Reading Reads

From colleges to coffee shops, book stores to libraries, October will be packed with events of the inaugural "READING READS: The Greater Reading Literary Festival."

Want to know more about Pennsylvania's literary heritage, news about books and authors, family literacy activities, and much more? Visit the Pennsylvania Center for the Book web site!

Organized by a volunteer committee of Berks County authors, educators, artists, and illustrators, the Literary Festival is designed to raise the awareness of the area's literary heritage, the interest in contemporary writing, and the importance of reading and the written word.

More than 80 events at more than two dozen venues will include author book signings, book discussions, writing courses and workshops, literary-related stage productions, book store discounts, poetry readings, and much more.

Wallace Stevens

A "foreword" of the festival will be readings of proclamations honoring Reading native Wallace Stevens at the Reading City Council meeting on September 25 and the Berks County Commissioners meeting on September 26. Stevens was born at 323 N. 5^th St. in Reading on October 2, 1879. He won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1955, the same year he died. He is considered to be among the most important poets of the 20th century.

Find out more about Wallace Stevens' Berks County connections, in life and literature. Read "Wallace Stevens: Poet Laureate of the Pennsylvania Dutch," a special feature by Charles J Adams III.

On Sunday, October 8, the Berks Bards poetry group will present a special program that will interpret Stevens. work through dance and readings. That event will be held at the GoggleWorks in downtown Reading.

County Commissioner Judy Schwank has also indicated that as a lasting remembrance of Wallace Stevens and the inaugural Literary Festival, the county will pursue the installation of a Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission historical marker on North 5^th Street.

Festival events will extend deeply into literary history, with the Reading Public Museum's display of rare books from its collection. Included will be a leaf from a 1456 Bible printed by Johann Gutenberg. The museum will also show a leaf from the Eliot Indian Bible, the first translation of the Bible for Native Americans, printed in 1685.

A volume from John James Audubon's landmark 1849 The Quadrupeds of North America, will also be on view. It is a collection of hand-painted lithographs and descriptive comments documenting more than 200 species of mammals drawn by Audubon.

Book stores throughout Berks County have secured more than 65 authors for readings and signings, coffee shops and restaurants have scheduled poetry readings and "open microphone" programs, and county libraries have planned new events for the Literary Festival. Several programs regularly held in the month of October have been included under the Literary Festival "umbrella."

Alvernia College, Kutztown University, and Reading Area Community College have included a varied array of programs as their contributions to the festival.

A list of scheduled events, late-breaking news, and much more information is available throughout this web site.