Navy wife brings together local authors for inaugural book fair

Sixteen local authors and book publishers gathered Saturday for the first ever Regina Bookwyrm’s Book Fair, organized by a Navy wife.

“This is a collection of Regina and Saskatoon and area authors,” said Christina Van Starkenburg, the organizer of the book fair.

Van Starkenburg, who has been a writer and publisher herself for many years, moved to Regina with her kids and husband who is in the Navy, one year ago.

With only having one family member living in the city, she wanted to find a way to connect with people who shared similar interests with her and build lasting friendships.

She decided to put together a book fair as an opportunity to not only sell her work but to connect with other local authors.

“Finding friendships that are going to stand the test of time, that are going to keep going, they need to be based on something. This is just fun and similar interest as an easy way to find something to base it on,” she said.

“We lived in Victoria and there was a book fair there and it was fun because we got to meet a bunch of different authors. I was able to form a community that way because as a writer, it can sometimes be a bit isolating,” she added.

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Melissa Kendall, another local author at the event, said she met Van Starkenburg at a mall and was asked to be a part of the fair.

“She said, ‘Are you a local author too?’ and I said, ‘In fact, I am.’ So, then she brought up that she was having a book fair, and it just turned out to be several days after my latest book came out,” Kendall said.

Kendall writes Victorian historical romance novels, a genre she became interested in through reading her mother’s Harlequin novels.

“Harlequin is very big in Winnipeg, and she had a lot of historical romances so that was the genre I read and as I got older, I became more in love with writing,” she said.

Kendall said the event was a great chance to network with other authors.

“It was a surprise to me to learn how many local authors there are in Saskatchewan. It shouldn't have been a surprise. Of course, there's authors everywhere, but it's a surprise to me that I actively go out and search for Regina, Saskatchewan authors.”

Van Starkenburg hopes to bring the fair back next year with even more local authors from across the province.