Cheryl Lacey, Bates College director of dining services, right, confers Friday with fellow judges Laura Conforte, Ladd Library electronic resources librarian, center, and Bates student Robby Haynos, left foreground, during the library’s Edible Books Festival at the Lewiston campus. The contest, organized by library assistant Greydon McGloon, invited participants to create foods based on a book of their choosing. “We’re coming off of a long, tiring year, and it’s exciting to be able to hold an event where a lot of people gather together and actually eat things,” McGloon said. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Natalie Williamson’s White House cakes won first prize Friday for creativity in the Edible Books Festival at Bates College in Lewiston. Made from iced graham crackers, they illustrate Barack Obama’s book, “A Promised Land.” Williamson, who is a controller at the college, said the contest “meshes my three favorite things, which are creativity, book reading and politics.” She, her husband and her daughter each made a miniature White House using a cookie-cutter she ordered online. “We had a wonderful smell at the house for a week,” Williamson said. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal