{"id":150593,"date":"2026-03-28T02:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/150593\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T02:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:42:09","slug":"reading-is-for-everyone-40-authors-to-showcase-works-at-lehigh-valley-book-festival-this-weekend-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/150593\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Reading is for everyone’: 40 authors to showcase works at Lehigh Valley Book Festival this weekend | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 7th annual Lehigh Valley Book Festival<\/a> returns this weekend, but Friday night gave readers and writers a prologue.<\/p>\n

Before the crowds arrive, the focus is on a first look at The End Bookstore, where authors gathered for a reception ahead of the main event.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight we are hosting an author\u2019s reception for authors that are in town, from out of town, so that they can come and say hi before their big day tomorrow,\u201d said Kirsten Hess, owner of The End Bookstore and founder of the Lehigh Valley Book Festival.<\/p>\n

That \u201cbig day\u201d will bring more than 40 authors and a full schedule of events to the area.<\/p>\n

Among them is Edward Ashton, who traveled from Rochester, New York, and is promoting his seventh novel, After the Fall, a post-apocalyptic story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always great to meet people who have read my books or who are interested in reading my books,\u201d Ashton said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to work with independent booksellers too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashton said events like this give authors a chance to connect in ways they typically cannot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to get out and see human beings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to connect with people who have loved your work. It\u2019s nice to connect with other authors to speak with your peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin McCloskey, who taught art at Kutztown University for 30 years, is also taking part in the festival. His books focus on what he calls \u201cmisunderstood creatures,\u201d including worms and caterpillars.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what you do when you\u2019re a writer is sitting all alone and you don\u2019t know if anybody knows that you exist,\u201d McCloskey said.<\/p>\n

Rob Osler, who traveled from San Francisco, is at the festival with his Harriet Morrow Investigates series, including The Case of the Murdered Muckraker.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hope that they\u2019ll find an audience and that people will read them and enjoy them,\u201d Osler said.<\/p>\n

Bart Bailey, a local author from Macungie, released his book It\u2019s In Our Bones last year, focusing on personal reflection and the stories that shape people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in storytelling that offers us a window into somebody else\u2019s life,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n

For organizers, that sense of connection is exactly the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading is for everyone,\u201d Hess said. \u201cThis is a way to expose people that aren\u2019t big readers to all sorts of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main festival takes place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Bethlehem Area Public Library, with additional events continuing through the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 7th annual Lehigh Valley Book Festival returns this weekend, but Friday night gave readers and writers a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":["post-150593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}