AusReading Month - Promotion

 

AusReadingMonth has three ways to share your love of Australian literature - celebration, anticipation and promotion. You can combine all three in one post or spread them out over three separate posts. 

 

This week I'm in PROMOTION mode.

• This is your chance to shout-out your favourite book event, bookshop, or blogger that features Australian books. You can also promote a publisher or author website that has caught your eye this year.
• During this 'unprecedented' year, our usual way of hearing about new books by attending events at our favourite bookshops or literary festivals has changed. How have you found out about new online book events featuring Australian authors and books?
• Which ones stood out?

I have a number of Australian reading events  and bloggers that I would like to promote this year. Given that I found out about most of the events below thanks to other bloggers, I would like to pay this forward, to help you also find new Australian bookish events to explore.

• Writing NSW hosts a yearly event honouring an Australian author who has played a significant role in our literary culture. This year's event was Honouring Katharine Susannah Prichard. I was all set to attend in August, when a certain virus changed all that. The lovely folk at Writing NSW have redesigned the event to suit an online format. The celebration will begin on Monday 9th November. Many of my regular readers will not be surprised to hear that Nathan Hobby will be playing a pivotal role in proceedings.
• Bill @Australian Legend hosts an Australian Women Writers Gen reading week in January. He encourages us to think about how different generations of women writers fit into the social and cultural contexts of their time. January 2021 will see us tackling Gen III Part II. This year I read Mena Calthorpe's The Dyehouse, which slots in under the 'social realism' tag. In 2021 I will finally read The Pea-Pickers by Eve Langley (one of Bill's favourites) to capture the 'modernism' strand. I hope he considers running Gen III Part III the following year, so I can complete the set with Bush/Pioneering.
• Every year in July, Lisa @ANZ Lit Lovers host Indigenous Literature Week to encourage us to read and review books written by Indigenous authors. I've been meaning to read Kim Scott's award winning Benang for years, so I'm putting it out there, that this will be the book I read for 2021!
• The Australian Women Writers Challenge is a year-long commitment to read books by Australian women and to link your reviews to the site. The aim is to build up a bank of reviews to 'redress' the gender imbalance still evident in most major publications and newspapers.
• Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane have done a tremendous job during Covid to keep their author event program going. I've attended two of their free online events so far. Support their efforts by buying a book or two while you're at it. Visit their extensive events page here.
• Gleebooks in Sydney also has an extensive free author event program. I've only attended one so far, mostly because their events have often clashed with other things I have on (like bookclub and late work nights).
• My bookshop has also held a few free online author events. Our point of difference is a live filming of the author chat with a covid-safe number of guests. Everyone else is able to view via our facebook events page at home, or later, at their own convenience, via the youtube link. I have attended all but one of these events. 

I look forward to hearing about which book events you may have attended or discovered this year. I'm sure I can always fit one more into my schedule!

#AusReadingMonth2020