Authors as Donors

I'm doing this and thought some of you might want to: -to be part of a book drive: Authors for African Literacy.

My friend Masha Hamilton’s next novel is based on a real camel bookmobile that operates in isolated Northeastern Kenya near the unstable border with Somalia.

Masha had the chance to visit last year and walk through the bush with the camels, books and librarians

And, of course, they need more books. The bush is hard on books and sometimes in these semi-nomadic communities, the ones who have checked out the books move on before the library can return.

Masha thought how wonderful it would be if  authors banded together to each send a box of about five well-loved books to the camel library.

This area is also largely African Moslem, which creates another kind of bridge. Their first love is children's books and their second love is fiction. The books could be collected from friends or your own collection (think lightly used, though), donated from your publisher, or bought from your favorite independent.

As part of the drive, she is setting up a webpage of author donors with its own URL. Let her know if you would be willing to collect a box of books, and Masha would be honored to link to your website and/or blog, and include a j-peg of your latest book cover. Also, you will be part of any publicity generated from the drive -- and HarperCollins is behind this effort and will be reaching out to mainstream media.

Send the books directly to Kenya, the address and mailing rates are as follows:

Garissa Provincial Library
For Camel Library
Librarian in Charge, Rashid M. Farah
P.O. Box 245
Garissa, Kenya

Postage, economy, on a 5-pound box from the U.S. to Kenya is $23. Sending a 10-pound box is $33.75, and a 15-pound box costs $41.10. For a 25-pound box, the cost is $55.05.

Thank you for considering participating in this; it’s wonderful that so many authors could work together to help this burgeoning library in this area in transition.

Comments

[PWS]

If you're not familiar with Bookmooch (www.bookmooch.com), this sounds like the perfect charity to add to the list on there for people to donate points to.