Whatcom Reads & Writes 2021

Join Whatcom’s Largest Book Group! Read the Book. Join the Conversation. with guest author Esi Edugyan

March 2021

Washington Black by Canadian author Esi Edugyan has been announced as the Whatcom READS 2021 book selection.

Bestselling novelist Esi Edugyan writes richly imagined and impeccably researched stories that illuminate complicated truths about race and belonging. She is only the third writer to twice win the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award. Washington Black, her third novel, was included in numerous best books of the year lists when it was published in 2018.

Purchase Washington Black at Village Books and we will donate 10% of each book sold to Whatcom READS!

Whatcom READS is organized by all the public and academic libraries in Whatcom County and Village Books, with significant funding from Friends of the Bellingham Public Library and Whatcom County Library Foundation and support from other local businesses and organizations.

Annual Writing Contest

Whatcom WRITES invites writers of all ages and experience levels to explore a theme inspired by the Whatcom READS book each year. Top entries are selected for publication in the Whatcom WRITES anthology and contributors are invited to present their work.

The theme for 2021 is RECONCILIATION, drawn from Esi Edugyan’s novel Washington Black. Poetry, fiction, and non-fiction are all welcome. Find submission guidelines at whatcomreads.org/whatcom-writes. The deadline is midnight, Oct. 15, 2020.