Dr. Alisha White is originally from Illinois but moved away when she was five, first to Restin, Virginia and then to Atlanta, Georgia. She was happy to move back to Illinois in 2012 to join WIU where she teaches secondary English Education and composition. She loves teaching Young Adult Literature, Disability Studies, and Arts-Based Pedagogy. When she’s not in Simpkins, she is either reading horror or fantasy, watching mysteries, or making something. Check out the art and photography she posted to her blogs!

M&L: What genre makes up most of your collection?

AW: The reading nook has mostly fiction and memoir. Most of the fun books are speculative, fantasy and science fiction. There is a shelf of signed books from our Lola and Magliocco authors and authors I’ve met at NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conferences. The office shelves have my books about research methods, educational theory, and a few of my fiction and poetry books from undergrad. 

M&L: Which book is your favorite?

AW: So many, too many to pick just one. For fun books, probably the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater or the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. And, I can’t forget to mention my dissertation and Stewart’s (my partner) thesis.

M&L: How long have you been building this collection?

AW: There are books from my undergrad in the 90s on the office shelves–Beloved, Jazz, and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, but I also still have a bunch of my kids books. 

M&L: Which book have you had the longest?

AW: In the office closet I have a bunch of books from childhood like Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein and The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabelth George Speare. 

M&L: Which book have you gotten most recently?

AW: On the reading nook shelves I have a signed copy of I Crawl Through It by AS King that I got in November at the NCTE conference.

M&L: Which is your favorite fiction book?

AW: Right now, Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill, Roland’s Labyrinth by Anne Echols, and The Body in the River by Connor Sullivan. 

M&L: Which is your favorite nonfiction book?

AW: Right now, Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights by Ashley Hope Pérez (Editor), Debbie Fong (Illustrator). My most used research books are probably Visual Methodologies by Gillian Rose and Arts-based Research in Education by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Richard Siegesmund. 

M&L: Which is your favorite poetry book?

AW: The Virago Book of Wicked Verse edited by Jill Dawson. I bought it in London when I did my semester abroad in college. Some of my faves are “Siren Song” by Margaret Atwood, “The Witch” by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge, and Time and Place by a-dZiko Simba.

M&L: What makes your library/bookshelf unique to you?

AW: Probably all of the rocks and geodes on the bookshelves. Oh, and our ceramics in the reading nook! The one on the top shelf is called “Refuge,” by Mary Schuytema, and the one on the bottom shelf is from the WIU art sale, artist unknown.