Books for Years

2019 feels like just yesterday... although it wasn’t the most prolific year for my posts, it was a good year for books and writing. #2019bestnine #peninkbook #bookstagram #booksofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/B6w_bO2gnVA/?igshid=mnxt2c2yx75x

“See, Sissie would know how to let folks into one mask and out through another. She’d even raise a toast to the mask, jokin’ about whether folk - black and white - really believed that the opera was wearing her as a mask, or if it just tickled them to see her puttin’ on that white mask of Vivaldi. Was it her voice or someone else’s?..they’d seem to ask. Well, it was all her. Every note, in whiteface or blackface or in just plain old American, went straight down to her bones. That’s what I heard when I truly listened, anyway. She’d pour those opera songs all over her body, and then dress herself in the church crock of hymns. She told me one time, that in order to heR her true voice, she’d had to ask herself about her own masks. What kind of mask might I have on?..she said. Because let me tell you, most don’t even know they’re wearing a mask. You’ve got to know which masks, how many masks you’re wearing before you can put it down and see your true self.” - from the essay “On Sissieretta Jones” in Tyehimba Jess’ OLIO. Matilda Sissieretta Jones was a black, female opera singer from 1887-1915. She passed away in 1933.📚✒️ PEN: Pilot Vanishing Point Crossed Lines w/ EF nib. INK: Noodler’s Heart of Darkness. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4dZcFvADKR/?igshid=198rr523unh0k

“In the sixteenth century in England, dictionaries such as we would recognize today simply did not exist. If the language that so inspired Shakespeare had limits, if its words had definable origins, spellings, pronunciations, meanings - then no single book existed that established them, defined them, and set them down.” -from THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon Winchester. A non-fiction deep dive into the formation of the Oxford English Dictionary - yes please! And happy #fountainpenday 🖋📚 PEN: Conklin Duragraph In Amber w/ a Medium nib. INK: Diamine Pumpkin. https://www.instagram.com/p/B4VTdx1AUud/?igshid=1sfcf9unddwkl

“Just like a murderer jumps out of nowhere in an alley, love jumped out in front of us and struck us both at once.” -THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov 🖊📚 PEN: @twsbi Go w/ Broad nib. INK: @pelikan_passion Edelstein Garnet https://www.instagram.com/p/B3xFvdLArsR/?igshid=x0w47vpinu2

“The truth is life is full of joy and full of great sorrow, but you can’t have one without the other.” -from HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG by Andre Dubus III 📚🖊 PEN:Conklin Crescent Filler w/ a medium steel nib, INK: Herbin Cacao du Brésil. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3pV3yWAvRP/?igshid=1nsm2p0zmbcq0

“A man sings/ by opening his/ mouth a man/ sings by opening/ his lungs by/ turning himself into air/ a flute can/ be made of a man/ nothing is explained/ a flute lays/ on its side/ and prays a wind/ might enter it/ and make of it/ at least/ a small final song” -Ode to the Flute from Ross Gay’s poetry collection A CATALOG OF UNABASHED GRATITUDE 🖊📚 PEN: @pilotpenusa Metropolitan Retro Pop Turquoise with CM nib. INK: Diamine Marine https://www.instagram.com/p/B3hRX1vALer/?igshid=zdlgvumc37f6

“In Autumn, night comes too soon and seems to linger. Patsy, who thought she knew all about loneliness, is surprised to learn that it exists in a place like America.” -from PATSY by Nicole Dennis-Benn, a powerful, epic novel about the life of Patsy, a young Jamaican mother who makes the difficult decision to emigrate alone to the USA in search of her American Dream, but finds something very different. Quote written with Noodler’s Apache Sunset ink in a Moonman M2 with a Fine nib. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Ph79lAB7w/?igshid=1mcpg1x4yi4hg

I had a great time looking back at some of Toni Morrison’s oeuvre throughout September for #30inks30days - and pairing some of her quotes with beautiful pens and inks. Here are all the pens I used, as well as the @hipponoto notebook I recorded them in. Thank you, Toni, for your incredible legacy! https://www.instagram.com/p/B3GKOXEAyq9/?igshid=vki50r9poz22

It’s the last day of #30inks30days 🥺 and the final pairing is a Monteverde Jolly Green Monza pen with J.Herbin Lie du Thé ink and a quote from Toni Morrison’s literary criticism collection PLAYING IN THE DARK. I hope you all enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed creating them 🥰 https://www.instagram.com/p/B3CmugOAPSg/?igshid=1xfw9nnwfmxwj

For the penultimate day of #30inks30days I chose a quote from Toni Morrison’s work of literary criticism called PLAYING IN THE DARK: WHITENESS AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATION. I chose @robertostersignature Crocodile Green ink and a @conklinpens_official Duraflex pen. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2_w1JugFef/?igshid=1lu91ug2xv7xs

Day 28 of #30inks30days brings out an absolute favorite ink of mine, and one of the first that I ever bought - @monteverdepens_official California Teal. It was used In a Noodler’s Neponset to write out a passage from Toni Morrison’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2-QCImAkSW/?igshid=1mi4kxzgynwmz

Day 27 of #30inks30days with a passage from Toni Morrison’s acceptance lecture of the 1993 @nobelprize_org in Literature. The ink is Organics Studio Rogalian and the pen is a @conklinpens_official Herringbone. Such gorgeous and unusual shading! 😍 https://www.instagram.com/p/B27GKR9AUGB/?igshid=16lydqbvjkl2o

I was so shocked by the color-changing ink that I forgot to show the pen! 😮 Day 26 of #30inks30days shows a quote from Toni Morrison’s THE SOURCE OF SELF REGARD written with a Conklin Herringbone pen and @platinumpenusa Cassis Black ink. This is an iron gall ink that writes a bright raspberry shade but dries to a dark reddish brown. https://www.instagram.com/p/B24nMp5g0Rm/?igshid=18gn23vr0u8qm

Day 25 of #30inks30days has a quote from one of the essays in Toni Morrison’s last collection of essays THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD written with a Monteverde Monza fountain pen and Kaweco Sunrise Orange ink. https://www.instagram.com/p/B215II9gqjU/?igshid=1rxqwdxw08wqb

It’s day 24 of #30inks30days and today we have another quote from Toni Morrison’s essay collection THE ORIGIN OF OTHERS. Today’s ink is one I waited a long time to get, because it sells out quickly - @akkerman_den_haag_vulpennen.nl SBRE Brown - written through a Conklin Duraflex fountain pen. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zNNPvAb4G/?igshid=k811sr0j75ia

On day 23 of #30inks30days we have a quote from Toni Morrison’s brief collection of essays called THE ORIGIN OF OTHERS, written with a Noodler’s Neponset pen and @herbininks Corail des Tropiques ink. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2wonHkAlrj/?igshid=zi8zhsayv2i0

Day 22 of #30inks30days brings some #truth from Toni Morrison’s novel GOD HELP THE CHILD, written in Diamine Ancient Copper ink with a @nemosinepens Fission fountain pen. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2ulG9uAwy6/?igshid=10hbuv9baf3dp