School News
Festival: Let them eat books!
By UNT News
Mar 30, 2005

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Have you read the latest version of "S'mores and Peace" or perused the Ten Commandments in gingerbread form?

These are just some of the creations spawned around the world during the International Edible Book Festival, a fund-raising event created in 1999 for book centers and libraries. Participants make fantastic food creations in the form of their favorite books to be viewed, enjoyed and eaten during the April festival.

The University of North Texas Rare Book Room in Willis Library will participate in the event for the third year from 2 to 4 p.m. April 1 (Friday). For a $2 entry fee contestants can enter their tasty book creations. No open flames are allowed on entries and the edible books can have non-edible parts, but must be mostly eatable. While there is no entry deadline, please notify the Rare Book Room staff of plans to enter an item before the day of the festival.

For $5, festival visitors can see and take a bite out of their favorite books at the Rare Book Room in Willis Library, which is located one block east of Highland Street and Avenue C. Festival goers vote on both the best looking and the best tasting book creations in the festival.

Also, festival hosts from all over the world share photographs of some of the best edible books at books2eat.com. Entries come from festivals across the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Russia.

The idea began in 1999 with American book artist Judith A. Hoffberg. This year's event is also in celebration of the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 - 1826), famous for his book, "Physiology of Taste."

For more information about the International Edible Book Festival, visit www.colophon.com/ediblebooks/.

To find out more about the UNT event, contact Mary Durio, department head and curator of the Rare Book and Texana Collections, at (940) 565-2768 or visit www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/eatbooks.htm.