{"id":145630,"date":"2022-04-12T10:38:15","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T14:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=145630"},"modified":"2023-04-21T10:19:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T14:19:53","slug":"the-librarys-edible-books-festival-is-a-novel-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/12\/the-librarys-edible-books-festival-is-a-novel-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Ladd Library’s edible books festival is a novel idea featuring confictionary treats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The frivolous, heavily sweet smell of icing was thick in the air of the George and Helen Ladd Library, somewhat in opposition to the usual essence of wood, books, and accumulated wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason? The Edible Books Festival had arrived. Atop tables scattered around the library lobby was an edible spread of tome-inspired treats, everything from a kale salad to a fruit creation to the old standby confection, cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Democracy crumbles \u2014 deliciously \u2014 as Caroline Cassell \u201924 of Woodstock, Vt., bites into an icing-covered White House cookie, inspired by Barack Obama\u2019s memoir, A Promised Land<\/em>. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Grey McGloon \u201921, a library assistant for access services, planned the festival, which included a recipe contest, to coincide with Edible Book Day, held each year on April 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only rules were that contestants needed to submit an edible creation inspired by a book. With that, all the ingredients were in place for what McGloon hopes will be an annual event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity abounded, as participants not only brought in a feast of different foods, but also approached their themes differently. Some went for something punny, others created a dish that literally evoked the subject material, Others created a treat with a high-minded theme to provide food for thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One’s healthy, one ain’t. At left is one of the Edible Books entries, a fruit dish that depicts the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2, inspired by the nonfiction pandemic thriller The Premonition<\/em>. At right is an illustration of the actual coronavirus. (left, Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College; right, CDC \/ Alissa Eckert, MSMI; Dan Higgins, MAMS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the entries themselves, coffee, tea, and chair was provided by Dining Services, and a cake, emblazoned with \u201cEdible Books,\u201d was baked and presented to guests by the college librarian, Pat Schoknecht. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caitlin Lampman, reference and outreach archivist at Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library, showed her talent at “confictionery” with her display of gingerbread men (and mice) to celebrate John Steinbeck\u2019s Of Mice and Men.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Archivist Caitlin Lampman brings the mice to the table with her gingerbread men and mice, inspired by John Steinbeck\u2019s \u201cOf Mice and Men.\u201dPhyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lampman chose Steinbeck’s 1937 novella because it gave her “an opportunity to have some literal translation into a food item.” She used a cookie cutter to create the men, and hand-made the mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her cookies won the culinary prowess award, but where there’s one mouse, there’s probably another \u2014 and a bigger one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the classic children\u2019s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie<\/em>, Krystie Wilfong, the assistant college librarian for collections and scholarly communications, created a gigantic cookie shaped like a mouse\u2019s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Decorated bagels from Lewiston’s Forage Market sit next to a copy of the children\u2019s book Stop That Yawn<\/em>. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That was one of McGloon\u2019s favorites. \u201cI like the idea of a very large cookie. There’s something novel about it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theresa Bishop, assistant director of sponsored programs and research compliance, took bagels from the popular Lisbon Street eatery Forage Market and decorated each with yawning faces; they sat to their inspiration, a copy of Caron Levis and LeUyen Pham\u2019s children\u2019s book, Stop That Yawn<\/em>, which is part of Ladd Library\u2019s Diverse BookFinder<\/a> collection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simple gathering was “very nice,” said McGloon, particularly after “having to kind of stifle interactions between people” during pandemic restrictions. It felt good “to be able to encourage folks to gather and spend time with each other in this space.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Robby Haynos ’22 of Rehoboth Beach, Del., samples “Kale Fire,” created by social science librarian Christine Murray, a play on words inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire<\/em>. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wordplay abounded among the edible creations. McGloon said his favorite was \u201cKale Fire,\u201d a spicy kale salad created by social science librarian Christine Murray and inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s 1962 novel Pale Fire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more creative people get, the more likely it is that we’re going to pull out some books that people have not seen before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With an interdisciplinary flair, Marianne Williams, who is the college’s humanities librarian, went the STEM route with her fruit dish. Pineapple rings bristling with toothpicks topped with fruits and berries evoked the bad boy of the pandemic, the COVID-19 virus itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully, the virus that the dish depicts will remain just desserts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Holden Hilal ’25 of Alamo, Calif., a photographer for The Bates Student<\/em>, photographs a fruit creation inspired by The Premonition<\/em> by Michael Lewis. Pineapple rings bristling with toothpicks topped with fruits and berries evocative of COVID-19 proteins. Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead of an overall winner, second place, and third place, the contest offered two categories, creativity and culinary expertise, a nod to entrants’ different strengths, says McGloon. \u201cI think it was just a good way to reward the different goals that people had been going for.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award for creativity went to Natalie Williamson, a controller in the college’s financial offices. She used Barack Obama\u2019s memoir, A Promised Land<\/em>, as foundational inspiration for her display of White Houses made from cookies and frosting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inspired by Barack Obama\u2019s memoir, A Promised Land<\/em>, Natalie Williamson, controller in the college’s financial offices, used cookies to build her White House display, (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Incredibly impressive,” said McGloon, “without relying on cringeworthy wordplay!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was referring to his own entry, a loaf of bread \u201cplugged\u201d into a speaker, inspired by the sequel to Orson Scott Card\u2019s 1986 science fiction novel Speaker for the Dead<\/em>. Or, in McGloon\u2019s case, \u201cSpeaker for the Bread.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got a few groans from my coworkers for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appetites whetted this year, McGloon anticipates an even bigger show next year. And if not tastier, then maybe funnier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve had people basically say, \u2018I’m going back to the kitchen. I’m gonna make a better pun this time!’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For her talent in depicting the White House made of cookies, Natalie Williamson accepts the Edible Books Festiva’s creativity award from Director of Dining Services Cheryl Lacey. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Judge it by the edible creation that it inspires. Check out these creative dishes seen at the recent Edible Books Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1422,"featured_media":145644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,179,223,11009],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-language-literature","category-slideshow","category-the-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145630"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153152,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145630\/revisions\/153152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}