How did we start eating books?
March 12, 2021
Alice in Wonderland, Cheshire Cat by Chris Orsolini
Grapes of Wrath by Elizabeth King
The KBAC held its first Edible Book Festival on April 1, 2006, in the studio of our director Jeff Abshear. We drew a nice crowd of people and fifteen entries including a delicious pastry Strawberry Hill (the winner), an accordion book Catsup in the Rye, and some very angry Grapes of Wrath.
Now fifteen years later it has become a popular annual event for us, with many submissions and crowds of people ready to eat the tasty bookish creations. Since we don’t require pre-registration to participate, we’re always a little nervous about how many books will show up on the day of the event. We’ve been surprised each year by 20-30 elaborate, funny, usually yummy books being brought in to be eaten. On our website you will find an archive of all the edible books that have been submitted over the years. You can also see the many beautiful posters for the event that have been designed by award-winning illustrators including David Small, Emmy Kastner, and Paul Sizer.
The Book of Lefse, by Kim Davison
Many folks in Kalamazoo think of us as the Edible Book people, but we did not invent this idea. It was first dreamed up at a Thanksgiving dinner in 1999 by the archivist and artist’s book curator Judith Hoffberg (1934-2009) and with the help of artist Béatrice Coron was inaugurated in 2000 with events in France, Australia, and many cities across the US. The Books2Eat website was established by Coron to archive the events and peaked in 2006 with Edible Book Festivals in 15 countries including Japan, Brazil, and India, and 25 states in the US. The KBAC had The Book of Lefsi included in the archive that final year, which was also the year of our first!
Jeff recently spoke on the phone with Béatrice about the early festivals. She was surprised and pleased by how enthusiastically the idea was embraced by people all over the world. She started the Books2Eat site with the hope it would continue and was glad to learn we were still doing it after all these years. She recalled at an early festival in New York they served “Cocktails for the Literary” including a “Bloody Mary McCarthy” and “Fitzgerald’s Cosmopolitan.” She also said she tasted The Book of Pi on the homepage of Books2Eat and it was delicious!
Last year, because of the pandemic, we moved the festival online. We were very happy to discover the event was as popular as ever, with 21 entries! Since it’s still too soon to safely meet and eat books our event will be online again this year. All entries will be posted on our Facebook page. Learn more here about how to enter and vote on the entries. You could win a prize! Making an edible book is the perfect thing to do with kids, or with friends, and then you get to eat it! We hope you’ll join the fun!
The Book of Pi by Stephanie Krouse and Robert Christie, New York, 2003
Self Driven, Béatrice Coron
In addition to filling us in on the history of the Edible Book Festival, Béatrice agreed to host two online workshops: Papercutting Explorations which was held on April 13, 2021 and Papercutting on Stage on May 4. It was an amazing opportunity to learn from an adventurous, talented storyteller and artist who we were lucky to meet because we love to eat books!
Jeff, Katie and Lorrie
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The KBAC is committed to inclusion of all members of the community regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, age, or ability.
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