World Book Night

At the last AKRWA business meeting, I shared some tips from a recent Writers Digest article by Áine Greaney to “Reboot Your Writing Routine.” She suggested that writers create an artist statement, and we decided to write our own and present them at our January meeting.

My statement came fairly easily: I want to inspire women and young people as I entertain them with tales of old Alaska. That sums up what I write and why I write it. I hope to become published and share my stories with everyone. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on my craft and help readers where I can. Here’s one event we can support together: World Book Night.

I first came across this event in the 49 Writers blog. Here’s a blurb from their site: We need 50,000 book-loving volunteers to fan out across America on April 23, 2012! Just take 20 free copies of a book to a location in your community, and you just might change someone's life.
The goal is to give books to new readers, to encourage reading, to share your passion for a great book. The entire publishing, bookstore, library, author, printing, and paper community is behind this effort with donated services and time. And with a million free World Book Night paperbacks!

To learn more, and maybe become a giver yourself, go to http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/

This passes on the joy of reading, One of the best parts of teaching high school English was giving someone a book and watching them enjoy it. Sometimes I had a student say, “This is pretty cool, did they write any more?” and I knew they were hooked. How great it must feel to be the writer that hooked a kid on reading. I hope to do that some day.

Do you have an artist statement this year? Or a reading memory you’d like to share? Please feel free to comment.

--Lynn Lovegreen