The P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library’s 5th Annual Edible Books Festival, held on Monday and Tuesday last week, was a tasty success. This year we had ten entries from the Milligan community. 117 votes were cast for the Funniest/Punniest, Most Creative, Tastiest (judged by Library staff on Tuesday morning), and the Overall Favorite.

The winners, who each received a Dunkin Donuts gift card, were:
Funniest/Punniest: “20,000 Leeks Under the Sea” by Grace Jackson

Most Creative & Tastiest: “Around the World in Eighty Days” by Megan Lincoln and Justin Athey

Overall Favorite: “Madeline” by Lindsay Kenderes

Two other entries of special note were:
“Dante’s Inferno” by Kaitlin Campbell, which was a Humanities Creativity Project entry, and

“The Interpretation of Dreams” as a group entry by the Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society.

On Tuesday morning the doors of the Welshimer Room were reopened to invite taste sampling by the Milligan College community. By late afternoon almost everything was consumed. The leeks were avoided, but even some of that sea blue Jell-O had been tasted!

Oops! The weeks since Homecoming (October 24-25, 2014) have blown by in a flurry of Library activity. It just dawned on me that I failed to write a follow-up to our 2nd Annual Book+Art exhibit.

The idea behind Book+Art is that books not only inspire artistic creation, they can also be the medium for that artistic creation.

The growing popularity of the “book as art, art from books” trend has been documented in a number of recent publications, including Art Made From Books by Laura Heyenga (Chronicle Books, 2013), a fascinating account, which is available for checkout from the Library.

This year’s exhibit was a bit smaller than last year, with only four submissions. But all the entries were very creative and cleverly designed (see photos below–click to enlarge). Bethany Fitzgerald won the $25 Amazon gift card in a random drawing open to all entrants.

User Services Librarian, Anne Reever Osborne expressed appreciation to this year’s participants: “Thank you for your participation in this Homecoming Event sponsored by Welshimer Library.  The submissions received were representative of the great talent that Milligan College students and faculty have in creating new works of beautiful art with gently used books!”

Director of Library Services, Gary Daught envisioned Book+Art as a Fall semester creative event in the Library to complement the Spring semester’s Edible Books Festival–which will celebrate its 5th anniversary in Spring 2015.