The Year of the Author

It stands to reason that to a librarian, writers are like rock stars. One of the best parts of being a librarian is getting to meet authors. I think it was Alice Walker who said you can’t be a good writer and a bad person. I’m not sure that’s totally true, but the authors I’ve met or heard speak have all been articulate, funny, and generous with their time.

At the Public Library Association conference, I heard romance writer, Elizabeth Boyle, tell about getting her first novel published. She’d entered a contest, sent her first three chapters in, was selected as a finalist, and only then found out she was supposed to have the whole novel already written. She had a month to write the novel and checked to see when the last possible Fedex pickup was in order to make the deadline for the contest. Writing down to the wire, her printer died an hour before the Fedex pickup. While she sat at her computer crying, her husband walked by and continued on to the kitchen. Ready to tear her hair out and write her husband off as totally unsupportive, she heard him on the phone.

“I want to cash in my miles,” he said, “what time does the last plane to New York City leave on Sunday night?” Her husband hand delivered her manuscript and Elizabeth Boyle won the contest. With a husband like that, it’s no wonder she’s a romance writer.

For Phillips Free Library, 2012 is going to be The Year of the Author. Thanks to a grant from The Bernard Carl and Shirley Rosen Library Fund of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, we’ve got three fantasy authors coming in the fall. But before Anne Ursu, Laura Ruby, and Tamora Pierce come, we’ll be celebrating poets in May and June.

On May 31st, we’ll have a book launch party for former Phillips Free Library employee, Austin MacRae. Austin worked here while finishing his Masters Degree in English at SUNY Cortland. Now his first book of poetry, The Organ Builder, is being published by Dos Madres Press. Join us at 7:00 pm on Thursday, May 31st for a reading, book signing, and reception. Celebrate poetry and Austin’s accomplishments here @ the library.

Then on Wednesday, June 6th, we are kicking off the summer reading program with a poetry workshop and open mic. The workshop runs from 5:30 until 6:45 pm. Using the teen and adult summer reading themes of--“Own the Night” and “Between the Covers ,” poet Rachel Guido deVries will offer ways to use our dreams, hopes, and life experiences as a starting point for poems. Whether you dream “between the covers” while sleeping, or dream “between the covers” of a book, come write of love, life, and star-spangled skies. Writing prompts will offer ways “in” to ideas, emotions, experiences that are waiting to emerge. Come and open your imagination’s door to creativity in this workshop.

At 7:00 pm, following the workshop there will be a short reading by Rachel Guido deVries, followed by an open reading for all workshop participants and other local poets and writers. Bring your poems to share. Refreshments will be served.

So, come celebrate the Year of the Author, and the Months of the Poets @ Phillips Free Library.