r.s.v.p.

Niki Neems spent her first career on spoken language. A University of Iowa M.A. in speech-language pathology in 1991, then years as a pathologist in the public schools. She opened a shop for the written kind in 1999, on the model of her father's small-town pharmacy. An M.F.A. in poetry came along the way. Look at how the name is set. Lowercase, four periods. Listings that print RSVP have it wrong. She runs the place alone, which is the fact a visitor can use: describe the person you are writing to and let her pull the card. Carrot & Stick Press, the letterpress shop that printed the RESPONSE poems, is stocked here in its own right, alongside Hammer Press, Egg Press and Rifle Paper Co. Complete signed sets were made up in handmade paper envelopes, destined for Special Collections libraries.