March 2, 2025

Thank you to the Amelia Island Book Festival!  

I was fortunate to be a part of this year’s festival, specifically the Authors In Schools Program.  This is one of the events that the Book Festival sponsors, in which they donate books to students in area schools and then have the author visit the school to talk with the students. 

This is only one of the many events and programs they sponsor each year. The Amelia Island Book Festival hosts writing contents, writer’s workshops and luncheons, guest speakers, literacy events, and book festivals.  All designed to support their mission of “generating a lifelong love of books through an appreciation of reading, writing, and authors.

Book Festivals and organizations like the AIBF are becoming more and more scarce. Even before the Covid Pandemic, cultural shifts were beginning that were making it more difficult for these types of organizations to get the traction that they used to get.  Fewer attendees. Not enough volunteers.  Dwindling financial support.

But now there are some seismic shifts that are drastically impacting the ability of organizations like the Amelia Island Book festival to exist and thrive. 

Things like book bans, the drying up of arts funding, and the targeting of libraries and schools.  These are very real and very destructive to the overall literacy of our nation.

To all the volunteers, donors, authors, librarians, teachers, and readers who continue to do the hard work of supporting literacy, THANK YOU!