Starting January 1st and continuing through the end of March, I’ll be the “Reader in Residence at Wolverine Farm” Much like an artist or musical residency, the expectation is that I will spend time at the bookstore visibly engaging in my craft. If you are my husband or late mother, this would be the moment where you roll your eyes. Can reading be a creative act? Is this low-key performance art or the most genius justification for spending more time with a cup of tea and nose in a book? The answer is an emphatic YES to all of these.
Some might argue that a bookstore or library is exactly where you might expect to see people reading, but pause and look around when you are next in one of these dedicated spaces and count- how many people are reading physical books and what are they doing instead? For the last twenty years, I’ve had wonderful experiences teaching art, game design and writing programs at public libraries around the country. What was once a space for books and research has evolved into resources for public engagement and enrichment with trained staff who assist with computers, maker spaces, job searches, art classes and active empathetic support for those experiencing homelessness. A Pew research study from 2015 on library programs and usage shows that while other services are increasing, book borrowing is on the decline. Our beloved bookstores have become multipurpose spaces as well, with coffee shops, toy and game sections, readings, some even serve wine. I see these as magnificent evolutions, where we have equitable public spaces with access to books and writing as the unifying thesis for gathering. To be seen reading a physical book here, is an affirmation of the origins of these institutions and the active preservation of a communication practice- the voice of an author speaking to an individual reader through inked words on a page.
Wolverine Farms sees this as a creative and artistic activity. “The practicing reader, no less than the writer, models an imaginative power that connects human beings across time and space.” The job of an author is to convey meaning to a reader, without that two-person relationship, writing has no purpose. Much like Schrödinger's cat, a book is only a physical object until the words are observed and decrypted, until that time it lives in two states, both dead and alive.
One aspect of that creativity is what we choose to read and the libraries we create within ourselves. My personal interests are all over the place, I’ll read history when I want to know more about where we’ve come from or what may have created the place society exists today. With a change of elected parties in power coinciding with the beginning of my residency, I’ve already planned to read more books about the shaping and preservation of Democracy. I’ve set aside biographies, books on architecture, philosophy, particle physics, English literature and science fiction, it is a smorgasbord of curiosities.
In the last decade, my own book reading has diminished in favor of audiobooks and scrolling on my phone, making a habit of returning to the physical form is like returning to a favorite exercise or dance, I know the steps and can now take pleasure of the immediacy of the activity. Unlike other residencies, this one comes without a mandate to document or discuss the project, it is unencumbered reading. I, however, suffer from mission creep, and a strong desire to dig deeper into the idea of reading in public, at Wolverine Farms and other spaces. I’ll be documenting and discussing this on Instagram and Bluesky, showing what I’m reading and where, making space for a larger conversation of the dialog of books.