CLUNES Booktown Festival will celebrate book clubs at the end of the month.<\/p>\n
Run by the team behind the Book Clubs Hub website, the two-day program of literary events on Saturday, 29 and Sunday, 30 May will be the first national in-person gathering of book clubs.<\/p>\n
Creative Clunes board member and Book Clubs Hub chair Leslie Falkiner-Rose said book clubs are a valuable Australian mainstay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are incredibly important in terms of people\u2019s inclusiveness, wellbeing, social life, but also for the book industry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBook club members love and critique books, a lot of writers are in book clubs, and they learn from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Book Clubs Hub site and weekend are about promoting book clubs in certain areas, or amongst cohorts that might like them, and magnifying the impact they do have, usually running along quietly in people\u2019s loungerooms, in pubs, in little gatherings all round the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Falkiner-Rose said the site and weekend are also spaces for book clubs, and librarians facilitating some of these groups publicly, to connect, learn from one another, and access further education.<\/p>\n
The results of a Book Clubs Hubs national survey will be released, and Booktown encourage groups to fill that out before the end of the month.<\/p>\n
An interactive map of 417 national book clubs is already visible on the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first lot of data that anyone\u2019s got nationally on book clubs, showing who they are, what they read, who\u2019s in them, where they are, and what the criteria is for groups\u2019 membership,\u201d Ms Falkiner-Rose said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have a panel session looking at what works and what doesn\u2019t when running book clubs. What do you do when someone\u2019s dominating the group, and how do you choose books?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you make a book club stay on track and work?\u201d<\/p>\n
A panel session about connecting authors with book clubs will also run, alongside a \u2018speed dating\u2019 gathering with Heather Horrocks for members of literary groups to meet and share stories.<\/p>\n
There will be further panels on rare books, and the business of book clubs, discussions about the future of book clubs, and a headline presenter in State Library of Victoria CEO Kate Torney.<\/p>\n