My Five: Timothy Schaffert

Nebraska settings figure prominently in novels by Omahan Timothy Schaffert, director of the Omaha Lit Fest and the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference. Author-related memorabilia figure prominently among Schaffert's favorite things:

1. A martini glass from the Omaha Public Library's Omaha Reads promotion of “The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God.”

“It's a real-life representation of a fake artifact from (characters Hud and Tuesday's) fictional wedding.”

2. His childhood copy of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl, which has illustrations by Joseph Schindelman.

“It's one piece of children's lit I read over and over.”

3. A 1930s-era reproduction of “A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago,” newspaper sketches by Ben Hecht, with illustrations by Herman Rosse (an art director for films such as “Dracula” and “Frankenstein.”)

“These are little portraits of the city, with gritty and cartoonish illustrations.”

4. A small, darkly comic painting titled “Passenger #73—Trixie Dayton” by Rodney Rahl.

5. Author-related vegetation: a leaf from a magnolia tree on the lawn of Rowan Oak, William Faulkner's house in Oxford, Miss.; and a clipping of berries from the bittersweet vine in front of Willa Cather's childhood home in Red Cloud.

“I keep them in an old teacup I always used to drink out of when I wrote, until it chipped.”

— Rhonda Stansberry, photos by Chris Machian

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