Happy Friday BookishFirst Readers! What book-related events, conferences, festivals, etc. do you attend (or dream of attending) every year?
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I’m always on the lookout for book-related events throughout the year, especially author events. Also, as a board member of the Friends of the Library, I arranged for a couple authors to speak and do a book signing at the library this year. I hope to do this every year.
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I’d always wanted to attend Y’all Fest.
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Ive sadly never attended a book event. Breaks my heart every time i think about it lol
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This year I’m going to YALC in London for the very first time. I’m from Holland and there have been a few bookish events in the past few years. Like YALFU with Victoria Schwab. I got a chance to interview her two days before this event, thanks to the Dutch publisher. I couldn’t be more happy about that! I’ve read 13 of her books in 2019 and I loved them all <3 I also met Gena Showalter, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Amy Ewing, Leigh Bardugo, Lesley Livingston, Veronica Roth and a quite few other authors. Most authors I met at Yalfest (Dutch YA event), but they canceled this event for this year, so I hope I get to meet some authors any other way 
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I live in West Virginia and attend as many regional annual book events as possible, such as the Lewisburg (WV) Literary Festival in August, the West Virginia Book Festival (Charleston WV) in October, and the Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors in Winston-Salem NC in September. I also travel to author events at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington KY and Cincinnati OH as well as Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville KY.
I dream of attending BookExpo in NYC and, until recently, a RWA conference.
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Hoping to go to BookCon in NYC this May!
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I go to Book Expo. It’s one of my favorite times of year!
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This year will be my 5th year attending BookCon- it’s my favorite event of the year!
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I live in Northern VA. I used to attend Fall For the Book for years, and I usually attend the National expo in DC. This year, I’m working on a giant list of events within a 2-3hr driving radius, so I can either attend as a guest or volunteer :]
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I do not go to any. I’m trying to change that this year by getting more active on here/booksgram and also go to author events.
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The only book related events I attend are library conferences but I would LOVE to go to ANY kind of book-thing. My brother goes to comicon and gets a bunch of ARCs for me, so I guess I can live vicariously through him until I get to go.
The only thing I attend is Dragon Con. They have several authors and some fun tracks but I always miss the best stuff (other than Jim Butcher when he atends).
I love to read, but have never attended any kind of book event
Y’all Fest in Charleston, SC was so much fun last Nov! I plan to go again! They also have a sister festival in California called Y’all West that I wouldn’t mind hitting up! BAM fest is closer to me in Florida, but I haven’t attended it before. Hope to check it out this year!
I live in rural America, I actually live in the frontier of America so book events are pretty much limited to authors who live in this state and make these events available. So virtual events are the way to go for us if an author has the skill to do that.
I attend or at least try to attend book signings for Indie authors. A great way to meet and greet plus but books and have them signed.
This is going to sound woefully sad, but what’s y’all fest?! I’m a book con gal, I’ve gone every year for the past 4 I think! I think I went to the first one that they did separately from NYCC and have been going ever since.
The Wyoming branch (officially the Rocky Mountain chapter) of SCBWI has had some amazingly good virtual conferences and 1 day events with authors. You do not have to be a member to attend events, but the fees - albeit reasonable and affordable- for non-members can add up to where you come out ahead being a member. https://rmc.scbwi.org/
Just joined a local book club! Aside from that, I’ve been to the Boston Book Festival, which is a really well-organized free event every Fall