The JKM Library Blog

Chatham celebrated a big edible book milestone this spring with our 10th International Edible Book Festival event! The JKM Library has been partnering with Chatham's food studies program since 2012 to host this celebration of food and literature. After a three-year hiatus during the heights of COVID-19, the tradition was revived in 2024, and on March 31st, 2025 we celebrated our 10th event!

To make this year extra special, we welcomed additional collaborators to help grow the festival. Chatham's Student Success and the Academic Success Center hosted an Essential Needs Item Drive to benefit Chatham's Essential Needs Corner. Anyone who donated to the item drive was entered into a raffle for a $100 gift certificate to Mad Mex.

The PA Hunger Free Campus Task Force hosted a silent auction (sans real money) for kitchenware kits, funded by the PA Department of Education. Students were given five tickets that they could use to bid on the specific kits they were interested in. There were five kits auctioned off.

And in addition to those amazing activities, we also had honey tasting and education provided by the Eden Hall Apiary. Attendees could taste honey from different seasons and learned a bit about how the flowers from each season alter the flavor profile of the honey created by the area bees.

This year's edible book contest was judged by our amazing volunteer faculty members: returning judges Heather McNaugher and Barbara Ann McMonigal, and new judge Laura Livingston. Thank you to our judges for their time and taste buds! 

Winners of the 10th International Edible Book Festival are:

People's Choice Award: "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Choux" submitted by Maggie Vargo and Evelyn Fay

Best Tasting: "Franks 'N' Brine" submitted by Anne St. Jean

Most Creative Literary Interpretation: "Demon Copperhead" submitted by Karin Chipman

The Rachel Carson Award: "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Choux" submitted by Maggie Vargo and Evelyn Fay

Grand Prize: "The Masque of the Red Death" submitted by Kate Emory

A huge thank you to Chatham’s food studies program, Alice Julier and Rebecca Nathan in particular, for their sponsorship and support and enthusiasm in planning. Thank you to the Academic Success Center, Chatham Student Success, the PA Hunger Free Campus Task Force, and the Essential Needs Corner for their help growing this event this year. And thanks to all of our ‘edible book’ contestants!

Do you like The Great British Bake Off? How about puns? Do books and/or food delight you? If the answer is yes to one or all of these questions, the International Edible Book Festival is for you! This time-honored tradition here at Chatham is co-sponsored by the JKM Library and Chatham's food studies department and seeks to bring people together over a shared love of books and food.

We know many of you have never had the pleasure of experiencing the International Edible Book Festival, so this post is here to answer all (or hopefully most) of your questions. Have more? Contact the library at reference@chatham.edu.

What is the International Edible Book Festival? Started in 2000, this celebration of food and reading brings communities together to share creative literature-inspired food or beverage items (the ‘edible books’ in question). Contestants sign up to bring an ‘edible book’, and on the day of the event they present their book to judges and attendees. The judges taste and evaluate each entry and award prizes, and the attendees vote on their favorites for the People’s Choice prize. A wonderful time is had by all!

What does the event look like? We set up a bunch of tables in the JKM Library’s first floor lobby. Contestants set up their ‘edible books’ for display, and the judges begin their tastings and deliberations. Once the judges have had a chance to taste all entries, the tasting is opened up to all attendees. Attendees enjoy the ‘edible books’ and vote for their favorite (the People’s Choice Award). After everyone has had a chance to taste, vote, and socialize, we then announce our winners and distribute our prizes!

Who is allowed to participate? Everyone! This event is open to all Chatham students, staff, and faculty. It’s also open to the public at large! Anyone can enter an ‘edible book’ into the festival’s contest.

How can I participate? You can attend as just a spectator and vote for your favorite ‘edible book’, or you can participate as a contestant in the festival’s contest! Either way, we ask that you register. It’s important to know how many folks are planning to show up so we can plan for how many people to feed.

What do I need to know if I’m submitting an ‘edible book’ to the contest? Register for the event on Happenings and be sure to mark that you will be submitting an ‘edible book’. You will then receive informational emails from the librarians. Your ‘edible book’ can be as simple or complicated as you’d like. It can be a food or beverage item, but it has to have some tie to literature, libraries, or reading. You should include with your ‘edible book’ a list of ingredients (for both judging and dietary restriction purposes) and a copy of the book that inspired you! You are expected to stand with your ‘edible book’ during the judging process to answer any questions, but then are are free to go sample other contestant’s ‘edible books’ and vote for your favorite.

‘Edible books’ can be as complicated as an ornate cake or as simple and low maintenance as bringing in pre-made candy or cookies. Below are some examples of ‘edible books’ submitted to our past events:

What are the prize categories? Each ‘edible book’ entry is eligible to win prizes. Prizes usually include items like water bottles, cookbooks, gift baskets, gift certificates, honey from Eden Hall, and more. Our current categories are:

• Best Tasting: This one is fairly straight forward. It’s not how good your ‘edible book’ looks, but how good it tastes.
• Most Creative Literary Interpretation: Taste is not as important in this category. Instead, it’s your creativity the judges are looking at. The most creative ‘edible book’ wins!
• People’s Choice: This is the popular vote! All attendees get to taste the ‘edible books’ and vote for their favorite.
• The Rachel Carson Award: This is awarded to the ‘edible book’ that honors sustainability and/or nature. This could mean that the ingredients are locally or ethically sourced, that the ‘edible book' was created with environmental impact in mind, or that is represents something in nature. Those who would like to be considered for this award need to indicate on their ingredients list if something is local/sustainable or if environmental concerns went into the creation of the food item.
• Grand Prize: Awarded by the judges, this prize is best in show. It is awarded to the ‘edible book’ that really knocked it out of the park in both taste, creativity, and presentation. 

Winners from our 2019 event:

We hope this piques your interest and that you’ll enter an ‘edible book’ creation of your own in one of our upcoming International Edible Book Festivals. You can also visit the JKM Library's International Edible Book Festival virtual display for book more delicious literary fun!

April 2024

The solar eclipse wasn’t the only monumental event to happen on Monday, April 8th! The library once again teamed up with Chatham’s food studies program to bring back our much loved and much missed International Edible Book Festival for its ninth installment. Prior to COVID-19, this internationally recognized event was celebrated by Chatham annually, and we were delighted to finally resume the celebrations after a four-year hiatus. Started in 2000, the International Edible Book Festival celebrates the loves of food and reading. It brings communities together to share creative literature inspired food or beverage items (the ‘edible books’ in question). Contestants sign up to submit an ‘edible book’, and on the day of the event they present their book to judges and attendees. The judges taste and evaluate each entry and award prizes, and the attendees vote on their favorites for the People’s Choice prize. In 2024 we had four teams and individuals enter ‘edible books’ to the festival’s contest, and our amazing team of faculty judges (Heather McNaugher, Marc Nieson, and Barbara Ann McMonigal) did their sworn (voluntary) duty! We also had about 30 to 35 attendees filter through the festival, tasting ‘edible books’ and voting for their favorites for the People’s Choice awards. 
A huge thank you to Director of the Food Studies Program Alice Julier (and the food studies program as a whole) for the financial support, Falk School Program Assistant and Apiary Manager Rebecca Nathan for all of the logistical and creative support, and FSSE graduate student Grayson Skupin for helping brainstorm creative details. This event would not have been possible without you! 
Best Tasting went to Aidan Bobik and Evelyn Fay for Harry the Dirty Dog (“dirt” )
Most Creative Literary Interpretation went to Kate Emory for Madeline (madeleines)
Most Likely to Impress Rachel Carson went to Jocelyn Codner for A Connecticut
Yankee at King Arthur’s Court (half-moon cookies / eclipse cookies)
People’s Choice (popular vote) went to Aidan Bobik and Evelyn Fay for Harry the Dirty Dog (“dirt”) Grand Prize went to Dan and Sean Nolting for Cat’s Cradle (kitty litter cake). Their inventive submission managed to both disgust and delight attendees. Alice Julier and Rebecca Nathan had a wonderful time acquiring fun and creative prizes for our winners. Many of the prizes were bee, honey, or pollinator themed, as Rebecca was also hosting a week of pollinator events up at Chatham’s Eden Hall campus via the Eden Hall Apiary. Many people were lucky enough to get a jar of delicious local honey from the EHA! Prize cart!
Thank you to the entire Chatham community for helping us keep this tradition alive. We hope you all join us for our big 10-year celebration in 2025. We’re cooking up ways to make it absolutely fantastic. Until then, we hope you all enjoy your creative moments in the kitchen and are blessed with many incredible books. 

March 2024

Do you like The Great British Bake Off? How about puns? Do books delight you? If the answer is yes to one or all of these questions, the International Edible Book Festival is for you! We are delighted to announce that the International Edible Book Festival is making its return to Chatham after a four-year hiatus(COVID). This tradition, sponsored by the JKM Library and Chatham’s food studies program, will be back for its 9th installment on Monday, April 8th from 4-6pm on the first floor of the JKM Library We know many of you have never had the pleasure of experiencing the International Edible Book Festival, so this post is here to answer all (or hopefully most) of your questions. Have more? Contact Reference and Outreach Librarian Jocelyn Codner!
What is the International Edible Book Festival? Started in 2000, this celebration of food and reading brings communities together to share creative literature inspired food or beverage items (the ‘edible books’ in question). Contestants sign up to bring an ‘edible book’, and on the day of the event they present their book to judges and attendees. The judges taste and evaluate each entry and award prizes, and the attendees vote on their favorites for the People’s Choice prize. A wonderful time is had by all! What does the event look like? We set up a bunch of tables in the JKM Library’s first floor lobby. Contestants set up their ‘edible books’ for display, and the judges begin their tastings and deliberations. Once the judges have had a chance to taste all entries, the tasting is opened up to all attendees. Attendees enjoy the ‘edible books’ and vote for their favorite (thePeople’s ChoiceAward).After everyone has had a chance to taste, vote, and socialize, we then announce our winners and distribute our prizes! (click the above picture for more)

September 2021

The JKM Library is excited to be working with CAB and the University Archives on an event this coming October 14th for National Dessert Day. The event will include fall and Halloween themed dessert snacks, the screening of short film “Chatham University Ghost Stories,” directed by student Tess Weaver, the telling of a recent ghostly encounter on campus, and readings from award-winning local horror authors. The University Archives will also have items from Chatham’s past that connect back to popular ghost stories on campus.
The event is from 7:00pm-9:00pm on Thursday, October 14th in the Carriage House. Registration is not required.
Below is the lineup for the evening. Keep scrolling to read bios and find links to our guest authors.

• 7:00pm- Welcome, mingle, view the archive materials
• 7:20pm- Nelson Pyles
• 7:40pm- Sara Tantlinger
• 8:00pm- Video of ghost stories
• 8:15pm- An Occurrence at Thomson House (told by Jocelyn Codner) 
• 8:20pm- Douglas Gwilym
• 8:40pm- Michael A. Arnzen

Sara Tantlinger is the author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes, and the Stokernominated works To Be Devoured, Cradleland of Parasites, and Not All Monsters. Along with being a mentor for the HWA Mentorship Program, she is also a co-organizer for the HWA Pittsburgh Chapter. She embraces all things macabre and can be found lurking in graveyards or on Twitter @SaraTantlinger, at saratantlinger.com and on Instagram @inkychaotics.
Nelson Pyles is the critically acclaimed author of the novels Spiders in the Daffodils and Demons, Dolls, & Milkshakes, a collection of short works entitled Everything Here is a Nightmare, as well as multiple short stories in various anthologies. His work has appeared alongside Harlan Ellison, F Paul Wilson, Tim Waggoner, Michael Arnzen, Jonathan Maberry, and Jack Ketchum. His next collection of short stories All These Steps Lead Down will be available in 2022
Nelson is the creator of The Wicked Library, a horror fiction podcast, where he also served as host for seasons 1-5, and collaborated as Executive Producer for seasons 6-10. He has also been a contributing writer to the popular audio-drama podcast, The Lift. Nelson is also an audiobook narrator and stunt vocalist for the progressive rock band, Novus.
Douglas Gwilym is a writer and editor who has also been known to compose a weird-fiction rock opera or two. If you aren’t lucky enough to have caught him performing his stories and music at venues around Pittsburgh, you can find him at douglasgwilym.bandcamp.com or follow him on twitter at @douglasgwilym. Check out his Amazon page. Befriend him on facebook.
Michael Arnzen is the four-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Grave Markings and Play Dead. Arnzen teaches fulltime in the MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University, in Greensburg, PA. Known particularly for his experiments in minimalist horror, in such books as 100 Jolts and The Gorelets Omnibus, he invites readers to subscribe to his newsletter at gorelets.com, where they can get free short-shorts delivered to their inbox when they least expect them.

February 2021

We’re back with our second year of the Judge a Book By Its Cover Bracket! No one should be surprised that there are still many more delightfully goofy library book covers in our collection to judge and enjoy. We all know how outdated and silly some book covers can be to us now, and this bracket is all about embracing and enjoying everything these covers have to offer! We have selected 16 of our most ridiculous covers for you to compare and vote for the best/worst. Each book featured in the bracket is from our collection and is available for check-out by Chatham community members. While we are clearly encouraging you to put on your judgment caps for this activity, don’t forget that the old saying is true: never judge a book by its cover…unless your librarians are demanding that you do it in the name of fun. But in all seriousness, some of the best books out there have been saddled with covers that just don’t fit what’s inside. So while we all love a beautiful book cover, don’t let the outdated covers discourage you from picking up what might end up being your next favorite book. Now that the disclaimer is over, let’s get to the judgment. Feel free to download a bracket to fill out for fun prior to the voting. You can access the ballot HERE and on Instagram and Facebook. Make sure to follow us on social media to see which covers advance and how to vote in round two! Keep scrolling for a preview of the round one matchups and to help you fill out your brackets

February  2020

From the dated to the down-right goofy, we all know that library books can have some of the most outlandish covers ever seen. We know, we know…we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. And that’s true! Many amazing books have been saddled with less than appealing covers, and we should give them a fighting chance before writing them off, but for right now, for just this purpose, in this moment, we are going to judge the heck out of some book covers! Join us in March and April for our first ever Judge a Book by Its Cover bracket. We have selected 16 of our most ridiculous covers for you to compare and vote for the best/worst. Each book featured in the bracket is from our collection and is available for check-out by Chatham community members. You’ll be able to browse them at the Popular Reading display on the first floor of the JKM Library. We encourage you to pick them up and read their synopses! Because, after all, we can’t judge what’s inside by what’s outside, can we? We welcome you to check them out at any time. Round One will begin on Friday March 6th and last until Tuesday March 17th . Each following round will last about a week, wrapping up on Monday April 6th ! Voting during each round will happen in a number of ways. First, we will have the bracket laid out on our Art Wall on the first floor of the JKM Library. Don’t know where that is? Ask at the Circulation or Reference desks! Each book cover will be posted, and you will be able to vote for you favorite in each matchup by adding a sticker next to the cover you love to hate the most. We will also be posting each matchup to social media and will encourage folks to vote for their favorites in the comments. Votes will be tallied at the end of each round and added to the votes from the Art Wall. Winners will then move on to the next round, and so on and so forth until we have selected our most gloriously bad book cover! If you want to play along, you can download a bracket here or pick one up in the library. The book covers are included with the bracket, and they are added below along with the Round One matchup. If you want to share your filled-out brackets with us, post to social media with #BookCoverBracket. We would love to share your perfect bracket! We hope you enjoy our inaugural Judge a Book by Its Cover bracket and that it inspires you to check out a book you might have discounted before.

April 2019

On April 1st 2019, the Jennie King Mellon Library held its 8th Annual International Edible Book Festival, co-sponsored by Chatham University’s Food Studies Program. The entries were delightfully creative and absolutely delicious. And while every year we are impressed with the Edible Book creations submitted by participants, we were extra blown away this year. The competition was incredibly tough! We saw 12 Edible Book creations and enjoyed record breaking attendance with over 50 folks joining us for some yummy fun!
Family fun at the JKM Library’s 8th Annual International Edible Book Festival
The event was held in the Jennie King Mellon Library lobby. Our planning committee included Reference and Outreach Librarian Jocelyn Codner and food studies graduate student Jordan Mason, with support from Falk School Administrative Assistant Hallie Jensen. Hallie is always a huge help during the logistical planning of this event.
The International Edible Book Festival is an event celebrated in libraries around the world. It began in 2000 by two women who wanted to combine love for literature with love for food and cooking. It is traditionally celebrated on or around April 1st in honor of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.
Folks who decide to submit an Edible Book select a favorite book, or perhaps just a book that sparks inspiration, and they craft a food item or beverage that creatively interprets and represents that book! A few ways to accomplish this could be in a clever name (puns encouraged), the way the food item is decorated, the ingredients in the food item, or perhaps by featuring a particular food item that was featured in the book itself. The result is fun, delicious, and literary. Participants bring their Edible Books to the event, and attendees and judges get to taste and judge each entry!
At our Edible Book Festival, we offer five prize categories:
Most Sustainable (ingredients must be clearly marked as being organic, local, sustainable, etc)
Most Creative Literary Interpretation
Best Tasting
Crowd’s Choice
Grand Prize
This year’s official judges included Assistant Professor Marc Nieson and Archivist and Public Services Librarian Molly Tighe, who both have volunteered to judge in previous years, and new judge Assistant Professor Sarah Shotland. They selected the winners of Most Sustainable, Most Creative Literary Interpretation, Best Tasting, and the Grand Prize. The 50+ attendees all voted on Crowd’s Choice. Keep scrolling to see who the big winners were and what kind of amazing Edible Books were submitted this year!

Our Most Sustainable winner was “Call Me by Your Bundo” by Erica Cohen and Sarah Fink. This Edible Book played off of the books Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman and A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by E.G. Keller (presented by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver). It was a playfully decorated carrot cake that won for it’s sustainable ingredients and it’s socially sustainable message. 

Our Most Creative Literary Interpretation was “Make Room! Make Room!” by Dan Nolting, which drew its inspiration from the book Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison (later turned into the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green). Dan created a multimedia experience with his scifi steam-punk Edible Book that included a looping video with sound to accompany his lime coconut jello shots. 

The Best Tasting award went to “Game of Scones” by Kate Emory, obviously inspired by A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) by George R. R. Martin. This Edible Book featured scones with four different delicious flavor profiles to represent four major families in the book series. 

The winner’s of the Crowd’s Choice award was “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Suhui Dong and Yuchun Tung for their stunning crepe cake flavored with matcha, rum, and red bean paste decorated with candy meringues and adorable illustrations and figures. 

And finally, the Grand Prize was awarded to Sarah Birmingham for “Dune”, inspired by the science fiction novel Dune (Dune #1) by Frank Herbert. Sarah’s Edible Book involved handmade pumpkin sherbet (pun intended), handmade cinnamon beignets, and (most impressively) handmade chai gummy worms!
Our 2019 winners!
Click through the gallery to see additional Edible Book entries and more photos from the festivities! We hope this inspires you to join us next spring for our 9th Annual
International Edible Book Festival.
“Alice in Wonderland” cheesecake and berry tarts
“Brew Your Own Polyjuice”
“Ophelia’s Bouquet of Madness”
“Oedipus Rex” cherry poppers
“Treasure Island”
“Tell Tale Tart”
“Goodnight Moon”
“If You Give a Moose a Muffin”
“Call Me by Your Bundo”
“Make Room! Make Room!”
The spread
“Alice in Wonderland”
“Game of Scones”
Preparing for judgement
Molly Tighe judging
Our judges making their rounds
Jocelyn brews a potion
Judges gonna judge
Polyjuice Potion for all!
 

December 6, 2018

Don’t be fooled by our gentle demeanor. Librarians have a bit of a competitive side as well. True, it comes out in strange ways, but it is definitely there. For example, it is not uncommon for groups of librarians to ask one another how many books they currently have checked out from their respective libraries. The winner will usually have a number in the hundreds. We LOVE checking books out of the library, sometimes more than actually reading them.
While we don’t expect you to match our own checkout numbers, we invite you to pile up a fun stack of books to checkout over your upcoming winter break! What could be better than fun, comforting winter reads while you’re resting up for the spring? Well, what if we told you that you could actually win prizes as well? That’s better, right?

2018’s Clear This Display main book display
Welcome to our annual Clear This Display Contest! Each book you check out from our main book display earns you an entry into our raffle. You may enter as many times as you like (read: check out as many books as you like). Simply fill out the slip tucked in the book, fold it up, and put it in the red contest submission box at circulation! We draw two winners in January once we’re all back from break.
The rules for the contest are as follows:
Be a Chatham University student.
When checking an item out, fill out the slip that comes with it and submit your entry at the circulation desk after check-out.
Enter as many times as you want! One entry per item checked out from the table.
Take items home and enjoy 🙂 Be aware of the due dates.

We have two prizes for participating students: a guaranteed individual study room for ALL of Spring 2019 finals week, stocked with your favorite study goodies, OR a $10 gift certificate to Café Rachel. We alert winners via their Chatham email, so it’s important not to skip that line on the slip when submitting an entry for a prize.

So, how many books do you think you can check out before you leave for winter break? We want nothing left on this table by the end of the semester…do your worst.
 

March 2018

Another year, another AMAZING Edible Book Festival! The International Edible Book Festival is a celebration of food and literature, combining both into tasty fun! This year, we had an incredible variety of sweet and savory dishes ranging from cleverly simple to technically impressive. There was also liberal usage of props, much to our delight! It was exciting, to say the least. The event was again co-sponsored by the Food Studies Program and hosted in the Jennie King Mellon Library lobby. Our planning committee included Reference and Outreach Librarian Jocelyn Codner and Food Studies students Lore Pinder and Rachel Waugh. Participants select a favorite book, or perhaps just a book that sparks inspiration, and they craft a food item or beverage that creatively interprets and represents that book!
A few ways to accomplish this could be in a clever name (puns encouraged), the way the food item is decorated, the ingredients in the food item, or perhaps that particular food item was featured in the book. The result is a fun and delicious Edible Book. Participants bring their Books to the event, and lucky attendees get to taste and judge each entry!
At our Edible Book Festival, we offer five prize categories:
Most Sustainable (ingredients must be clearly marked as being organic, local, sustainable, etc)
Most Creative Literary Interpretation
Best Tasting
Crowd’s Choice
Grand Prize
This year we had the pleasure of Dr. Carrie Tippen, Associate Professor Marc Nieson, Dr. Alice Julier, and Archivist Molly Tighe as guest judges. They selected the winners of Most Sustainable, Most Creative Literary Interpretation, Best Tasting, and the Grand Prize. The 35+ attendees all voted on Crowd’s Choice. Keep scrolling to see who the big winners were and what kind of amazing Edible Books were submitted this year!

Most Sustainable: Mikayla Wobrak and Albert Stanley for “Seoul Long and Thanks for All The Fish Tacos”
Most Creative Literary Interpretation: Lore Pinder for “Sweeny Todd’s A Little Priest Pies”
Best Tasting: Rachel Snyder for “Not All Tarts Are Apple”
Crowd’s Choice: Jade and Iris Marzolf for “Brucie’s Cake from Matilda”
Grand Prize: Kate Emory for “The Crepe Gatsby”
A Little Priest Pies (Most Creative Literary Int.)
Not All Tarts are Apple (Best Tasting)
Prizes!!
Pulled Piggy
Baklava inspired by Cresent
The Crepe Gatsby (Grand Prize)
Bread and Jam for Frances / Arthur’s Honey Bear
The Sunshine and Biscotti Club
Brucie’s Cake from Matilda (Crowd’s Choice)
Animal Farm
Harold & the Purple Iced Cake
Seoul Long And Thank for All The Fish Tacos (Most Sustainable)
Our judges judging
Mikayla and Albert with their award winning Edible Book!