Cathy Craigie with Tim Tingle, a Choctaw writer at the US National Book Festival.
In late August last year, the Executive Director, Cathy Craigie and FNAWN’s Tony Duke did a 10 day road trip in the USA. Here is Cathy’s Report:
FNAWN had previously identified the USA as a key market and we were keen to pursue opportunities to promote our writers. We met with publishers, festivals, writing centres and other literary organisations and met with much enthusiasm and interest. We met so many interesting people on the trip but for me there were a couple of highlights.
We visited Poets House at Battery Point, a magnificent centre right on the water and funded entirely from philanthropic and private funding. We wondered what could be achieved at home with the same kind of philanthropic support. We also attended the US National Book Festival in Washington. The sheer size and scale of this one day event is hard to image back in Australia. With over 200,000 people attending, I was overwhelmed by the number of families who came and the interest in encouraging kids to read.
FNAWN are now working on getting our writers exposure in the USA and will be following up on the contacts we made in the USA. We are hoping to facilitate a program beginning in 2015 so keep an eye out for news on our US projects.