What better way to get people together than to talk about a book, ask organizers of Whatcom READS. For 17 years, the program has connected people across the county for a profound — and fun — experience.
“I don’t think you can ever predict what someone else will react to — in a book or in life — and writing to that end will only give you a half-hearted book,” observes best-selling author Erica Bauermeister.
“I think as writers the only thing we can do is find characters who speak to us, and then let them speak through us, going as deep as they need to.”
The Port Townsend resident is the author of “No Two Persons,” the 2025 selection for Whatcom READS. The Whatcom County program that encourages everyone to read and discuss the same book is in its 17th year. It began in 2009 with Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”
Mary Vermillion, community relations manager for Whatcom County Library System (WCLS), also serves on the Whatcom READS steering committee and the programming and publicity committee.
She believes readers can go deeper when they react to a book together.
“The shared experience of reading one book together introduces us to different perspectives,” she said. “Reading and discussing a book with others can be a profound experience. It can also be a lot of fun.”
Claire McElroy, adult programming coordinator for WCLS, and a member of the Whatcom READS Steering Committee, said that the program “brings people across Whatcom County together in a way that enriches our lives as county residents.”
“What better way to unify and get people together than to talk about a book. How wonderful is it to think about people in Point Roberts discussing the same book as the folks in Maple Falls?”
Bethany Hoglund, deputy library director for Bellingham Public Library and current Whatcom READS board chair, agreed that while Whatcom READS is about story, more importantly it’s about connecting our community to each other through story.
“Shared experiences are powerful, as is a shared reading of a book,” Hoglund said. “We all bring a different perspective to the reading of a story and Whatcom READS encourages community members to come together to share their experience and listen to others.”
Neil McKay, the online experience coordinator for WCLS, manages the Whatcom READS website and works with the Whatcom READS Steering Committee and the programming and publicity committee by including filming events, posting them on YouTube and interviewing the featured authors for podcasts.
“A healthy community makes a strong effort to support the arts, share common interests, participate in large and small group discussions, encourage diversity and generally hang out together in friendly settings” McKay said.
“Whatcom READS provides free opportunities to do all that while promoting literacy and learning.”
Voracious reader India Nishi of Bellingham said that she’s enjoyed participating in Whatcom READS for many years.
“Just some of the benefits include celebrating literacy, community building and promoting local authors,” she said. “Two of my favorite aspects are discussions of the books with my local book group, and attending author events to learn firsthand about their writing process.”
Six weeks of events
Dawn Hawley, executive director of library, eLearning and academic support at Bellingham Technical College, serves on the Whatcom READS Steering Committee and helps make final book selections and plan yearly events, as well as on the Whatcom READS Board, enjoys the variety of events and activities throughout the county that explore the book’s themes.
Although there will be dozens of community events through mid-March in conjunction with Whatcom READS, the annual favorites are the in-person visits with Bauermeister. Advance registration is necessary for some of the events.
Whatcom READS events begin this Saturday, Feb. 1, with a Make a “Meander Book” workshop at the WCLS Everson branch library.
She’ll come to Bellingham on March 12 for Life Between the Pages, a five-course meal inspired by “No Two Persons” at Evolve Chocolate + Cafe, on the second floor of Village Books in Fairhaven. She’ll also talk at the Lummi Island Grange hall, Bellewood Farms and Village Books.
Bellingham SeaFeast is teaming with Whatcom Reads this year to provide a series of buoy-painting workshops at county libraries. These all-ages events celebrate the community’s — and the book’s — connection to the water. Each attendee will be given a small buoy to decorate while participating in an informal fluid discussion of the book. The buoys will be incorporated in a large art installation to be displayed at the 2025 SeaFeast celebration in September.
Miranda LeonJones, events coordinator for Bellingham Public Library, has the lead responsibility of coordinating the premiere event at Mount Baker Theatre at 7 p.m. March 14: “An Evening with Erica Bauermeister and Friends.”
A new feature at the event will be special guests and local musicians from Bushwick Book Club Seattle, joining Bauermeister on stage to play original music inspired by the book.
Making characters real
During the pandemic, some people saw fiction, and maybe nonfiction, as more real than the “real” world, since we couldn’t interact as much with actual people.
Bauermeister said that “writing ‘No Two Persons’ during COVID was that experience on steroids because it was just me and the characters, every day.
“They kept me thinking and feeling and learning new things. I was grateful for them and the journeys they took me on, and I think that may be why they speak to others.”
She said, “I didn’t search for characters so much as I looked for topics I wanted to learn about, be that free-diving, or intimacy coordination, ghost towns, unhoused teenagers, audiobook narration, death with dignity, leap seconds — you name it.
“And what I found was that each time I dug into the research, a character would bloom out of it, become a story where before there were just facts. The trick then was finding each character’s larger purpose within my book, and how they were connected to each other.
Another event in conjunction with Whatcom READS is Whatcom WRITES, which invites writers of all ages and experience levels to explore a theme inspired by “No Two Persons.” Top entries have been selected for publication in annual Whatcom WRITES anthology and contributors are invited to read at a public presentation.
The Whatcom WRITES theme for 2025 is “The Book That Changed My Life.” For Bauermeister, that life-changing read was short story by Tillie Olsen. ” ‘I Stand Here Ironing’ made me believe I could be a writer. Before that, books were all about big white whales and war, and I not only knew nothing about those things, I really didn’t care if I did.
“But then here was this story about an ordinary human being, living a life that was somehow made extraordinary through the attention of the writer. And THAT I wanted to do. I was willing to work as long as I had to, grow up as much as I needed to, get rejected as often as it took, to get there.” The Whatcom READS website provides a calendar of events and information on how to register.
— By Margaret Bikman