Two new festivals in Kitsap County will put booklovers in touch with dozens of authors and illustrators. The Bainbridge Book Festival will focus on adult genres, while the Poulsbo Kids Book Festival is aimed at children and families. Most events are free.
Nancy Goll, founder of the Bainbridge celebration, was inspired by the Printers Row Lit Fest, which she attended two years ago while visiting Chicago. She loved the festival’s feeling of community, as well as strolling the neighboring streets, and hearing authors talk about their craft.
“I thought, ‘This would be so great on Bainbridge’,” Goll said, because of the community’s embrace of the arts.
So, she invited Jane Danielson, co-owner of Eagle Harbor Book Co., to partner on the project, and they began networking. They applied for and were granted nonprofit status and assembled a board of directors. Danielson, in turn, told her friend, Suzanne Selfors, noted children’s author, Bainbridge resident and owner of Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo, about their plans. Selfors embraced the idea and began putting together her own team to support a child-focused celebration.
Selfors said she had been thinking the West Sound needed a book festival, even before she bought Liberty Bay Books in 2020. “I felt this was the year to do it—and they (Bainbridge organizers) were thinking the same thing.”
To allow adequate time for each event, the Bainbridge Book Festival will be October 4 and 5, while the Poulsbo Kids Book Festival will run November 15 (school visits) and 16 (community festival).
The Bainbridge event will launch with a ticketed keynote speaker, and food and drinks at the Stan Pocock Rowing Center in Winslow. The next day, festival goers can enjoy free sessions with 25 or so authors, including book signings, panel discussions and author readings, all split between the rowing center and the Bainbridge Island Senior/Community Center; both sites are within walking distance of the ferry terminal.
Danielson said a variety of popular genres will be represented, including romance, fiction, memoir, history and horror. Festival-goers can expect some noted names but also up-an-coming authors who are touring nationally, she said.
Publishers will be on hand to sell books, and the festival will offer T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise for sale as well, Goll said.
The children’s fair starts on a Friday, with visits by authors and illustrators to schools throughout Kitsap County. The following day, the festival will set up its Hall of Authors and Illustrators at the Sons of Norway Lodge in downtown Poulsbo. Besides the author and illustrator encounters, organizers are planning other activities for children. Selfors plans to enlist at least 30 childrens’ authors and illustrators for the event. A portion of the proceeds from book sales will help support a Sons of Norway scholarship fund.
As a children’s author herself, Selfors has visited schools and festivals in various places. She said for writers, it’s an honor to meet their readers, because “they’ve shared the world you created.”
Both festivals welcome volunteers to help the events run smoothly, as well as sponsors and donations to help pay for facilities; food, lodging and travel for the authors; and other expenses. Selfors hopes sponsors also will step forward to cover the cost of giving books to children at some of the school visits.
Danielson expects plenty of interest from Bainbridge, Seattle, greater Kitsap County and beyond. “When we have a big author come (to Eagle Harbor Book Co.), it’s standing-room-only,” she noted.
