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Bringing Authors and Readers Together to Support Public Libraries
Bringing Authors and Readers Together to Support Public Libraries
Book Feasts are a new grassroots, community campaign to bring people together to back Australia's public libraries. Working alongside and with the support of Friends of Libraries Australia (FOLA), Book Feasts aims to:
- Build awareness of the plight of our public libraries
- Grow a community of advocates who can speak with one voice to support their local library
- Have a lot of fun doing it, in the form of talking about all things book and reading-related at each Feast
Want to learn more? Explore this website to learn how to establish your own Book Feast chapter and to see what others are doing. You can also follow Book Feasts and FOLA on Facebook below.
What Are Book Feasts?
What Are Book Feasts?
Book Feasts are a free community event for book lovers where numerous local authors mingle with local book lovers, all for the love of reading.
It is like a book club, without the requirement to read the book – and the authors come along.
Book Feasts erase the line between authors and book lovers/readers in the community – and ultimately, we hope to create a community that supports their library so that if budgets are cut or closures are threatened, the one voice of the Book Feasts members can object with more effect than sporadic and individual voices.
The Book Feast will be a free community event, held at a library in the local area. Feasts are likely to move around the region to attract new attendees and will take place every 8 weeks on a Saturday afternoon or Thursday evening. It’ll be a ‘bring a plate’ affair, and the approximately two-hour event will look like this:
- Welcome intro and quick update on why we’re meeting – building a community of support and a group voice for our libraries.
- Talk by the Featured Author: Feature Authors of X genres for 30 mins
- This will move into a more informal chat amongst the attendees in smaller groups as they eat and drink and move around. There’s a free lucky door prize too – books of course!
How Do Book Feasts Work?
How Do Book Feasts Work?
Book Feasts will be attended by a Chapter of Authors (around 8-15 of them) who hope to draw members of the local community to attend. Each feast will focus on different genres to attract new and varied members of the community with a Feature Author (or Book Chef) of that genre speaking for 10/15 minutes each before the book chatter begins. The genres will vary from Picture Books to Young Adult to historical, romance, memoir, poetry, chick lit, thriller, mystery and more.
The Chapter of Authors will use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Newsletters to promote the Book Feast and what they’re trying to do while also encouraging members of the public to attend. On the Sunshine Coast (the test region) the library is promoting the event on their 50k strong newsletter as well as on their website events calendar, social media and using in-library posters and leaflets. In addition, the Chapter of Authors will promote the actual event on their social media platforms, with photos and information about the feast to entice new people to attend next time using the #BookFeasts and #SaveOurLibraries hashtags. Hopefully, members of the community will post their photos too, for their friends to see. Local booksellers have also expressed an interest in attending on a social basis.
How Do I Run a Book Feast?
How Do I Run a Book Feast?
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