Snyder Book Collecting Contest winners honored
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LAWRENCE — The winners of the 56th Snyder Book Collecting Contest at the University of Kansas were honored at a reception April 19. Dean Lorraine J. Haricombe presented the awards to the students, and James Gunn, KU English professor emeritus and noted science fiction author, delivered a keynote address.
The contest was established by Elizabeth Snyder in 1957 to cultivate and recognize KU undergraduate and graduate students’ interest in collecting books.
In the undergraduate division, Allie Alvis, a junior from Wichita, won first place with her collection, “Language and Linguistics: How Words Changed My Life.” Trent Boultinghouse, a senior from Girard, took second place with “Accessible Radicalism: The Subversive Printing Tradition of Girard, Kansas,” and David Reiersgord, a senior from Edina, Minn., earned an honorable mention for “Ubuntu: Unity, and Diversity in South African Letters.”
In the graduate division, Laci Gerhart of Hutchinson took first place with “The Evolution of Scientific Knowledge: Vintage and Antique Textbooks of the Natural and Physical Sciences.” Peter A. Williams of Lawrence received second place for “Beauty is a Rare Thing: A Collection of Works by, about, and Inspired by Ornette Coleman,” and Jeffrey Bergfalk of Kansas City earned an honorable mention for his collection, “By Brakhage.”
The winner of each division received a $600 prize and a $100 gift certificate from Jayhawk Ink for the KU Bookstores. Second-place winners received a $400 prize and a $50 gift certificate. Honorable mention winners received a $100 prize and a $25 gift certificate.
Judges for this year's contest were Gunn; Beth Whittaker, head of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, and Howard Graham, Learning Services Coordinator at KU Athletics and a former Snyder contest winner.
For more information about the contest and its history, visit online.