Dean Young

Scott Cleland on his
Alphabet Adventure

One of the hurricane-ravaged sites surveyed by Frost and his team in late September.

News Archive 2005-2006

Dean Young finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry
Grants Secured by UICB Instructors
Frost Returns from Gulf Coast
Epstein Featured in Iowa Alumni Magazine

Young finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in poetry

Dean Young is the writer of six poetry collections, including Design with X, Beloved Infidel, Strike Anywhere, First Course in Turbulence, Skid, and, most recently, Elegy on Toy Piano, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. He is also a Faculty Member at the Iowa Writer's Workshop.

Original Monkey, a title by Empyrean Press and produced at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, is a collection of poems and drawings by Young. The book includes works published in Elegy on Toy Piano plus the only American publication of the poem "Chateau Idiotique."

Grants Secured by UICB Instructors

UICB instructors Julie Leonard, Cheryl Jacobsen and Emily Martin each secured Mini Grant Awards form the Iowa Arts Council for three book-related events.

Bill Anthony: Lineage of a Master Bookbinding Exhibit
$1,500 secured by Leonard in June 2005
This book arts exhibition at Iowa Artisans Gallery honored Bill Anthony, the founder of the University of Iowa Libraries Conservation Lab. The exhibition featured work by Anthony’s former apprentices and students as well as a second generation of binders trained by Anthony’s apprentices and students. The exhibit also included educational displays illustrating the processes of bookbinding. Thirty-five artists shared their work, showcasing both traditional and non-traditional book work. This exhibit was a companion event to the UI Museum’s exhibit, William Anthony: Fine Binder and opened during the Changing Book Exposition this past summer.

Alphabet Adventure with Scott Cleland
$437 secured by Jacobsen in September 2005
Actor, calligrapher, teacher and literary activist Scott Cleland performed his Alphabet Adventure to students at Longfellow Elementary School in Iowa City. The performance explored the development of the alphabet and the history of writing. UICB students attended the October 7 event. An additional performance took place at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art October 8.

Projet MobilLivre/Book Mobile Project
$1,500 secured by Martin in September 2005
A vintage Airstream trailer containing artist books, zines and independent publications, the Book Mobile Project visited two locations in Iowa City. The Project, which tours annually across the U.S. and Canada, also hosted a slide show presentation for the UICB community.

The Iowa Arts Council awards Mini Grants each month. Applicants may request up to $1,500 in funding. In addition to awarding grants, the Council encourages excellence in the arts within Iowa communities through leadership and technical assistance.

Frost Returns from Gulf Coast

Gary Frost, University of Iowa Libraries conservator and UICB member, recently returned from a weeklong tour in an air-conditioned Winnebago recreational vehicle. One might think he was on vacation. The trip, however, was anything but leisurely.

Frost was part of a six-member team of conservators and archivists that visited the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast September 22-29. The team, known as CALM (Conservation Attention for Libraries and Museums), stopped at various institutions in Mississippi to assess collections damaged by hurricane Katrina. The tour included the cities of Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean Springs and Pascagoula. Some sites posed quite a challenge for the team.

“At one location we could not find the remains of the library building. At another we found the shell of the building but could not find the books,” Frost said.

When materials were discovered, CALM provided on-site conservation assistance, which included methods to halt the growth of mold. The team also requested emergency funding for places in need of extensive remediation.

For Frost, the damaged books he handled are pieces of southern history—materials that are “crucial to cultural preservation in the region.”

Team CALM was sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History and the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Frost presented a slide show of his experience October 24 at the UI Main Library.