Shelf Esteem is a weekly measure of the books on the shelves of writers, editors, and other word lovers, as told to Emily M. Keeler. This week’s shelf belongs to editor, literary journalist, and critic Donna Bailey Nurse. As the editor of the anthology Revival: An Anthology of Black Canadian Writing, and author of What’s a Black Critic to Do (parts I &II), Nurse’s dedication to literature cannot be overstated. She told me she’s always kind of reading her favourite book, Middlemarch, as we stood in front of each of her many book shelves, which are in the the sunny down town Toronto apartment she shares with her two children.
This is the situation: I mostly work in here, in the sun room. I’m working on a book on the American South, and I’m growing my plants at the same time. This is my favourite room to read in, and these are the books that I like to have close by, just because I love them. Or the books that I’m reading, working towards what I need to know, researching for my book. And of course, I’m always—every time you think you’re closed to finished, you’re just not. So you end up buying more books, and having to read more and more. But this is the room where I do my work, I get up in the morning and come here first thing, sit there in the corner by myself and have my tea.
I wasn’t always working on the book, but eventually this just became the place where many of the books for my book gathered. But many of these, the books for the book, are books I love anyway. My book on Mississippi is a literary book about the stories that drew me there anyways. I love books about the South, especially black literature about the South. But also, y’know, white, and any literature about the South. It’s like living history.
If you don’t tell the truth, they’re not going to respect you. It doesn’t matter if they like you. Of course, if you’re a nice person you want them to like you, but if you’re doing your job they have to respect you. Be as nice as you can, but if they don’t respect you, your word will be worth nothing. And that’s all you’ve got as a reviewer. I’m a criticism fanatic. I adore it. It’s just so enriching, and it’s a delight to be in other people’s minds. To delight in other people’s thoughts.
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Shelf Esteem runs every week.
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