Jersey Devil poetry collection, share your Bruce stories, local gift guide, & more!
Featuring exciting book news, answers to your holiday shopping, fact checking family lore, a quiet announcement, and a lot more:
This was a busy weekend, and I have more to say about it, but I have a lot to get to in this issue, so I’m going to save that for the next one!
Wishing you a happy holiday season! I hope to see you at one of our coming events.
-Kerri
New Jersey Fan Club won an award!
I was thrilled to learn earlier this month that New Jersey Fan Club was selected for an author award for editing by the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance (NJSAA).
I was truly honored to win this award. The list of previous winners is full of books and authors I admire and whose work I read in preparation for my book. It really means a lot to me that a group of academics whose work centers on New Jersey wanted to recognize New Jersey Fan Club for editing.
If you want to attend their December 12th meeting on Zoom and listen to me and some of the other winners talk about our books for about ten minutes, you can sign up for the link here. The presentations will begin around 4:00 PM Eastern.
Upcoming Events
Come find my table and say hello and get some holiday shopping done at these events! I’ll have the sticker machine at all of these vendor events.
Holiday Market at the Sunshine Mill
Sunday, December 1 from 2:00-6:00 PM
Euphoria Studio: 62 Trenton Ave, Frenchtown, NJ
Alex and I will have neighboring tables!
Bell Works Fresh Holiday Market
Saturday, December 7 from 2:00-7:00 PM
Bell Works: 101 Crawfords Corner Rd, Holmdel, NJ
Montclair Flea Holiday Market
Saturday & Sunday, December 14 & 15 from 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Lackawanna Station: 1 Lackawanna Plaza, Montclair, NJ
Montclair Flea Holiday Market
Saturday, January 18 from 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Lackawanna Station: 1 Lackawanna Plaza, Montclair, NJ
Can’t make it to an event? Shop our online souvenir shop! New Jersey Fan Club is also available wherever books are sold—if your favorite local shop doesn’t have it, ask them to order it!
Holiday Shipping Deadline
If you can’t make it to any of my upcoming markets and want to give someone on your gift list something from our shop—or if you want to have the best thing at the white elephant party—please place any online orders by Friday, December 13 to ensure I have enough time to pack and ship them before the USPS’s suggested deadline for this year! As a last resort for people who know me, we could also probably arrange some kind of pickup option—I once met someone in a ShopRite parking lot to make sure she had her order in time to be able to bring it overseas for her Jersey expat family members! But it’s a busy time of year. Make it easy on yourself (and me) and don’t delay your order if you are planning to give any of our artist-designed goods this holiday season. If you’re interested in a bulk order, send me an email and we can work that out!
I always enjoy picking up a copy of Edible Jersey magazine each season when I see it around. The latest issue features a great interview with one of our state’s top food writers, Pete Genovese.
This is an extremely fun read, especially if you are really into research:
I always look forward to seeing the New Jersey Monthly photography contest winners each year—inevitably there are some familiar names and photographers who’ve done takeovers of our Instagram account. New Jersey Fan Club contributor Kate Watt received an honorable mention!
Unique Photo is having a camera show in mid-December: it’s free, and will feature workshops and demos. You can learn more and RSVP here.
Highlighting our locally-based independent retailer partners who carry our products!
Instead of a typical Stockist Spotlight this month, I’d like to list all of the retailers who placed wholesale orders with us this year, and urge you to shop with them this holiday season! We’re so lucky to live in a state with so many vibrant, interesting businesses. Under each place, I’ve also linked a suggested item to purchase.
SMUSH Gallery, Jersey City
Know a creative person who is in a rut or who would appreciate the opportunity to talk out their ideas or current work-related struggles? Get them a few hours of Thought Partnering.
Kannibal & Co., Jersey City & Summit
Kannibal & Co. has a great selection of Jersey City and Summit-themed items—and some more general Jersey stuff, like this Jersey Devil sweatshirt.
The Corner, Flemington
You’ll have to shop in person to support The Corner, which I highly recommend doing, especially if you’re looking for the perfect pop culture-themed candle (a lot of Taylor Swift ones when I was there recently!).
Occasionette, Collingswood (& multiple Philadelphia locations)
Visit Occasionette for great holiday-specific decor and gifts, and beautiful artist-designed cards for any occasion. They have punch cards, too—for every 10 cards you buy, you get one free!
Shore Gamers, Red Bank
You can pick up copies of the latest and greatest board games for everyone on your list here, or get them a gift certificate so they can play games from their extensive library!
Just Jersey, Morristown
If you’re looking for anything New Jersey-related, you’ll find it here. Everything in store is either themed to our state, made by someone local, or (often) both.
Oakflower Brewing Co., Long Hill
For any beer-lovers on your list, you can’t go wrong with a six pack of something locally brewed. They have great designs on their cans, too. Or, pick up some of their merch!
Pretty Handy, Nutley
If you know someone with a Nutley connection, you’ll find the best hyper-specific goods here. They also carry a more general selection of gifts, and they offer custom items.
Watchung Booksellers, Montclair
Not sure what your reader likes? Sign them up for the store’s subscription service and they’ll get handpicked books in the mail.
Newark Museum of Art, Newark
You can shop their well-curated online store here, or gift the art lover in your life a membership, so they can enjoy the museum’s collection, events, and exhibits all year long.
Welcome to the NJ Q+A, where we hear from an interesting New Jerseyan! Interview has been lightly edited for space.
This month, I talked to Kailey Tedesco, author of four full-length collections of poetry, Gothic literature and writing teacher, and member of the Horror Writers Association. I learned of her work recently when a writer friend sent me a link to her new collection, MOTHERDEVIL, which “reimagines the legend of the New Jersey Devil through the eyes of Mother Leeds.” Obviously, I was intrigued! I shot her an email so we could all learn more about her and the book.
Can you tell us a bit about how you became a writer?
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve relied on poetry and in-depth pretend play (a kind of performance-fiction!) to get to the bottom of whatever emotion I was experiencing. I have always experienced A LOT of emotions all at once, so that has, for better or worse, led to a lot of writing.
How did you come up with the idea for a poetry collection centered on the Jersey Devil?
I’ve wanted to write this book ever since I was a child using sticks as pencils in the dirt. The Jersey Devil legend is a home to me. It’s possibly the most important narrative of my upbringing. I didn’t have an access point that felt authentic enough until I had my first child. I thought about Mrs. Leeds—the Jersey Devil’s mother—all through my pregnancy and every endless night of that first year of parenting. I craved more of her voice in the story, and so I decided to create it.
What kind of research did you do to put the poems together?
The iterations of the Jersey Devil legend that I’ve heard throughout my life were my primary sources and main reference points. These cumulated experiences were foundational for this collection, but even more foundational was what all of these tellings lacked—Mrs. Leeds was always reduced to desperate or evil or uncaring. I wanted to better understand her, and I found some of that understanding through my own personal experiences with postpartum depression.
I will also shout out The Pine Barrens by John McPhee—I found this book serendipitously at a used bookstore and McPhee’s accounts of the Pines from a naturalistic standpoint became an important part of my overall understanding of this unbelievable landscape.
What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
I hope readers are reminded that humans—mothers—are often lacking support. I hope next time someone curses their child to be born a devil, society might take the time to ask why and offer things like abortion access, warm casseroles, and/or childcare. I hope Mrs. Leeds’ dimension and love and agency all eek through the shadowy corners of the collection.
Do you have a favorite place in the Pine Barrens?
I spent a huge portion of my childhood camping in Pomona, NJ, right in the heart of the Pine Barrens. I heard the Jersey Devil legend here for the first time. I also heard strange creaks in the night that very well could have been his wings beating against the trees. I don’t believe that campground still exists the way that it did in the 90s, but those woods will always, always be the most magical place in the world to me.
Artists can contribute postcards to this fundraiser for Studio Montclair. Deadline: 11/29.
ChasingBruce.com is accepting submissions for an upcoming book of Bruce Springsteen stories. Have you met him in person? Did you meet the love of your life at a show? All stories are welcome! Deadline: 2/20.
Consider this a very quiet and exclusive announcement: Are you a writer, photographer, or artist? Are you working on anything New Jersey-related that you think would be a cool zine? Something that’s not quite a book but more than an Instagram post? Publishing Go Fish! was a good way to test the waters with producing and distributing something, and that went, pardon the puns, swimmingly. So, let’s bring your weird, extremely specific, small thing to life. I’ll have a more formal announcement and set up a page on our website at some point, but in the meantime: if you have something you think would make sense to make together, I’m all ears. There would be payment and you’d keep all your rights. We can talk about it. Just email me (you can even reply to this).