I don’t like the term ‘artist books’ very much but I don’t know what to call myself. I guess a ‘bookie.’ ”[5]