The Texas Center for the Book announced a partnership with BookPeople and the Texas Library and Archives Foundation for its 2023 reading campaign, Read Across Texas: Empathy.
In order to provide books to libraries, donations for this annual statewide community read are now being accepted on BookPeople’s website at tinyurl.com/yeyjbe27.
Additionally, on Feb. 25, 10 percent of all in-person and online sales at BookPeople will go toward Read Across Texas book grants.
That evening, Naomi Shihab Nye, the author of one of this year’s featured titles, the poetry book Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners, will be featured in an in-person event at 7 p.m. at BookPeople in Austin.
Meanwhile, Texas libraries are encouraged to apply for book grants and hold programming space on their spring calendars. The amount of “book bundle grants” available depends on the February fundraising, and applicants will be evaluated and awarded as fundraising progresses.
Read Across Texas: Empathy will offer libraries a broad canvas for convening individuals and groups to explore the unique questions, challenges and solidarity that can occur in communities throughout the state. The four book selections will give communities a platform to engage in challenging, insightful and transformative conversations.
>> Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Peña (Picture Book).
>> Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Fiction).
>> Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s Search for Meaning in the Stories of Our Times by Scott Pelley (Memoir/Nonfiction/Essays).
>> Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners by Naomi Shihab Nye (Poetry suitable for YA and up).
“BookPeople is excited for the opportunity to partner with the Texas Center for the Book on this amazing program that puts free books into the hands of Texans for important conversations,” Charley Rejsek, BookPeople CEO, said in the press release. “The 2023 theme of empathy could not have come at a more timely moment. We are happy to be able to support our community bound by books in this partnership, with hope to grow it in the years to come.”
