Literary Festivals Toolkit for Victorian Public Libraries

Drawn from Yarra Plenty Regional Library’s successful Booklovers Festival model, the Writers Festivals Toolkit for Victorian public libraries is designed to enhance the capacity of Victorian libraries to present literary festival-style programs in suburban, outer-metro and regional areas, increasing engagement with literature and supporting the development of sustainable careers for local writers across the state.

This toolkit is intended for all public libraries and library workers across Victoria to use and we would love for you to access it as often as you like. Yarra Plenty Regional Library received a VicArts grant from Creative Victoria in 2019 to produce the toolkit.

ABOUT THE TOOLKIT

The Booklovers Festival is an annual event hosted by Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL), enabling members to discover local authors, meet like-minded people, get in touch with their creative side, and have fun. Falling under the banner of a ‘writers festival’, it features author talks and workshops, and is attended by a mix of writers, readers, and the curious-minded alike. The festival is aimed at people who are interested in learning, and therefore plays an important role for reader development.The purpose of this Writers Festival Toolkit for public libraries is to help you to plan and create your own writers festival. It highlights the benefits of library writers festivals; provides tools to help you set up a new festival, or grow an existing one; and breaks down the nuts and bolts of programming, production,and marketing/PR. We’ve also included a showcase of some of Victoria’s fantastic existing library writers festivals and invite you to provide feedback.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lisa Dempster is the outgoing Executive Manager Public Participation at Yarra Plenty Regional Library. Her previous roles have included Festival Director at Melbourne Writers Festival and Emerging Writers’ Festival, and Asialink Resident at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali.

Sarah Schmidt is the Reading & Literacy Coordinator at Yarra Plenty Regional Library, where she curates the annual Booklovers Festival. Her debut novel, See What I Have Done, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2018) and won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award (2018) amongst other nominations. Her writing has also appeared in publications such as Overland, LitHub,The Telegraph (UK), The Guardian, The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

Thank you to Marian Blythe, Michelle Harvey and Samantha van Zweden for their expertise and editorial input. Thank you to Geelong Regional Library Corporation, Whitehorse Manningham Libraries, State Library Victoria, and City of Greater Dandenong Library, who provided case studies and insights.Thank you to all Yarra Plenty Regional Library staff who have brought the Booklovers Festival to life for over ten years. This project is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and we are very thankful.