December greetings! Today marks the beginning of the Hazel & Wren Holiday Sale! All of our letterpress prints are 30% off for the entire month of December:
After you’ve done your shopping, curl up with your notebook and hot beverage of your choice—basking in the knowledge that you’ve just bought the perfect gifts—and write some words about these sails.
Andrew Wyeth, Sail Loft, 1983. Watercolor on paper.
Frank Beken (signed “Beken of Cowes”), Shamrock, 1899. Photograph.
Winslow Homer, Blown Away, 1888. Watercolor and graphite on paper. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.
Hello, writers! We have officially entered the final week of the Worth Your Salt contest submission window. You have until this Friday, January 31st to get your entry in!
Winning submissions will be published on the Hazel & Wren website, be invited to read at the April 2014 book launch for The Salt Machine in Minneapolis, and receive a literary gift basket chock full of greatness! Said basket includes a free ebook copy of The Salt Machine, the entire Volume 1 of Thirty Two Magazine plus a gift subscription to Volume 2, a copy of Andy Sturdevant’s Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow from Coffee House Press, a letterpress print from Hazel & Wren, a pocket notebook, a finger puppet (Yes, you read that correctly. A finger puppet.), and the best part: a pint of custom-flavored ice cream from Froz Broz. HOLY SMOKES. And to top it all off, the first prize winner will also receive a $25 gift certificate to Common Good Books.
In honor of these kick-ass gift baskets, let’s continue daydreaming about baskets and maybe write a few words about one (or three). Below are three to get you started.
Anton Bruehl, Untitled (Still-life of Four Roses, Glass of Bourbon, in a Hot Air Balloon Basket), 1930s. Photomechanical print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.
Suzuki Harunobu, A Woman Sweeping up her Love Letters, Edo Period (1615-1868). Woodblock print. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.
Winslow Homer, Girl Carrying a Basket, 1882. Watercolor over graphite on paper. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
P.S. Special thanks to our friends at Common Good Books, Thirty Two Magazine, Coffee House Press, and Froz Broz for their help in making these gift baskets the. greatest. things.
Boy oh boy, have we got some major treats for you! This week, we’re teaming up with Patrick Coleman, Acquisitions Librarian at the Minnesota Historical Society, and curator of “The 150 Best Minnesota Books” list. So far, he has over 60 books on the list, and this week, we’re taking suggestions for the remaining spots!
Know a book that abso-positively must be on the list? To start with, head over to The 150 Best Minnesota Books List… So Far to make sure your book isn’t already on the list. Then leave the title, author, and a brief reason why you think it belongs on the list either on the Hazel & Wren Facebook page, or here in the comment section of this blog post.
Everyone who posts a suggestion will be added to the hat, from which we’ll pull the winner on Friday at noon. Have more than one book to suggest? We’ll throw your name in for each “Best Minnesota” book you suggest. That means the more suggestions, the greater your chances to win! The winner will receive a free letterpress print of their choice, plus (for those of you in the Twin Cities area) FREE ADMISSION to the Twin Cities Antiquarian & Rare Book Fair this weekend! Wowee!
We’ll also be compiling all of the suggestions for Patrick to take into consideration for future books. So if you’re persuasive enough, you just might see your book(s) on the list in the near future!
So, bookworms: Ready, set, go!
Winslow Homer, The New Novel, 1877. Watercolor. Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Librarian, c. 1562. Oil on canvas. Skokloster Castle, Sweden
Géza Vörös, Reading Woman, undated (Ecole de Paris movement). Oil on canvas. Private collection.
Psst: Stay tuned this week for more book fun, including an interview with Patrick Coleman, and more information on this weekend’s Book Fair!
Three Things: Ode to Winter Edition
“White Winter Hymnal” (by Fleet Foxes) popped up in my music shuffle this weekend for the first time in a very long time; perhaps even as far back as the summer it first became a hipster anthem. And while I tend to be curmudgeon-y about extremely popular things, I have to admit that hearing it again reminded me why I, too, loved it before it was played to death. Specifically, I admire it for this lyric:
And Michael you would fall
And turn the white snow red as strawberries in summertime
With those two lines, I’m trudging through snow as a kid, snow sneaking down my boots, cheeks stiff and stinging, and then suddenly there are strawberries, and with them the glowing promise of sunshine and no school. (How did they manage to write about blood without the slightest bit of gore?)
As March nears its end and strawberries grow ever nearer (I’m feeling optimistic today), it seems a fitting time to say a fond farewell to the winter months. This week’s Three Things is my homage to you, Winter. Now beat it.
Winslow Homer, Fox Hunt, 1893. Oil on canvas. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Fukagawa Lumberyards, 1856, from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Woodblock print. Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn.
Mike + Doug Starn, alleverythingthatisyou tiotquat, 2006-2007. www.starnstudio.com
And because now that the song is stuck in my head, it should be in yours, too:
