Winners crowned among group of moving collections in Snyder Book Contest

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LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Libraries honored eight student finalists and awarded cash prizes at the 67th annual Snyder Book Collecting Contest during a reception April 24 at Watson Library. The contest, established in 1957 by libraries donor Elizabeth Snyder, is designed to recognize students' passion for creating personal book collections.  

Charles Johnson, a senior from Lawrence, won first place in the undergraduate division for “Coming to Terms with Collective Violence: A Graphic Reconciliation,” a collection of graphic novels. 

“The collection really began how I think a lot of collections begin, which was more or less by accident,” Johnson said during remarks at the award ceremony. He described an experience during the summer before he entered third grade, when he mistakenly checked out a book that was “wildly age-inappropriate" for him at that time, “The Complete Maus,” by Art Spiegelman.  

The book’s metaphors, based on the historical context of the Holocaust, were largely lost on Johnson at that young age, but the experience helped spark an interest in the persecution of vulnerable populations across many regions and cultures, intersecting with Johnson’s multiple majors in history, political science, religious studies and global & international studies at KU. Johnson’s winning collection illustrated an appreciation for the graphic novel medium, with selections highlighted for their ability to engage a wide audience in complicated, sometimes violent situations and conflicts.  

“The medium invites outsiders to view and to understand and to grapple with these histories otherwise easily relegated to dense volumes of academic texts,” Johnson said. 

Nicholas Hoekstra, a doctoral student in special education from Comstock Park, Michigan, won first place in the graduate division with his entry, “From Black and White to Every Shade of Gray: The Changing Dynamics of Good and Evil in Fantasy.” 

Hoekstra said the submitted collection represented a fraction of his total collection that he estimated at 500-600 books.  

“I was very surprised to win first place because I still am accustomed to people looking at fantasy as very much the nerdy kind of books that unpopular kids read,” Hoekstra said. “But personally, I think fantasy is a really, really interesting lens through which to examine our own world and reality, and fantasy kind of gives us a little bit more of a flexible playing field to explore ideas that we kind of encounter every day.” 

Hoekstra said preparing and displaying his collection for the contest required a little extra creativity, and the end result illustrated the ways his interactions with books have changed over time, beginning with his mother reading to him when he was young.  

“My collection is very broad. It consists of a lot of books in audio formats, books in braille, books on Kindle, even books on tape, because as a person with a visual impairment I read through a different medium than your traditional paperback,” he said.  

Laura Moriarty, best-selling novelist and professor of creative writing at KU, delivered the evening’s keynote address, exploring the books she has used to inform and inspire her writing, as well as an especially meaningful collection of published works written by authors she’s advised and mentored through KU’s Master of Fine Arts program.  

Moriarty also served as a judge of the contest, and she said reading the “passionate and deeply personal” essays of the finalists was a delightful part of the unique Snyder contest experience. 

“Each (finalist) collected books not to impress, not to make money, not with a goal in sight, not even to simply hunt and own,” she said, “but to more fully engage with a subject that moves them, intellectually, emotionally and even physically.” 

In the undergraduate division, second place went to Zoe Savage from Austin, Texas, for “A Comprehensive Guide to Roller Derby History and Culture.” Jasmine Hunt, Spring Hill, received honorable mention for her collection, “Scientific Curiosity: The Human Experience as it Relates to Science and the Universe.” Abraham Frederick of Mulberry was honored as a finalist for “From Jacobins to Bonapartists: The Wars of the Coalition and the Age of Revolution.” 

Joshua Navarro, Hutchinson, won second place in the graduate division for “First Love, Lasting Legacies: Stories of the Lives of Presidents and First Ladies.” Honorable mention was awarded to Christine Singleton of Richmond, Virginia, for “’Why ... Wherever God Motions’: A Black Feminist Phone Tree.” Abby Breyer of St. Louis was recognized as a finalist for “’Her tears were tears of shame and loss and love. Love most of all’: A Collection of Books that Made Me Cry.” 

“I think this year was particularly special because so much is uncertain right now. It's always great to be able to look back and look forward with optimism and joy,” said Beth Whittaker, executive associate dean of KU Libraries and a longtime judge of the Snyder contest. “We really saw that this year with our finalists.” 

Each winner received a cash prize as well as a gift card from contest co-sponsor Jayhawk Ink, who will also display the top collections in a case outside the bookstore in the Kansas Union through May 9. Cash awards are made possible by an endowment fund created by Snyder. First place winners in each division are eligible to compete in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which awards a top prize of $2,500.