The Moorestown Library’s second annual Local Authors Fest will be held on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The event will be held inside, and authors and illustrators will be at their tables from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Signings and book sales will be available at each table, with face painting from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The library will have a special collaborative craft for all ages, and children are also invited to fill out autograph books for a special prize, while supplies last.
“Last year we had a picnic and this year we decided to go in a different direction,” said Ashley Hoffman, youth services librarian. “We have twice as many authors and illustrators joining us, which we’re super excited about.”
Adult authors will have tables set up in the library’s programming room, children’s authors will be in the youth services department and young adult fiction authors and other adult and children’s writers will be in the computer lab.
Authors and illustrators attending will include Dana Andrews; Nicole Bradley; Laura Eppinger; Alicia Guide; Colleen Kosinski; Jonathan Leath; Kamili Leath; Keith Mason; Mike Mathis; and Char Webster, aka Charlene Raquel.
Hoffman’s colleague, Caitlin Hawe-Ndrio, explained how planning the program differently from 2022 was by process of elimination.
“ … Last year, a lot of it was on the lawn outside,” she said. “It was more of a picnic … We have this great space inside (and) we thought it would be a little bit better to flow traffic inside as well. It was just kind of during the planning process that we figured (out) what we wanted to achieve would be better done indoors.”
This is Hawe-Ndrio’s first year planning the program with Hoffman, so she’s excited to see the community mingle with the authors and illustrators and see how the event will grow.
“I meet the authors kind of sporadically,” she related. “Sometimes someone will come in and they’ll tell us that they’re an author, they have something that’s published, and for me, it’s a great way to see all these people in one venue and how our community interacts with them.”
Hoffman enjoyed seeing the authors connect with each other at last year’s event – something she wasn’t expecting would be one of her favorite memories – and this year she’s hopeful the library recreates that space for authors again.
“I think part of what makes it so special is that we have so many different kinds of authors,” she said. “Not only are they children, adult and teen authors, but there are memoirs, there’s graphic novels, so many picture books, local history …
“We have so many different genres of people coming together, and so I think that’s part of what makes the dynamic so special, and I think our patrons appreciate that, too, because there are just so many different things that we didn’t know were out there right in our neighborhood.”
For more information on the library’s events, visit https://www.moorestownlibrary.org.
