Local Author Fair

November 22, 2023

On Saturday, November 18th from 1-4pm the Wakefield Public Library hosted the 2nd annual Local Author Fair in collaboration with The Room to Write and Whitelam Bookstore.

A huge shout out to Karen Stern, librarian extraordinaire, for making this event happen. 15 authors from Wakefield and surrounding towns came together to make their books available to the public.

This was a great opportunity for readers to find a locally written book and meet the writer behind the book cover. Another aspect of this fair that gets less attention is the fact that the authors get to meet each other. Part of our mission at The Room to Write is connecting writers, authors and creative minds with each other. Community is such an important part of creativity.

The Wakefield Library's Local Author Fair is a uniquely important event in that it allows both independently published and traditionally published authors to be able to gather together and make their books available to the public at one location with thanks to Whitelam Books.

Whitelam makes it possible to order and process the traditionally published authors, while the independently published authors can bring their own books and sell directly without being charged a consignment fee, which is often what will happen if they sell through a bookstore.

This is the type of event that The Room to Write absolutely loves because it supports the entire spectrum of the writing world: readers, potential writers, published writers, and a local bookstore. There is no one specific type of writer we support, The Room to Write supports the entire ecosystem encompassing writing and reading, since you cannot have one without the other. We are so grateful that our local library, especially librarian Karen Stern, has made this event possible.

There was a little of everything, from picture books for the youngest among us, to middle grade and young adult novels, as well as a variety of fiction for adults.