A Library’s Festival of Writers

A few week­ends ago I attend­ed a library event such as I have nev­er been to before. Love­land (Col­orado) Pub­lic Library offered a one-day fes­ti­val of local writ­ers. All kinds of writ­ers were there: those who self-pub­lished, those who work with tra­di­tion­al pub­lish­ers, blog writ­ers, writ­ers who work with small press­es and inde­pen­dent publishers.

The point is they (per­haps fifty or so) were all writers.

These writ­ers were wel­comed to the library and had some dis­cus­sions among them­selves, about this far-rang­ing new world of pub­lish­ing. After­ward, the writ­ers were wel­come to lay out their wares, so to speak, and the pub­lic was invit­ed to come, meet, browse, and hope­ful­ly to pur­chase what these writ­ers have done.

The Love­land Pub­lic Library also has a sec­tion where self-pub­lished books, if ful­ly bound, are avail­able to the public.

It’s a nat­ur­al affin­i­ty: a pub­lic library and local writ­ers. Of course the writers—no mat­ter how they publish—have much in com­mon. It is only their means of reach­ing read­ers that dif­fers. By rec­og­niz­ing this, the Love­land Pub­lic Library sup­port­ed these writ­ers and hon­ored them in a very spe­cial way. The pub­lic library brought pub­lic writ­ing and the pub­lic all togeth­er. Just as it should be. Bravo!