Richmond Readers & Writers Newsletter No. 3
- Breelyn Lester
- Mar 4
- 4 min read
February brings an author book club, Palentine's social, member book reviews on the blog, a new interview, an opportunity to meet the author Kate Moore and more!
Hi friends! Don't forget that we plan book clubs on a quarterly basis, you can use the list below to get ahead on your library loans and planned book exchanges so that you have more than a few weeks notice to get your hands on it.
Borrowing Books
On hand, I have copies of Red Rising, They Called Us Enemy, The Everlasting, and This is How You Lose the Time War that are up for borrowing. If you're interested in picking one up, text our Google Voice number at (804) 604-1273.
Suggesting Books
Then, head over to the bookclubs app and suggest some books on our "Want to Read" section. We'll be voting soon on our books for April-June for the same reason, so that we can reach out to authors early and help readers get in line at libraries in time to read the books before we meet.
Looking Ahead
Upcoming This Month:
We have another book club with the author this month! Evie Mitchell will be joining us all the way from Australia to discuss her book Knot My Type on February 28th at 7pm EST.
Kate Moore, author of The Radium Girls, who joined us to discuss that book last month, will be at the University of Mary Washington on February 24th to talk about the woman at the center of her second narrative nonfiction, The Woman They Could Not Silence, Elizabeth Packard. If you joined us to meet her virtually from her home in the UK, this event is your opportunity to see her in person, and maybe get your book signed!
Side bar: I finished that book last night and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Also, Kate narrates the audiobook herself and does a wonderful job!
In the Coming Season:
Events for the RVA Poetry Festival
We are co-hosting an event as part of an effort to bring more engagement with poetry to book clubs! On the morning of Saturday, April 11th, we'll have a book club breakfast where we invite other local book clubs to come and hang out and eat some pastries (who wants to help me with baking by the way?). Gift bags for the first [insert number I don't know] people to arrive will be provided by the VisArts center. Graphic with more info included below!
As part of the push to incorporate more poetry in our activites, one of our April reads will be discussing Remica Bingham Risher's Room Swept Home, which is being used at the RVA Poetry Festival as a prompt and inspiration for a workshop. We'll be chatting at the VisArts center on April 8th at 7pm. This will be capped at 22 people max to account for their space capacity.
Ideas and Updates:
The Stony Point Fashion Park events marketing manager reached out to us about collaborating on events for their green space and at their coffee shop. I'm brainstorming ideas and would love to hear from you!
Rachael, the editor of Cover to Cover, a free online magazine focused on literary content, reached out to me recently about finding a way to work together on some type of project! We had such a lovely conversation over GoogleMeet, the first one that she'd ever had for the magazine (I was honored) and she shared her passion for curating a book magazine committed to being accessible and free to readers. I hope to work with her in the future and hope that you guys will join me in cheering her on. Check out her website and latest issue and stay posted for more- you might just see us in her magazine or her hosting one of our bookclubs, or us coordinating a writing contest together in a few months.
A few VCU documentary students reached out to me recently about focusing on our group for their project! They are focusing on groups that are building community for adults in Richmond. I eagerly agreed after yet another amazing GoogleMeet call (didn't expect to ever be a fan of those but it has been the conduit to me meeting so many cool people lately!) You can expect to see a couple of them at Palentines on Friday evening getting some B-roll footage. If you're willing to be an interviewee one day in the coming weeks to chat about our group and community, please reach out to me so that I can put you in touch with them!
Get Involved:
Lastly, a warm welcome to lots of new friends who have found us in the past month! I'm so happy to have you here and hope to meet you soon if I haven't already. I'd suggest filling out our members form, checking out our social media group chats, and reading more about our community on our website. I'm always learning more about how to make our events more easily searchable and understood, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Someone else might be wondering the same thing and it can help me to better present information in the future. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions via email or IG message (small chance it gets stuck in the filter though) or Google Voice at (804) 604-1273.
Much love to all,
Breelyn
Events this Month
Palentines Party, 2/13 at 8pm
Come out to Benchtop Brewing for some cupcakes and grab a drink (NA options included) at the bar before meeting some new friends and making bookish valentines
New on the Blog
Check out local book blogger Stephanie Hathaway's mini review of one of our 2025 reads: The Knight and the Moth! The image seen here was snapped in the ILSYM bookstore over in Brooklyn Park.
Mark Your Calendar for April 11th!
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