Community Connection

Literacy & Hope: Hearts for Preloved Books
Community Connection

Literacy & Hope: Hearts for Preloved Books

by Meagan Frank

A free bundle of books has the power to change a person’s day. If one of the books in the bundle is the right book at the right time, it can change a person’s life. Alyse Urice, founder of Literacy & Hope, believes in the power of books. She wraps up preloved books with a little bit of yarn and a whole lot of hope and places them where just the right heart might find them. […]

Open Book: Creating A Literary Arts Community
Community Connection

Open Book: Creating A Literary Arts Community

by Naomi Krueger

There is a place, created from three 100-year-old buildings, where writers, book artists, and publishers work, create, and collaborate together. It’s a place where books can literally go from the mind to the page, to the bookshelf. A spiral staircase with long, narrow pages of brilliant white paper covered in faintly inscribed poems leads upstairs to pockets of people reading books and pages of manuscripts. […]

One City, One Book: Creating Conversation
Community Connection

One City, One Book: Creating Conversation

by Erin J. Simpson

The idea an entire city could be convinced to read the same book over the course of a year seems like a far-fetched, if not impossible, dream. Aside from the most obvious and daunting logistics needed to jumpstart a city-wide read-along, organizers must consider what one book could be so appealing it would grab the attention of an entire city. Nancy Pearl never imagined her program would grow to what it has now become. […]