The Festival of Great Reads was a book festival for authors and vendors to share their work and to promote the love for literacy in all ages.
The event was hosted at Long Beach City College’s PCC campus on April 28.
This fair featured Azteca dancers, a DJ, raffle prizes, a petting zoo made of plants, a children’s corner,and food trucks.
Andrean Jacobs and Gloria Holdrege created this semi-annual festival in 2016 with the goal of encouraging more children to read and getting families excited about reading in their homes.
Several performances took place, such as a guitar and saxophone player, breakdancers and various authors and students sharing meaningful poems on stage.
There was a table with over 500 free books varying in genre and target age demographic, but booths set up by the authors were also present where customers could buy local author’s books.
Marsha Bullock Breaux has always wanted to be an author; she writes books for people of all ages and has been attending the festival for five years.
“All books have a message, a lot of good books don’t get picked up by mainstream people because they don’t know they’re there. I think this event gives a lot of local authors a space to come and show their work and gives them an opportunity to say, ‘hey, I write books. I’m here, this is what I do,’” said Bullock Breaux, “A lot of us don’t have a platform to reach thousands and millions of people, so this platform gives us a chance to show what we can do and what we have done.”
Author Jazmin Phillips shares that sentiment as she found out about the event about three years ago through social media and has been participating ever since.
“What drew me was the fact that they’re promoting literature in the city of Long Beach. As a local author, many authors need a space to share their art,” said Phillips.
Phillips writes children’s books, citing her children as her inspiration for writing.
“I write for my kids and for all children, it’s to inspire a younger generation to have a love for reading. One of my favorite quotes is by Frederick Douglass ‘Once you learn to read, you will forever be free,” said Phillips.
Another author present was Claudia Maldonado, a Salvadoran author who writes books in both Spanish and English.
She found out about the event through Phillips, who she met at another book event about two months ago.
Maldonado’s inspiration for writing is her older sister, who she wanted to honor in the book called Mama Works Very Hard.
“It’s about the motherhood experience of my sisters, who were 19 and a half years apart. She was almost like a second mom to some of us in the family since she was the oldest,” said Maldonado.
Maldonado also draws inspiration from other aspects of her life in her writing, “I’m an early childhood educator and I have served many many families as a teacher. So the book also reflects those experiences.”
Author Derek Taylor Kent had a booth set up at the event he is a co-founder of Whimsical World Books, which he founded alongside his wife Sheri Fink.
“I’ve been writing children’s books pretty seriously since I was 16 years old. I always loved telling stories that would make kids fall in love with reading and to bring laughter and joy,” said Kent.
Author Ellie Lieberman writes for a wide age range, from the youngest to the oldest readers. Her mother, who is also an author, inspired Lieberman to write.
“I kind of became a writer at her keyboard. She would read to me what she had previously written and let me stay up past my bedtime to hear it and it was just really inspiring,” said Lieberman.
Lieberman’s historical fantasy novel The Impossible Dream took 15 years to write and was a very different experience compared to writing her other books.
“I had to get creative with formatting to fit the page limit requirements for the KDP Kindle direct publishing, which is how I published it,” said Lieberman, “Honestly, the most challenging thing as an author is trying to promote my works and figure out how to get readers interested. Which is why events like this are so awesome because it gets you the opportunity to get your books out to other people.”
Lieberman found out about this event through Instagram. She’d been looking for author events to set up a booth and promote her book.
“I used to do a lot more events, and then when COVID hit, I had to switch more to online sales, but I’ve been trying to get back in the swing of things since, and this is local, so it was a great opportunity,” said Lieberman.
Whether you come to the event as a patron or author, the Festival of Great Reads has something for everybody.
For more information on setting up a booth, when the next event will be, volunteer opportunities, donation information or to just learn more about the festival as a whole, you can visit their website at www.festivalofgreatreads.org or their Instagram @festivalofgreatreads.