Tag: danielle alexander

Project Bookshelf: Danielle Alexander

 

The shelf came from my mother. It’s a heavy, sturdy piece, pulled from a dumpster in her retirement community. There are rings on all the shelves from the many glasses of Coke she set on it when she owned it.

The top shelf is home to vintage, hardcover books, as well as anything I’ve recently purchased and haven’t read yet. Half this shelf holds copies of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poetry. Since high school, Edna is the writer I always look for first in a used bookstore.

The second shelf has writing books on the left side of the basket. As you can see, I have a thing for spies and espionage. To the right of the basket are poetry books, plus a signed first edition of Bonnie Jo Campbell’s Once Upon a River, which is the book I always tell people is my favorite when they ask. (When you have a used bookstore/online book business, people ask you this question a lot, and it’s a tricky one to answer.) Next to Bonnie Jo is a copy of Amy Hempel’s short stories. I always keep these two books together. I remember reading them the first time and thinking “Oh! I can write about my life! My redneck, northern Michigan, backwoods upbringing can be written about in a universal, literary way!” Whenever I’m stuck in my writing, I turn to these two books for inspiration.  

In the basket are all the zines, artists’ books, and chapbooks I’ve purchased over the last few years. I have so many favorites. Whenever people come over to my house, I pull the basket out to show them.

The third shelf from the top holds my Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books, as well as a few nonfiction books I’m fond of. There is a Harry Potter snow globe I got when I was eleven, featuring Harry catching the golden snitch. The shelf below is a mix of contemporary fiction and nonfiction, as well as all my Jane Austen books. You could say I have a thing for Jane – my cats are named Jane and Austen.

The shelf second from the bottom holds the heavy art books and more vintage hardcovers. The bottom shelf is a mess of kid’s books, both vintage and contemporary, for when my friend’s kids come over.

My mother passed the shelf on to me when I opened a used bookstore a few years ago. In the bookstore, the shelf held all the poetry books. It sat by the front window and had a gorgeous philodendron on top; easily my favorite shelf in the shop. Now, it sits next to my favorite window in my house, and holds the books I love the most.

There is something magical about keeping all your favorite books together, a little out of order, placing them by how they feel, how they connect to the books next to them.

How do you shelf your books? Tell me in the comments below!

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Danielle Alexander is a writer and the owner of Grey Grey Books, an online and pop-up shop that sells used books, zines, and handmade journals in Michigan. Her writing has appeared in The Bandit Zine’s Love & Heartbreak Issue and The Aquinas College Sampler, where her poem “Mother” received an American Academy of Poet’s Honorable Mention. She has self-published two poetry chapbooks—Sunlight Gets Through (2016) and Chasing Rabbits (2016); two collaborative artist’s books, We Sit Together, At the Table (2015) and White Walls: Entelechia (2015); and recently self-published Ten Lists: A Workbook for Anxiety (2017). Danielle holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in English and Creative Writing from Aquinas College and will be pursuing an MFA in Nonfiction or Poetry in 2018. Her work can be found at reygreybooks.com.

Meet Our New Editorial Intern: Danielle Alexander

Hello, hello! I’m Danielle Alexander. I’m quite a few years post undergrad, so I’m not your typical intern. Since graduating with a BFA in Creative Writing from a small, liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I have been working in nonprofit communications and grant writing. Two years ago, I opened a brick and mortar used bookstore. The store, then Bombadil Books, (let’s be best friends if you get the obscure Tolkien reference) was amazing. It brought the world of self-published zines and handmade journals to me. It was also a TON of work (hello taxes, accounting, inventory, legal paperwork, etc.), on top of continuing to work a full-time job in the nonprofit sector.

In the past few months, I’ve transitioned Bombadil Books into Grey Grey Books, an online and pop-up shop that I run out of my home, still focused on used books, zines, and handmade journals. Retiring from the world of running a storefront has allowed me to focus more on some things I have been putting off for a few years: working on my own writing, applying for an MFA program, and getting some experience in the publishing and editing world. I am thrilled to be joining the Sundress Publications team as an Editorial Intern this summer, fulfilling a long-time dream of working with a small and passionate team of talented, literary-minded individuals.

When I’m not pricing out vintage books or sewing up journals, you’re likely to find me travelling, doing yoga, talking about anxiety and self-care, bullet journaling, and spending time with my dog, Mugs, and cats, Jane and Austen.  

Danielle Alexander is a writer and the owner of Grey Grey Books, an online and pop up shop that sells used books, zines, and handmade journals in Michigan. Her writing has appeared in The Bandit Zine’s Love & Heartbreak Issue and The Aquinas College Sampler, where her poem Mother received an American Academy of Poet’s Honorable Mention. She has self-published two poetry chapbooks: Sunlight Get Through (2016) and Chasing Rabbits (2016); two collaborative artist’s books, We Sit Together, At the Table (2015) and White Walls: Entelechia (2015); and recently self-published Ten Lists: A Workbook for Anxiety (2017). Danielle holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from Aquinas College and will be pursuing an MFA in Nonfiction or Poetry in 2018. Her work can be found at http://www.greygreybooks.com.