Countdown to Forsyth Reads Together 2023

Submitted by Leslie Marinelli and Kim Ottesen

Our annual Forsyth Reads Together main event is quickly approaching! 

We've been promoting this event since January in the monthly @ FCPL newsletter that goes out to 98,000 subscribers. By now you've also seen the poster, bookmarks, web slider, and rotating branch slide that have been released over the last few weeks. 

It's now time for our marketing efforts to kick into high gear! Keep reading for more information about this exciting event and what you can do to help FCPL promote it.  

Forsyth Reads Together

Launched in 2008 to encourage literacy and foster community togetherness, Forsyth Reads Together engages readers across the community in discussions, educational events, and author talks focused on a single book selection.

Our book selection this year is award-winning author Chitra Divakaruni's One Amazing Thing, a novel about nine people from different backgrounds who become trapped together for days by a massive earthquake, bonding through storytelling to help them survive. As their surprising tales of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression are revealed. 

In her recent interview with Ross Gericke, Divakaruni said she “wanted a situation where story becomes the most important thing.” She wondered what her characters could do in such a situation. “Then it came to me that they can share their stories.” Ms. Divakaruni, a professor of Creative Writing at the University of Houston, loves the power of stories and their ability to get readers to “sympathize with people who otherwise seem to have nothing in common with them in everyday life. That’s the magic of books because they give you a safe place to sympathize.”

An Evening with Chitra Divakaruni is on Tuesday, April 18, at 7:00 p.m. at the Forsyth Conference Center. The event includes a live presentation by the author followed by Q&A and a book signing. 

The event is free. Advance registration on our website is requested. Register HERE. 

Please check out the Internal Media Kit in the Promotional / Forsyth Reads Together / Forsyth Reads Together 2023 shared Google drive for additional details about the event to assist you with promoting it in the branches and through word of mouth to your friends and family.