Are you coming to PAYA?

Probably my favorite nonprofit YA reach-out program has some fantastic news to announce!

PAYA: Bringing YA to PA is an organization started by blogger Harmony of Harmony Book Reviews. It's dedicated to raising money and collecting books for libraries across the state of Pennsylvania. Since its beginning in October of 2009, PAYA has raised over $1,000 and collected hundreds of books for libraries across the state of Pennsylvania.

PAYA's main fundraiser is an annual one-day festival. This year it will be held in West Chester, Pennsylvania on August 21st. It will feature over 15 authors, including Amy Brecount White, Stephanie Kuehnert, Jeri Smith-Ready, Josh Berk, Jon Skovron, Jennifer Hubbard, Shannon Delany, and more. The signing will run from 1pm-3pm. Books will be sold by Children's Book World from Haverford, PA. The festival will also feature two writing workshops, one aimed directly at teens and another at any aspiring writer. Fundraisers such as a basket raffle and used book sale will be held during the signing as well.

More information about the festival can be found here (http://www.bringya2pa.com/2010/07/paya-2010-festival-all-details.html).

Did you get that? To reiterate, this is what's going on at PAYA:

• Multi-author book signing
• Writing workshop for aspiring writers (!!!)
• Raffles and auctions
• Used book sale

Can you say "HOLY.....!!!!" and get your butt out there on August 21?!?!? Because I'm certainly going to be there! Few things seem to ever happen in the Philly area, and so I am so excited about this, and proud of my blogger friend for organizing it all. Seriously, people, she's a teen herself! Come out and support YA lit!

PAYA is currently accepting monetary and book donations, both of which will be used to support Pennsylvania libraries. Librarians interested in receiving funds or books from PAYA and authors interested in attending the festival should email bringya2pa[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Oh yeah, and also send an email to that email address if you're interested in signing up for the workshop. They do cost money so sign up early to avoid the late fee. I'm pretty sure Harmony is still open to more authors who'd like to participate, so please, do not hesitate to contact her!

Hope to see a great many of you there at the most exciting YA event that has ever come to Eastern Pennsylvania! Now I'm going to go back to working on fliers and press contacts for PAYA...