Lots has changed in the years the Berryville Library has been in our current building. We expect lots will change in the years the library will be housed in the new building we are hoping to break ground on soon. That’s why we think it is so important as we move towards this bigger, better future to remember our roots. To that end, we have created the Berryville Library Legacy Project, which lets donors highlight a piece of local history of their choice by selecting photographs to be displayed on the end of a shelving unit at the new library. We also remain committed to helping create a sense of place through our collection, so we are going to highlight our Arkansas section this year. Each month, we’ll look at some of the different books and resources in that collection that feature unique parts of the history and culture of Berryville, Carroll County, the Ozarks, and Arkansas. There’s lots to explore about this place we call home! For August, we’re looking at literature.
We have poetry collections from state and local authors, ranging from Geneva Waterman (a Carroll County teacher) to Glenn Ward Dresbach (a noted poet in his lifetime who moved to Eureka Springs in the 1940s) to Audra Connerley Milum (a Harrison-based poet) to Jolly B. Jones (a Newton County native) to Charldene Sparks (another Newton County native, this one with family ties to Berryville) to Maya Angelou (who spent part of her childhood in Southern Arkansas). We also have a compilation of Fred Starr’s work. Less famous now than Vance Randolph, this long-time Ozark educator, politician, and writer was also fascinated by Ozark culture and wrote a column for the Northwest Arkansas Times about it.
We also have numerous volumes of the Toad Suck Review. During its initial run, this University of Central Arkansas-produced annual compilation of literary nonfiction, poetry, fiction, reviews, and translations was widely considered one of the top literary journals in the world.
If you’d like a broader overview of Arkansas literature, we also have Arkansas, Arkansas: Writers and Writings from the Delta to the Ozarks, which spans writings from 16th century conquistadors to modern literature. We also have The Lost Roads Project: A Walk-In Book of Arkansas, a literary map and literature guidebook for the state, as well as Edna B. Stephens’s biography of John Gould Fletcher, a Little Rock-born, Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet who was a leading member of the Imagist movement.
Are you a frequenter of our Arkansas section? Did you even know we had an Arkansas section? Who’s your favorite Arkansas writer? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of our items or to place them on hold.
Berryville Book Buzz 