Ah, the bookshelf. A writer’s most prized possession. This week Sundress Publications is showing our bookshelf love by inviting you all to snoop around our bookshelves and learn the back story on all the odds and ends that make our shelves, well, uniquely ours.
“My name is Donna and I’m a bookaholic.
“My husband and I have been married almost 30 years. Early in our marriage, we decided that we could spend money on books if we could call them an investment, so we started collecting signed first editions. The first two pictures are part of that collection, flanking the television in our den – everything from Paul Theroux travel writing to Chuck Palahniuk and Irving Welsh to Stephen King to Hunter S. Thompson to Tom Wolfe. That collection continues onto shelves in the basement with autobiography, non-fiction, and fantasy, including a complete collection of Clive Barker and the Dune series. (Some signed album covers from REM and Psychedelic Furs are tucked in there as well.)
“My poetry shelves are also in the basement. One is a random shelf – anthologies, letters, criticisms, and collections. The last photo is my main shelf – most of these are signed by the poets, and this shelf includes some of my best-loved books. You might notice some fiction and essay work on this shelf – these books are here because I feel the writing is lovely and poetic (Kevin Powers, Kathleen Rooney, etc.). My biggest treasure on this shelf is in the far right corner – my grandfather’s copy of Leaves of Grass.
“When my son (who is a senior in college) moves out, his room will become my office. When that happens, I already have plans for a book wall that will able to showcase all of my beautiful poetry books and chapbooks! Until then, I should be happy we have a big enough house to hold this obsessive collection.”
-Donna Vorreyer
Donna Vorreyer is the author A House of Many Windows(Sundress Publications) and four chapbooks: The Imagined Life of the Pioneer Wife (Redbird Chapbooks), Womb/Seed/Fruit (Finishing Line Press), Come Out, Virginia (Naked Mannekin Press), and Ordering the Hours (Maverick Duck Press). She is a poetry editor for Mixed Fruit, and her work has appeared in many journals, recently in Sweet, Linebreak, Rhino, Cider Press Review, Stirring, and Wicked Alice. Donna lives in the Chicago area where she teaches middle school and therefore often acts like she is twelve years old.
