Latest news with #bookfestival
The Independent
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Aye Write festival to return in November
The Aye Write book festival is to return in full in November after a programme of pop-up events last year following funding issues. This year's festival will take place across 11 days from Thursday November 6 until Sunday November 16 as the event celebrates its 20th anniversary. Wee Write, a book festival entirely for children and young people, will return in March 2026. Last year's festival was cancelled after Creative Scotland turned down its bid for funding. However, a series of pop-up events was held, boosted by a £65,000 donation from a charitable foundation set up by late EuroMillions winner Colin Weir. This year, Glasgow Life was awarded £262,500 from Creative Scotland's 2025-28 Multi-Year Fund for the delivery of Aye Write in 2025, 2026 and 2027. Bailie Annette Christie, chairwoman of Glasgow Life, said: 'We're really looking forward to the return of Aye Write this year and marking an incredible 20 years of Glasgow's much-loved celebration of books, storytelling, and the love of reading. 'We are grateful to Creative Scotland for their support and our festival team is busy planning an inspiring and diverse programme of pop-up and festival events. 'We can't wait to welcome readers, writers and book lovers back to Aye Write over the coming months and during November.' In the lead-up to this year's Aye Write, the festival will host a series of pop-up events again, the first of which will be Liam McIlvanney in conversation with Scottish literature expert Dr Valentina Bold. He will be discussing his new psychological thriller The Good Father in the event at the Mitchell Library on Thursday July 31. Tickets for this event are on sale now and available from The wider programme for Aye Write 2025 as well as ticket and venue information will be unveiled in the coming months.
CBS News
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Vendors from Baltimore's disastrous viral book festival are creating their own event
After taking part in what's been described as the Fyre Festival for books, Maryland book vendors are putting together one of their own. Romantasy in the Valley is scheduled for 2026, but Amber Hodgson and Matt Hodgson are trying to do as much work now to prevent a repeat of the A Million Lives Book Festival, and help the authors and vendors who participated in the event that turned into a flop.. This is on top of other support that's already been in the works for the authors and vendors who took part in AML. Turning a negative into a positive The A Million Lives Book Festival became a viral sensation after authors, vendors, and attendees started posting about it nearly two weeks ago. Archer Management, the festival's organizer, promised authors and vendors hundreds of attendees, but the event instead drew maybe a little more than 100 over two days. Archer has apologized and promised refunds. The Hodgsons had a table for their business, Bookish Signs and More. Their business works with authors to make special editions of books, as well as works with other businesses that create book boxes. They took a financial hit participating in AML, but the loss didn't deter them from wanting to put on another, better festival. "Between our backgrounds and her connections -- the authors and people she knew -- I knew we could make a positive from a negative," Matt Hodgson said. "That was always the goal, to turn this around." So, Romantasy in the Valley was born. There's already a date for it, July 25, 2026, and the Embassy Suites location in Hunt Valley will be the venue. Amber Hodgson wanted to be very transparent in the planning process, posting updates on social media almost daily. Any author and vendor who participated in AML has first dibs to take part in Romantasy. For the Hodgsons, it's all about making it right for them. "We just wanted to redo the event. If we make money, that's great, but [if we don't], that was a risk that we were in a fortunate position to take on. That we wanted to do," Amber Hodgson said. Authors and vendors interested in participating in Romantasy have until June 1 to submit an application. You can find that here. Other support for AML authors and vendors Atlas Creed, a DMV-based author who also had a table at AML, created a one-stop webpage that shows every author and vendor who participated in AML. The webpage was put on a website he had already created as a resource for authors. The webpage has been shared widely since its creation. "It just seemed like the right thing to do to try and help them recoup some of their losses," Creed said. "By using resources that I already have, and I can just extend upon."
RNZ News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Norwegian culture, heritage and woodstacking with bestselling author Lars Mytting
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. In the 1860s and 70s two Norwegian settlements were established in the lower North Island. As the name of one of those today suggests - Norsewood - Norwegians were invited to settle here to clear a huge swathe of forest known as Seventy Mile Bush. Which makes the arrival of Norwegian novelist Lars Mytting this weekend down the road at Wairarapa book festival Booktown in Featherston rather apt. He's there also ahead of literary events in Christchurch and Auckland. Mytting is still best known internationally for his 2015 non-fiction book Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way . Considered one of that region's greatest publishing successes - as you read it, you really can smell the freshly-cut wood. But Lars Mytting is principally a novelist. And since Norwegian Wood he has published a remarkable historical fiction series The Sister Bells Trilogy . Set in a remote valley in central Norway, the three novels tell the story of a small farming community and take place over three generations - from the 1880s through until the end of the second world war. The novels track the tension between long-held ways of living and modernisation, and between Norwegian culture and the influence of others. The Sister Bells Trilogy has been enormously successful in Norway - 400,000 copies sold, it's said, in a country with the population of New Zealand. The books have also been acclaimed internationally, and the last of the three books The Night of the Scourge has just been published in English translation. Lars is speaking in events at Auckland Writers Festival May 16, 17 and 18 and in a Word Christchurch event May 21.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Romantasy festival A Million Lives slammed by authors and attendees: 'Fyre Fest of books'
Authors and attendees say they were duped over the weekend after promised romantasy book event A Million Lives broke their hearts. "It felt like Fyre Fest of book festivals," Kait Disney-Leugers, who's written several books including Love Across the Tabletop, said on TikTok. "We were told there's been over 600 tickets sold. I did not see those people. There were more authors at their booths than there were attendees, and I'm not exaggerating. It was that bad." She noted that "at every point of the last two days, everything was f---ed up, not delivered on, or just half-assed. There was no water there, even in the vending machine at the top of the stairs. Because, by the way, we were in the basement exhibit hall. Had no water. There was no swag bags for people who paid to go to this. No badges, wristbands." Her reference to the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, where what was touted as a luxe experience ended up being full of cheese sandwiches, FEMA tents, and, yep, no water, was not a compliment. And Disney-Leugers was far from the only one with a complaint. The official description of the May 2-3 event in Baltimore from company Archer Management was hyped as "the perfect event to make more bookish friends! This event will include a vendor hall, panels, a content creation room, fandom cosplay meet ups, a cosplay competition and a ball." Tickets cost from $50 to $250 for one that included a Lavender Romance Ball. Author Stephanie Combs shared footage of her and friends dressed up and excitedly heading to the fancy fete, only to be disappointed at what looked like a minuscule number of people there. "When you gotta laugh so you don't cry," Combs captioned her post. "A million lives or a million lies? I was an attending least we looked fantastic." TikToker Azthia Bookwyrm told PEOPLE she accepted an invitation to cover the event as an influencer. But when she arrived, she found she'd been moved from the Hilton Inn near the venue to a Days Inn. She said more authors were there than readers and that the whole thing was a "huge financial loss." In fact, there were so many people upset with what they got for their money, that the company publicly apologized for the ball, the day after it took place. Over the next few days, Archer's Instagram offered additional words of regret. In one, the post read, "I wholeheartedly apologize for how the event turned out this weekend. We are currently processing refunds as fast as we can." The company projected that all refunds would be made by May 31. "We take full responsibility for the way that AML was handled," another noted. "We are doing refunds for every attendee, author, and vendor. We are also canceling all of our future events and will be processing refunds for those as well."Finally, the company listed some of the authors and vendors who participated and asked people to support them "after our mistakes this past weekend." Many of the commenters were supportive, crediting Archer Management with owning up to their error, although some still had questions. "I thought it was a good first go. The question is, what really went wrong?" Instagram's jzimansky asked. "Can we get an actual explanation? I don't necessarily care about a refund. I just want to know what really went wrong." Others commented, "Thank you for making this right for all of us" and "We all make mistakes, and it sounds like you're really trying to do the right thing. That's all we can do when we mess up!" But that didn't cut it for Rocky Road Publishing LLC: "Events like this that are not organized correctly make us rethink about wanting to attend as an author, publishing company, or just an attendee. I'm glad you are making it right, but it's still unacceptable it happened in the first place." In addition to Fyre Fest, the A Million Lives event's implosion is reminiscent of several other spectacular failures, including the September 2024 unauthorized "Bridgerton ball," which saw fans of the Netflix show outraged by the quality of a Detroit experience for which they paid $150 to $1,000, depending on the package purchased. The similarly unofficial Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow, Scotland, made headlines in March 2024. Despite the original debacle, Fyre Festival 2 was scheduled this year for May 30 to June 2 on Isla Mujeres in Mexico and eventually relocated to Playa del Carmen. Then, in April, the festival was postponed indefinitely, and founder Billy McFarland, the subject of two documentaries, put the Fyre Festival brand up for sale. "This brand is bigger than any one person and bigger than what I'm able to lead on my own. It's a movement. And it deserves a team with the scale, experience, and infrastructure to realize its potential," the convicted felon said in a statement posted on the "Own Fyre" website. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Authors speak out against failed US book festival: ‘shattered badges and silence'
In the days leading up to the A Million Lives book festival, things already seemed amiss. Grace Marsceau, the event organizer, messaged an attending author that the DJ was in the hospital and the company had no replacement. She owed the hotel 'six figures' because the room block hadn't sold out, according to messages. 'Oh my gosh that's awful!' author Sarah Zane responded. The excuses seemed unusual, but as a veteran of book events, Zane expected to deal with some mismanagement. 'I started to get worried,' Zane said in an interview with the Guardian, 'But I did not expect things to be so visibly wrong.' On a Discord channel for the event, Marsceau repeatedly assured everyone about the event. In January, she said ticket sales were already 'in the high four hundreds and I am aiming to sell out'. By the end of April, she messaged that ticket sales were in the 'high 500s low 600s'. Attendance estimates help authors decide how many copies of their books to bring to an event. The two-day festival at the Baltimore convention center cost writers $50-$150 for the table, which is in addition to the cost of gas, flights, hotel rooms and books. Many spent more than $1,000 to attend, they said, an investment these independent authors believed worth it to sell their books. 'I make my whole living on events, this is my life blood,' said Kalista Neith, a popular dark romance author. Neith had agreed to attend as a featured author – meaning her hotel was covered and she'd receive a $1,000 payment. Her attendance also gave other authors confidence in the event. In total, about 100 authors signed up. 'The second I saw that Kalista Neith and Perci Jay had signed on to this I was like, 'OK, this is gonna be a good event,'' said Zane. But last week, Marsceau told Neith that the Hilton was not returning her calls so she was going to move her to a Days Inn. Neith didn't mind. After check-in, the front desk informed her that Marsceau's credit card to cover the room had been declined. When Neith called Marsceau, she said her identity had been stolen. By then, Neith had her doubts, but she'd already told her followers about the festival and left the hotel to get her table set up. As she and other authors arrived at the convention center, there was no signage to direct them to the event. Marsceau wasn't there, and there weren't any event staff or volunteers. The original map of booths was not up to fire code, a security guard informed them, so everything had to be rearranged that morning. There were no coverings for the booths or badges that are typical of any conference. When Marsceau finally arrived, Zane asked her why they didn't have badges or wristbands. The badges had arrived 'shattered', Marsceau informed Zane. Later, she told attendees that she had memorized everyone's faces and knew who was supposed to be there, according to interviews. When the festival finally got started on Friday, no one walked through the door. One talk had more authors on the panel (nine) than people in attendance (eight). A tattoo artist wasn't provided with an electrical outlet and had to borrow a battery pack in order to work. And an advertised 'content room' was just a bare room with a gray carpet. Some attenders, like Susan Alexander, a first-time author and mom of two who drove from Indiana said she was hesitant to be critical. When Marsceau asked her for feedback that day about the event, Alexander demurred. 'It can be really scary as a first-time author to voice your concerns. You don't want to be blackballed from other events,' she said. Other authors said in interviews they tried to convince themselves that Friday was just slow and things would improve. Instead, things only devolved further. On Saturday, the content room was shut down for 'mechanical failure', Marsceau told attendees. At a panel on LGBTQ+ diversity, the moderator left to take a phone call in the middle and then never returned. Attenders later recognized the moderator as Marsceau's husband from a photo of the couple in a news story. It is unclear if Marsceau formally created a business entity for her company Archer Fantasy events or Archer management – the names her accounts use. The Guardian found no secretary of state filings that listed Marsceau as an officer or entities under those business names. Marsceau did not respond to multiple calls for comment. Despite the fiasco, Alyssa McCoy who owns a business selling book-themed drinkware and apparel was set on attending the Saturday night ball to celebrate her birthday that weekend. She and her friends got ready together in one of their hotel rooms while watching Twilight. 'I was always going to the ball, I loved my dress,' she said. But when they arrived at the same brightly lit conference room as the event, there was no decor or music. A small cash bar and a plate of macarons were the only signs of a party. As they sat around in chairs, the security guard went home to retrieve his portable bluetooth speaker. They named him 'DJ Steve' and took turns playing music from their phones. Neith was irate for her fans that had paid up to $200 for the ball when she arrived and saw nothing was there. 'Me taking a loss because this was a rubbish event is one thing, but not delivering on anything for my readers is a completely different thing,' she said. 'All I have is the trust of my readers.' Neith told Marsceau the event was unacceptable and instructed her to make a post promising refunds and to tag her in it. 'Hi everyone, I want to issue a formal apology,' Marsceau said carefully in a video on Saturday as Neith stood nearby. Neith said she was 'still in disbelief how bad this was and it wasn't just cancelled'. Marsceau has said she will issue refunds by the end of the month and maintains that she sold 603 tickets, according to emails. In interviews, authors estimated 80-100 people showed up the entire weekend.
