Harvest Book Fair

Harvest Book Fair was a market, organized by Hungry Zine in the fall of 2023 that spotlighted independent artists, writers, art collectives, artist-run organizations, bookshops, and publishers. The goal of the market was to support and amplify community, art, literary, and industry connections in Edmonton and the surrounding area.

This project grew out of a need we have observed for a platform for artists, writers, publishers, and book appreciators to come together in Edmonton. In recent years, Edmonton has lacked a dedicated local book fair. Providing a space for makers and publishers to sell their books as well as get to know one another as well as the public is important to sustaining the success of these individuals and groups.

We hosted the book fair at the beautiful, historic CKUA building in downtown Edmonton, on October 14 and 15, 2023, had 15 vendors and over 400 attendees over the two days. We were able to pull together a team that highlighted local talent. The book fair was spearheaded by Hungry Zine’s co-editor, Kyla Pascal, and supported by co-editor, Kathryn Lennon. The poster was designed by local Métis artist, Halie Finney, who has illustrated Hungry Zine covers. Luigi Pullido, another past Hungry Zine contributor, acted as the event coordinator.

On the first evening, we hosted a vendors mixer event which vendors really appreciated as a space to unwind, reflect and further connect with each other. After the book fair, we asked vendors to provide feedback and were overwhelmed with the positive feedback provided. Vendors mentioned the benefits of “new connections, conversations with other bookstores, publishers, and general literary folk from the public” and “contact with fellow publishers, strengthening connections, identifying potential readers, audience for our books, learning from other publishers on selling strategies, and visiting with like-minded people” to name a few. Community members attending also mentioned their appreciation for a space to learn about and support Edmonton’s literary community. CKUA event coordinators were delighted to have more people in the space and have the community learn more about their organization, space, and future event rental opportunities, and offered to host it again in 2024. Lastly we got to support a local Indigenous downtown business (Pei Pei Chei Ow) who catered and vended at the event. As all vendors found it extremely beneficial both monetarily and community-wise and community members expressed interest in attending this event again, we are planning to make this an annual event, and to build off our model and lessons learned for a 2024 Harvest Book Fair. Vendors also provided a lot of useful feedback in developing next year’s event around partnerships, outreach, and potential programming.

The market was a way to bring our approach to community-building to another level – bringing together people in-person, not just in the pages of our magazine. In the words of one of our vendors, when we first extended an invitation to them: “This sounds amazing! We are, as ever, in awe of your ability to foster community (do you never tire?), and we’re honoured to be thought of! Count us in!”.