BCAT News

The Burlington Public Library invites its patrons and residents to its first ever Local Author Festival on Sunday, October 6 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The event was inspired by the desire to connect readers with writers, said Programming and Marketing Librarian Daniel Barbour. “Emerging authors often face the challenge of attracting an audience, especially when they’re still building their readership. By bringing together a diverse group of local authors, we aim to create a wonderful opportunity for patrons to meet a lot of people at once – authors who they may not have taken the time to meet individually.  Having run this event before in a previous community, I was excited to bring it to Burlington as it aligned so well with so many aspects of our Library mission.”

Thirty authors from Burlington and other surrounding communities will be in attendance (a full list of them can be found here on the library website) and many of them will have their published works available for purchase. Barbour also mentioned that guest authors will be donating copies of their books to the library.

Patrons should stop by the welcome booth upon arrival to receive a special “author passport”. Those who collect stamps from at least twelve authors will be automatically entered in a drawing to win one of three book bundles containing books for adults, teens, and kids).

The Friends of The Burlington Library will be running a free snack stand throughout the event, and the first 100 patrons will receive a free drawstring bag.

The keynote speaker of the day will be Chronicle Reporter and Author Ted Reinstein, who will give a presentation on his new book Travels Through the Heart and Soul of New England.  Seating for Reinstein’s presentation is first come, first seated.

“Since 1995, Ted Reinstein has been a reporter for WCVB’s ‘Chronicle,’ the nation’s longest-running nightly newsmagazine, and has been part of the WCVB editorial board since 2010.” said Barbour, “He is well known in the Library world for giving incredible lectures on many different topics related to New England.  We’ve hosted him before to large turnouts, and we anticipate this will be the same!”

Barbour hopes the Local Author Festival will become an annual event for the library.

“It’s a unique opportunity to discover the rich literary landscape right in your own community and to be inspired by the stories crafted by neighbors.” said Barbour, “I also want authors who come to feel valued…Writing books is no easy task, and getting a book published is a major challenge with no two authors having the same experience.  Anything libraries can do to support more writing is something they should do, and I’m glad we can offer a platform at the Burlington Public Library.”