APRIL is on the short list for the 2013 Stranger Genius Awards!
We’re thrilled to announce that the festival is up for the Stranger’s prestigious award in Literature. Past winners and nominees have included some of our favorite people, like Rebecca Brown, Stacey Levine, Matt Briggs, Ed Skoog, Greg Bem and Sherman Alexie.
All of the nominees for the 2013 Genius Awards will be announced in the Summer Issue of A&P, the Stranger’s arts quarterly, due out in June. Winners will be announced at the Stranger Genius Awards in September.
Our Mission
is to connect readers with independent literature and the authors and publishers of this relevant and vitalizing work.
Our Vision
As motivation for our programming, APRIL envisions:
- an increase in readers seeking out writing that is new and pertinent to them—writing that takes chances in both publication and performance and has greater potential for relevance in their lives;
- readers actively reconsidering their definition of literature, its forms and its position in the arts;
- independent literary producers—authors, publishers and writers of all kinds—thriving, with increased publicity and heightened reader engagement;
- a reading public connecting as a more interactive social body—one that encourages creation and collaboration.
Our Values
APRIL values…
- literature as an indispensable element of our shared culture;
- writing that takes risks, strikes out on a new path, negotiates from its own rubric, and speaks to a greater need;
- the multiplicity of today’s literary arts–how literature manifests itself in books, online, hand-crafted chapbooks, zines, collaborative writing projects, conceptual readings, interpretive performances, and more;
- creative possibility as a quality that sustains the literary arts and encourages growth;
- unique, personal, and meaningful literary experiences that feed enthusiasm and promote active engagement and literacy;
- communication as a crucial and gratifying element of human interaction.
Connect
Whether you’re a small press, an author looking to read or just a curious bibliophile, we’d love to hear from you!
Feel free to email us at aprilbookfest[at]gmail.com, or head to our Facebook page.
Schedule
The festival proper is over, but check back here often for some fun summer events we’ve got cooking.
Reverse Fan Mail
As part of our fundraising efforts, we created something called “Reverse Fan Mail,” an original piece of literature written by one a small press writer and inspired by our donor.
Authors like Matthew Rohrer, Stacey Levine, Rebecca Brown, James Yeh, Donald Dunbar, Ed Skoog, Megan Kaminski and many, many more have graciously donated their work as part of APRIL. You can read all of the current Reverse Fan Mails here.
You can read about the 2013 Reverse Fan Mail authors here.
Press
Links
Here are some of the nice things folks have said about APRIL and APRIL-related shindigs in the past.
“It’s everything that a good book festival should be, with all the bulls*&t trimmed away.” (The Stranger, 3.20.13) “…our festival tries to refute this tired notion that ‘literature’ is for a very specific, bookish group of people, and that it only occurs in certain designated spaces.” (Vol. 1 Brooklyn, 2.20.13) “I’ve never really seen anything quite like it.” (The Stranger, 4.2.12) “…poems about sex, refrigerators and terrifying dreams.” (City Arts Magazine, 10.19.12) “These kinds of things happen but once a lifetime.” (City Arts Magazine, 3.28.12) “This is no series of sedate readings.” (Seattle Met, 3.15.12)
Contact
For press inquiries or images, please email us at aprilbookfest@gmail.com
Media outlets may use any and all photos on this website, provided you credit the photographer for each. If you have photo questions, or would like high-res versions of any of these photos, please email us.
Photos
Below are some of our favorite shots from APRIL 2013. To check out more photos like these, head to our Facebook page!
The Jackie Hell, APRIL festival’s fairy godmother, will cut you. (Photo c/o Joseph Lambert)
Matthew Rohrer, reading at the APRIL Showcase at Richard Hugo House. Continuing a theme of the festival, Rohrer rearranged the APRIL balloons to spell PILAR. “I’ve always thought that was a beautiful name.” (Photo c/o Greg Bem)
The teeming hordes listening to Heather Christle read at Vignettes. (Photo c/o Joseph Lambert)
The winner of the second annual A Poet, a Playwright, a Novelist and a Drag Queen event, Cherdonna (with crown) and her assistant, Baby CherCher! (Photo c/o Greg Bem)
Blog
For the goings-on of the APRIL crew, reviews, interviews and the full run of Reverse Fan Mail pieces, please head to our blog!
Staff
Tara Atkinson, Founder and Managing Director
Tara Atkinson has worked as an editor, an arts journalist, a publishing assistant, a home health aid, an organic farmer, a standardized test quality controller, and a line cook. She is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Washington where she teaches composition. Her chapbook, “Bedtime Stories,” is out now from Alice Blue
Willie Fitzgerald, Founder and Creative Director
Willie Fitzgerald grew up in Cabin John, MD, went to school in Wisconsin and now lives in Seattle. His writing has appeared in HOARSE, Keep This Bag Away From Children, City Arts Magazine and online at MSN.
Kellen Braddock, Finance and Development Coordinator
Kellen Braddock, currently pursuing an MFA in Arts Leadership, no longer has an appetite for vegetables. Lately she marries produce in a blender and shoots the mess, like a pill, before coffee. She finds pleasure in knowing that Netflix really gets her, steadfast to her “Controversial,” “Strong Women” taste preferences. First ground-under-foot experience happened in NYC.
Frances E. Dinger, Media Relations Coordinator
Since 1990, Frances has lived in eight houses, three apartments, three countries and three states, but she currently lives in Seattle. Her fiction & essays have appeared in Thought Catalog, Small Doggies Magazine and Metazen, among other places. In 2012, she co-curated the art installation “Read With Me” in Seattle’s Occidental Park & presented a paper on the future of publishing at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
Aidan Fitzgerald, Designer
Aidan Fitzgerald is an Artist and Cartoonist from Maryland currently living in Seattle. He is a founding member of the Intruder comics newspaper. You can see an assortment of work at aidandrawings.tumblr.com
Donate
APRIL is funded almost entirely by generous donations from readers and book-lovers like you.
If you’d like to support APRIL, please click here. Thank you!
APRIL is under the fiscal sponsorship of Shunpike, a 501©3 organization.
Thanks
Donors
2013 Donors
For our second year, we’ve had amazing support from all of you. From those who donated online as part of our fundraiser, a hearty APRIL thank you to:
Brittany Dennison, Channing Redford, Susan Graham, Alan Bransted, Peter Kane, Penelope Mitchell, Karen Allman, Patricia Dinger, Benjamin Blum, Darren Davis, Bruce Holbert, Richard Vanderknyff, Everett Ehrlich, Greg Flores (and all of HOARSE), Summer Robinson, Nancy Casanova, Hannah Clark, Edmund Zagorin, Bryan Ohno, Lauren Davis, Hollis Hill, Kelly Froh, Bill Carty, Chris Prandoni, Matthew Simmons, Nancy Ramsey, Christine O’Connor, Rebecca Brown, Greg Bem, Kelly Roesing, Samuel Moss, Ramzy Suleiman, Edward Wolcher, Nate Sloan, Cheri Walters, Matt Nelson, Ava Cole (Ms. Meow Meow), Lauren Othon, Kerri Ladish, Zachary Schomburg
In February, we held our first-ever APRIL Salon, which included a story by Rebecca Brown, which was auctioned off phrase-by-phrase. Some of the generous folks who pitched in for their very own phrases included:
Lauren Davis, Justin Duffus, Jeremy Springsteed, Willie Smith, Kellen Braddock, Jay Yenkich, Ava Cole, Nicole Bernard, Sam Moss, Calvin Pierce, Richard Chiem, Alan Bransted, Thomas Walton, Jessica Severance, Aidan Fitzgerald, Joseph Lambert, Adam Boehmer, Jamie, Sarah Lloyd, Elizabeth Cooperman, Brittany Dennison, Marlin Standingfish, Frances McCue, Garth Brewe, Rich Smith, Alex Garland
2012 Donors
In our first year, we raised more than $5000 via Kickstarter, all thanks to our incredibly generous donors.
APRIL graciously thanks:
Marie Slaight, joshuA, Aidan Fitzgerald, Anthony Fleming, readlearnwrite, Rick VanderKnyff, Kate Sullivan, Jeffrey Simmons, Susan Graham, Ken Austin, Kara Marie Cooperrider, Stephanie Pereira, Lauren Davis, Neil Ferron, Jessica Massart, Jamey Braden von Mooter, Lynne Nugent, Flying Object, Diane Cook, Darian Gee, Melissa Gira Grant, Scott Burau, Dennis Yang, Stone Soup Theatre, Charles Alvis, Jeff James, Katie Seling, Gretchen Kolderup, Lloyd Cargo, Matt Rowe, Michael Lieberman, Katie Woodzick, Rebecca Meredith, Charles Karasek, Jenny Hayes, Futurepoem, Kelly Carlos, Brittany Dennison, Claire Fox, Gregory Laynor, Dan Brady, Jennifer Abel Kovitz, Amy Helen, Joy Ralph, Lys Ruben Blanc, Edward Mullany, Stephen Dossick, Peter Olson, Pietro Conforto Bardellini, Courtney Johnson von Nieda
Readers and Performers
Sarah Galvin, reading to a boisterous, karaoke-deprived crowd at the Crescent. Actual quote from Sarah: “Buy me a drink, or shut the @#$% up.”
We had some amazing readings and performances for APRIL 2012. Thank you to:
Rebecca Brown, Christopher Frizzelle, Debra DiBlassi, Mallery Avidon, Jackie Hell, Heather Folsom, Megan Kaminski, Lily Divine, Crystal Curry, Zachary Schomburg, Debra DiBlassi, Mallery Avidon, Jackie Hell, Heather Folsom, Levi Fuller, Matthew Simmons, Ryan Call, Chelsea Martin, Stacey Levine, Doug Nufer, Paulette Gaudet, Richard Chiem, Greg Bem, Jamey Braden, Kate Lebo, Diana Salier, Sarah Galvin, Ed
Skoog, Riley Michael Parker, Robert Duncan Gray, Lindsay Allison Ruoff
Venues
APRIL 2012 took place all over Seattle. Our deepest appreciation goes out to the places that housed our rabble-rousing, including…
Sole Repair, Electric Tea Garden , Kaliedoscope Vision, Richard Hugo House, The Sorrento Hotel, The Quarter Lounge, Babeland, The Comet, Cullom Gallery, Hedreen Gallery, Porchlight Coffee, Bluebird Microcreamery, Piecora’s Pizza, Arabica Lounge, The Crescent