PAYA: Bringing YA to PA

Today we are happy to bring you a guest blog post from Skyanne aka @Harmonybreviews.  We (Rebecca and Jenn) live in PA too and have a love of YA, so we are proud to support PAYA :-)

PAYA: Bringing YA to PA is an organization dedicated to raising money for libraries across Pennsylvania. It started as me donating books to my local library and has quickly grown into something much more. Libraries across the state are now benefitting from PAYA and our various fundraisers. We've raised over a thousand dollars by doing online auctions and other fundraisers, as well as collected hundreds of books for libraries.

Our current focus, and what we've been working towards all year, is the PAYA 2010 Festival. It will take place on August 21st at the Center for Performing and Fine Arts in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Eighteen authors will be attending, including teen authors Chelsea Swiggett and Kieryn Nicolas, along with Josh Berk, Cyn Balog, Stephanie Kuehnert, Jeri Smith-Ready, Jennifer Hubbard, Amy Brecount White, Jon Skovron, Shelena Shorts, Jennifer Murgia, Shannon Delany, Holly Nicole Hoxter, Dianne Salerni, Christine Marciniak, Andrew Aueson, Ellen Jensen Abbott, and Meg Medina. Children's Book World out of Haverford, PA will be selling books at the event. Other fundraisers, like a basket raffle featuring signed books from Meg Cabot, Megan McCafferty, Kimberly Derting, and many others, and a used book sale, will also be going on. The festival itself will run from 1pm-3pm.

Before the actual festival starts, a writing workshop will also be taking place. The workshop will be led by Josh Berk, Jon Skovron, Amy Brecount White, Meg Medina, Jeri Smith-Ready, Stephanie Keuhnert, and Shannon Delany. The authors will be speaking on a variety of writing-related topics and also critiquing the work of each attendee, who will be asked to bring the first 3 pages of their work-in-progress. This writing workshop will take place from 10am to noon and will cost $45.

All of the money raised at the festival from the fundraisers, and a portion of the book sales, will be donated to libraries across the state.

If you can't attend the festival but would still like to support Pennsylvania libraries, you can support PAYA in various ways. We're currently accepting book and monetary donations, which can be sent via Paypal or money order. All money goes to libraries and the books are either donated to libraries or sold in the used book sale to raise more money for libraries. You can also help by spreading the word to your Pennsylvania friends!

Visit bringya2pa.com for more information on PAYA, the festival, and ways you can get involved!

Note:  Rebecca & I are planning on being there for the festival/signings (hopefully the stars will align for us lol) - we hope you will stop by and support PAYA if you can!!