Madison community members could have their cake and read it too at Memorial Library’s sixth annual Edible Book Festival Monday, where community members created edible sculptures inspired by their favorite book character or scene.
The festival encourages people to create edible sculptures and submit photos to the Books2eat website so others across the world can enjoy the food artists created, said Beth Harper, event organizer and reference librarian at Memorial Library.
The Edible Book Festival is held internationally in countries including Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico and Russia. The first event was held in 2000 and in 2006 the festival came to UW.
The School of Library and Information Sciences sponsored the first Edible Book Festival on campus as part of its centennial and Memorial Library continued the tradition in 2010, Harper said.
“For Memorial Library, it’s just bringing the community into the library and getting to know us a little bit better,” Harper said. “I think a lot of people see Memorial as a very serious library, which it is. It’s the get it done library. We also strongly believe in literature and art and this is a little more lighthearted way for people to interact with Memorial Library.”
The festival gives students an opportunity to express themselves in a different way and promotes community, Harper said. The main aspect of the festival is to celebrate and bring people together over mutual love of food, art and books, she said.
The 2015 Edible Book Festival judges were local co-authors of the blog “Eating in Madison A to Z” Nichole Fromm and JonMichael Rasmus and University of Wisconsin PhD student in food science and winner of “The Amazing Race” Maya Warren.
Edgewood College is holding its Edible Book Festival in the next few days and Memorial Library may explore a partnership with them next year to continue their annual tradition, Harper said.
The judges handed out awards for the following prize categories: most creative use of ingredients, best visual presentation, funniest/punniest, people’s choice (voted by the communities’ vote), best entry based on non-illustrated book and special judges’ award.
