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A new pop-up book shop featuring Okanagan writers is now open at the Vernon Farmers’ Market every Thursday.
The Read Local Okanagan stall includes 52 titles by 24 writers from across the region.
We have some new-to-us titles this week! We’re so excited to carry THREE of #ashleylittle’s books!! @VernonFarmerMkt #readlocalokanagan #vernonfarmersmarket #VernonBC #exploreokanagan #amreading #booknerd #booklovers #bookish #softcover #paperback #IndieAuthors pic.twitter.com/aB1Gfv2Y5o
— Read Local Okanagan (@readokanagan) June 13, 2019
Book lovers can find everything from vintage collections by Sharon Thesen and poems from John Lent to Shelley Wood’s The Quintland Sisters, and the bestselling new historical novels of Alix Hawley, such as All True Not A Lie.
“People are always so surprised to see that all of these books are by Okanagan writers, and it is amazing to see them all together like this,” says Kate Mahaits, a Read Local Okanagan team member who runs the stall at the Vernon Farmers’ Market every Thursday.
We’re here at the Vernon Sunshine Festival today! Come see us - we’re right near The Arcadian Kitchen ! #SSF25 #DowntownVernon #readlocalokanagan pic.twitter.com/pJzFHZe4jr
— Read Local Okanagan (@readokanagan) June 15, 2019
Natalie Appleton, a local writer and business owner, came up with the idea of a pop-up bookshop featuring local literature after a trip to the Farmers’ Market last fall, not long after the launch of her first book, a literary travel memoir entitled I Have Something to Tell You.
“We have so many beautiful, beautiful books by writers in this region, and yet the people who love to read and want to support local arts didn’t have an easy way to find these books,” says Appleton.
The wonderful Michael Poirier visited us at the @vernon_farmers_market today and signed copies of each of his books! We have Bloodlines and Life is a Risky Business. #readlocalokanagan #michaelpoirier #bloodlines #riskybusiness #lifeisariskybusiness #amreading #vernonbc #novel pic.twitter.com/SPNnk6vVbc
— Read Local Okanagan (@readokanagan) June 20, 2019
“The idea has been so well-received by both readers and writers. So many of the writers got back to us within minutes saying they’d love to be a part of Read Local and we had most of our books within a week, so I think the writers were really keen to have an opportunity like this to market their books.”
Some of the pop-up bookshop’s works also feature the Okanagan and the Interior, such as The Sudden Weight of Snow by Coldstream writer Laisha Rosnau (who recently won The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize) and the acclaimed Shelter by Penticton writer Frances Greenslade.
Other titles are more eclectic or experimental, such as Armstrong resident Kevin McPherson’s Circadia; Kelowna writer Sean Johnston’s Listen All You Bullets, a contemporary retelling of the western classic, Shane; or Adam Lewis Schroeder’s All-Day Breakfast, a witty literary novel about zombies.
Read Local Okanagan is also featuring a single children’s book, Marshall Plays Hockey, gorgeously illustrated and written by two Vernon sisters to tell the story of an ambitious moose.
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