Knockemstiff is a real town.

Knockemstiff, Ohio, is where Donald Ray Pollock was born in 1954. Fifty-four years later, Pollock published a book of short stories set in Knockemstiff, and a writer was launched. Much happened in between to make that writer. A high school dropout, Pollock worked in a paper mill most of his life. He didn’t stop dreaming about being a writer. “I’d always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.” One thing Pollock did to prepare for writing was type out the stories of writers he admired.

“John Cheever, Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Richard Yates, Denis Johnson, and the list goes on and on. If the story wasn’t overly long, I’d type it out. And I’d carry it around with me for a week and jot notes on it, and then I’d throw it away and do another one.” When he was 50 years old, Pollock enrolled in the MFA program at Ohio State University. Now an award winning published writer with two books, Pollock be at Augustana Thursday night to read from his fiction. I’d be there if I were you.

He-Man Ironing Contest Winners!

It was a tight race, but the judges (Professor Varallo and Chaplain Glass-Perez) awarded “best” ironer to Kenny Clay whose crisp blue dress shirt clearly stood out. Professor Chuck Hyser won “fastest” ironer, and Daniel Andon won the “people’s choice” award. The electric supply was a little spotty; who knew that irons took so much energy? But the ironers were good sports and showed conclusively that men can iron a mean shirt. All contestants walked away with a Newman’s Own organic chocolate bar. It was worth the high stakes. Someone in the crowd was  heard to say, “We have the best library ever.”

 

Eleanor Nolan won the drawing for the Fair Trade laundry basket. Enjoy it, Eleanor!

Female saints on ironing boards?

Created by artist Kat Hustedde, the library’s new exhibit features images of female saints burned (in a process called pyrography) into vintage wooden ironing boards. Many of these saints, Kat says, deal with women’s issues: fertility, marriage, domestic violence, pregnancy, penitence, and housework. “By conjuring their ‘likenesses,’” Kat says, “I am venerating them, but in a way far removed from the prayerfulness of when I was a practicing Catholic. I acknowledge their existence as women who faced great headship and conflict, more than as metaphysical beings that have an impact on their assigned advocacy.” Kat’s representations are at home on antique wooden ironing boards, symbols themselves of womanhood, domesticity, and labor. Watch for two upcoming events: an artist talk by Kat Hustedde on March 25 at 4:00 and a He-Man Ironing Contest, to be announced.

Librarians lunch!

When the students are away, the librarians will play. Well, we have lunch, every term, the whole staff, and sometimes friends included. We usually have a pot luck, this time a potato bar. Sherrie Herbst baked the potatoes and everyone else brought toppings, or salad, or dessert. Sherrie also brought these gorgeous amaryllis . She grows them in her basement! They perfectly adorned the Valentine’s Day theme. Sherrie is the queen of decorating staff lunches. Yum.

Trash Poems

After reading and listening to poems about the natural world in a breakout session in yesterday’s Winter Symposium, students and faculty put their heads and hands to work to write poems on well, yes, plastic bags, usually the detritus of our civilization, today the pages for one of humankind’s most enduring art forms. Fragments of poems that meditate on nature–that’s what these trash poems are. Take a look; they are on display near the elevator on 2nd floor. “I say there are/ places best left holy” (Lola Haskins).

Woody at 100 Concert

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library event, Woody Guthrie

Musicians will celebrate the music of Woody Guthrie.

For an all-around good time that will bring smiles to your face and your soul, come to the“Woody at 100” concert Monday night at 7:00 in Wallenberg Hall. Area musicians Paul Cioe, Chris Dunn, Ellis Kell, Mark Ridolfi, and Randy Smith will celebrate the life and music of Woody Guthrie, composer of “This Land is Your Land” and hundreds of other songs in the American songbook. Guthrie, a self-described “Dust Bowl Refugee,” was born one-hundred years ago in Oklahoma, and his songs still tell of the hardships and triumphs of displaced
families, migrant workers, and everyday Americans living in the 1930s and 1940s. This is a lively group of musicians, all from the Quad Cities; you will love their enthusiasm, energy, talent, and knowledge. You’ll find out why so many later musicians, from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, were inspired by Woody. You’ll be inspired, too!