When we scheduled the 6th Annual Edible Books Festival at the P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library for Monday-Tuesday, April 11-12, 2016, we had no idea of a delightful coincidence — that it would fall on Marvelous Monday (a.k.a. “Wonderful Wednesday”), the student-led Spring day of celebration at Milligan College. Edible Books is always a great event on its own. But combining with Wonderful Wednesday this year (the day of which is not known until the morning of) added an extra special dimension. As Library Director Gary Daught put it, this year’s Edible Books Festival added “literary taste” to Marvelous Monday.
That pun was intended. Edible Books Festival invites edible entries from the Milligan College community (students, faculty, staff, friends of Milligan, etc.) on book-related themes. This year we had 15 entries, including a creative project submission from a Humanities student, and a group submission from the Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society. Throughout the day on Monday the community cast votes among the entries for the Funniest/Punniest (hence the aforementioned), Most Creative, and Overall Favorite. Around 200 votes were cast. Early on Tuesday morning library staff also sampled from the entries to award the Tastiest. The winners (awarded gift cards for Dunkin Donuts) are:
Tastiest: Biscuit Finds a Friend by John Jackson
Funniest/Punniest: Much Ado about Nothing by Sarah Lindsay
Most Creative: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Alicya Suit
Overall Favorite: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Destanie Clemons and Linda Sweeney
For the remainder of Tuesday the community is invited back to the library to sample tastes from all the entries. Yum!
Milligan College Library’s Edible Books Festival, first held in 2011, is modeled on the International Edible Books Festival, which was first held in 2000. Special thanks to festival organizer Instruction and Research Librarian Mary Jackson, who commented: “It is hard to believe that this was our 6th Edible Books Festival. I think it was one of our best. The quality and variety in the entries was exceptionally high this year. It continues to be a real highlight to my year and very popular with the Milligan and wider community.”