Author: Nora Maynard

The Shelf-Space Dilemma: Which Books Stay? Which Go?

The Shelf-Space Dilemma: Which Books Stay? Which Go?

We lit-loving folk tend to accumulate an overwhelming number of books. Even if you’re a diehard eBook reader, audiobook listener, or library borrower, chances are you’ll still find yourself receiving the odd hard copy as a gift, or springing for an exciting new release or two at a local author signing. Next thing you know,…

Exercising Your Craft: 3 Writers Who Get Physical

Exercising Your Craft: 3 Writers Who Get Physical

I have a writer friend whose employment info on her Facebook profile always makes me laugh. Under “Position,” she wryly reports “Hunched Over a Desk.” Treadmill desks and Hemingway-style standing aside, most writers spend a lot of time sitting. We’re exhorted to with quotes like this one from Mary Heaton Vorse: “The art of writing…

Reading Cookbooks Like Novels: Bookseller Bonnie Slotnick

Reading Cookbooks Like Novels: Bookseller Bonnie Slotnick

Looking for an international cookbook by horror-film actor Vincent Price? A 1920s etiquette manual suitable for Jay Gatsby? Or Alice B. Toklas’ infamous tome with its recipe for fudge spiked with hashish? Bonnie Slotnick‘s got you covered. With a collection of some 4,000 out-of-print and antiquarian culinary titles stocked in her cozy shop in New…

Milk-Producing, Duck-Billed, and Venomous: The Reanimation Library

Milk-Producing, Duck-Billed, and Venomous: The Reanimation Library

It’s a digital age, but we’re still mad for paper! Even as readers embrace the connectivity and convenience offered by iPads and Kindles, there are still many good reasons to celebrate a book’s physicality. In Ploughshares’ Book Arts series, we’ll be looking at some of the artists, curators, and craftspeople who work to keep things…

Reading the Environment: Book Artist Melissa Jay Craig

Reading the Environment: Book Artist Melissa Jay Craig

It’s a digital age, but we’re still mad for paper! Even as readers embrace the connectivity and convenience offered by iPads and Kindles, there are still many good reasons to celebrate a book’s physicality. In Ploughshares’ Book Arts series, we’ll be looking at some of the artists, curators, and craftspeople who work to keep things…