“This is f-king brilliant.”

“We’ve got a pact,” Ziegler said. “You have permission to read for an hour, with no other interruptions.”

“It’s about building community.”

– VICKI ZIEGLER, “bookgaga”

Ah! that oft-used word, “community.” I’ve heard rumours of a mythical “poetry community,” as though one in and of itself exists.

My actual experience, there are highly valued small pockets of “community,” that spring up/disappear, usually spearheaded by individuals who pay attention, wonder how they’re needs could be met in kind amongst neighbours/friends/likes. You find your people, they find you.

Reader, VICKI ZIEGLER, affectionately known as “bookgaga,”co-founder of the Toronto chapter of Silent Book Club is one such individual.

The key is: to start.

“Start with a handful of your friends or some neighbours. If possible, support a local business or destination. In our particular case, it’s a coffee shop. Other people have picked things like local bars. Pick one and communicate with them to make sure that you’ve got the table space and the time allocated. The coffee shop we go to appreciates the business and we keep in touch with them to make sure we’re booking at good times. It feels like a home away from home.”

O, Vicki, you make it sound so easy (and, perhaps it actually is). We both know what you’re doing here is that and so much more. Creating an intentional space where readers gather to sit down to read whatever they want silently together for an hour. Committed to the practice of reading. Radical.

Not only that, When Vicki loves a book, you know it. Readers, authors adore how/when Ziegler posts her own personal practice of handwriting poems from poets/poetry books she reads.

“There’s nothing quite like being on the receiving end of the bookgaga treatment!”

Vicki, we who cherish such communities are so blessed by you enlarging ours. That’s why you’re the recipient of KFB Fertile’s Inaugural, “This Is F-king Brilliant Award.” I’m selecting/packing boxes of poetry for you/your Silent Book Club to savour, read, enjoy. Soon come.

See you at Fertil3!