After what seemed like an eternity of debate over what this mythical creature Apple was cooking up would do or look like, we finally have our answer. During a widely covered event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple officially announced the existence of the “iPad.”
So we thought we would open up a post for you to share your thoughts on this “revolutionary” device, and specifically how you think it will affect local literary communities. Will it be one more thing that indie bookstores have to compete with? Will it provide another platform for authors to get their work in front of new audiences? Will it help small presses gain new readers?
Let us hear your thoughts in the comments below. Read the rest of this entry »
From what we could find (please contact us if you have an event you would like us to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of January 23, 2010 through January 29, 2010 are:
Saturday January 23-
Voices In Verse (Cedar Mill Community Library, @10:00am-11:00am): Bring along a cup of coffee and share your own poetry or listen to others read their favorites. The group meets on the fourth Saturday morning of each month in the library’s upstairs meeting room.
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From what we could find (please contact us if you have an event you would like us to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of January 16, 2010 through January 22, 2010 are:
Saturday January 16-
Mother Daughter Book Club (Hillsboro Main Library, @10:00am): A book discussion group for girls in grades 3-5 and their mothers or other significant women in their lives to read and discuss great books together. The group meets the third Saturday each month at 10 a.m. at the Main Library. New members are always welcome and no registration is required!
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From what I could find (please contact me if you have an event you would like me to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of January 9, 2010 through January 15, 2010 are:
Saturday January 9-
William Stafford Celebratory Reading (Tigard Public Library, @2:00pm): Join us for an afternoon of stories about William Stafford and readings of his poems, as well as the works of four local poets. Bring your own favorite Stafford poem to read, your memories of Stafford or ways he influenced you and your work, as well as a poem of your own to read. The featured readers are: Co-hosts Bill Siverly and Michael McDowell, Robert Davies, Melanie Green, Donna Henderson, and David Oates.
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No, not that good word, the bigger more universal word. Literacy. Literature. Storytelling. I’m a book nerd. Books are what I do. Why I’m here, on Reading Local I mean. And I appreciate that RL is here to be the soap box that Gabe and I hope it can be. In my opinion, Books can never have too many champions.
Where Do I begin? Let’s not bore you with my life story, but let’s jump to the moment where I wanted to create a site exactly like what Mr. Barber here has created. In the summer of 2008—I know, so long ago—I was attending the Denver Publishing Institute at the University of Denver. It’s a month long program wherein they give you a crash course in Publishing, trying to give you the tools to make your way in the Publishing industry in 15 days of classes (plus a week to find a job). It’s a fun program and if you’re headed into publishing in New York it is a godsend for the western states.
While at DPI I came across a blog post by a talented young author named Blake Butler, a revolutionary of sorts for the author/publishing world. He’s one of the hardest working writers I don’t know personally and a great writer. Anyway, he wrote this piece on Literary Citizenship and it struck a chord with me. As a writer and a fella trying to make his way in publishing, I felt that I could do something beyond just trying to find a good job and putting out books. I, my meager self, could get out there and help other writers share their stories.
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This blog and the network within which its contained is about to get infinitely better. Spencer Newlin-Cushing has agreed to come on as a partner in this venture and I couldn’t be more thrilled or honored! He brings with him a passion and energy for literature and the industry surrounding it that shines through in every project he takes on. This passion was on display as Spencer carried out his role as volunteer Marketing Coordinator for this years Wordstock Festival. It was again on display as he conducted a series of interviews with the writers of The Portland Fiction Project, and I have no doubt that this passion will be readily apparent in the projects he takes on for Reading Local.
Equally as important, Spencer has expressed a clear interest in helping to further Reading Local’s mission of promoting and connecting local literary communities. We have met within the past few weeks to develop ideas for how to best accomplish this, and I look forward to rolling those out over the next few months.
In a way this couldn’t have come at a better time. As those of you who follow this blog know, I am a stay-at-home dad. And as my son gets older the time he requires continues to increase, which is a great thing as it means I get to experience more and more new things with him. It also however impacts the amount of time I have to spend on Reading Local. Emails take longer to respond to, posts I would like to do never come to fruition, etc. Luckily I have been blessed with a wonderfully talented group of contributors that have helped to pick up the slack, and I know Spencer coming on board as a partner will further help to alleviate this time crunch as well.
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From what I could find (please contact me if you have an event you would like me to add to this or future schedules), the local book events for the week of December 14, 2009 through December 20, 2009 are:
Monday December 14-
Greg Mortenson – Stones Into Schools (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, @7:00pm, SOLD OUT): Since the 2006 publication of Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson has traveled across the U.S. and the world to share his vision with hundreds of thousands of people. He has met with heads of state, top military officials, and leading politicians who all seek his advice and insight.
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May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Enjoy friends and family, and your tryptophan induced comas. Don’t forget to shop local if you are one of the brave ones out and about on “Black Friday!”
Reading Local will be back on Friday with a list of that days events.
Did you know Carl Sandburg once called Chicago the “city of big shoulders?” I sure didn’t. At least not until Diana Luger included it in her introductory post for Reading Local: Chicago. That’s right, Reading Local is now in Chicago!
It turns out that it’s a pretty small world, especially when dealing in literary circles, and when John Adcox announced to his network of connections that he had taken on the role of lead blogger for Reading Local: Atlanta one of those connections just so happened to be Diana Luger. Diana emailed me shortly thereafter and inquired about taking on the same position in Chicago, and a few email exchanges later Reading Local: Chicago was born. Bringing our total coverage now to four cities (Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, and Chicago).
Diana runs the group Book Authors & Agents on LinkedIn, is the author of “Let’s Wrap It Up,” was a co-founder of the Writers and Editors/One-on-One conference in Chicago, and has also been published in dozens of national magazines. In that introductory post Diana describes Chicago’s literary scene as having “never been more vibrant,” and “emerging as a great literary city once again.” Sounds like a perfect time to begin documenting this emergence, and I have full faith that Diana is up to the task.
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Back in July when Matt Briggs launched the Reading Local: Seattle site I knew I was going to have to tie this site and his together in some way. So I worked with the wonderfully talented Naomi Niles at Intuitive Designs to create the splash page you see when you go to readinglocal.com. Since I was stuck on having a map serve as a container for the links to each site, the dilemma came up of what to do with the rest of the map once the Portland and Seattle links were added. Just leave it empty, or figure out something else? It ended up that we established the beginnings of each blog that would serve the locations I envisioned Reading Local eventually covering, and provided a link to these on the map in order to make it look a little less lonely.
After updating the initial posts on each blog they were essentially left untouched. Beyond a few blurbs on the splash page about “Becoming a Reading Local Blogger,” I didn’t work to recruit bloggers in these other locales because I was too busy trying to keep the Portland site updated. So it was to my great surprise that a few weeks back I received an email from a real human being (spam commenters reminded me frequently that these other blogs had been created) and he was interested in establishing Reading Local’s presence in Atlanta. After exchanging a few introductory emails, and getting him set up on Wordpress, I’m extremely excited to announce that today Atlanta writer John Adcox has taken the reins of Reading Local: Atlanta and run with it.
And run with it he has. Seven posts on his first day! It’s a torrid pace that puts the updates on this blog to shame. In his introductory post, John says he plans on “building and enhancing community here [Atlanta] among readers and writers” by covering “events, readings, signings, meetings, bookstores, literary festivals and more.” I look forward to watching and learning from how John approaches covering Atlanta’s literary community, and to learning about how that community fits in to the hustle and bustle that is “Hotlanta.” Maybe with John’s help a new moniker will arise…Litlanta!
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Publishers Weekly has spearheaded an effort to have tomorrow (11-7) serve as National Bookstore Day. They are encouraging indie bookstores across the nation to participate by holding one day promotional events including: raffles, giveaways, discounts, prize baskets, and other ideas.
The Publishers Weekly website shows three Oregon bookstores partaking in the festivities: Third Street Books in McMinnville, Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis, and Portland’s St. John’s Booksellers who is having a “buy 2 get 1 free sale.” I’m sure that every other Portland (and Oregon) bookstore would enjoy you celebrating National Bookstore Day at their store as well.
So use this as an excuse to get some early Christmas shopping taken care of for that book lover in your life, or just as a way to celebrate all that neighborhood bookstores bring to our communities.
I have come across the St. John’s Booksellers’ Community Supported Bookstore (CSB) program before, but for some reason this time it struck a chord and got me thinking about how this could potentially be a viable way for indie bookstores to be proactive in their ongoing battles against the powers that be.
CSB’s essentially take the well established and mutually beneficial Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model and apply it to bookstores. The St. John’s Booksellers program allows the customer to buy a membership ($400/year) in exchange for $35 worth of books for “free” every month, along with a discount on all purchases above and beyond those books. Other benefits like free admission to ticketed events, member-only events, and early access to advance reader copies of select titles are also included. Reading Frenzy has a similar member benefit program as well.
If I had a bookstore and were designing a CSB program I would attempt to take it one step further, by setting aside a small percentage of non-voting shares in the corporation that people could purchase in addition to the basic membership. Their would certainly be some added legal hoops to jump through in taking this approach, but I think they would be worth it and here are five reasons why: Read the rest of this entry »
After what seemed like an eternity of debate over what this mythical creature Apple was cooking up would do or look like, we finally have our answer. During a widely covered event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Apple officially announced the existence of the “iPad.”
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