Empowering younger generations through reading
As well as helping youngsters reconnect with books, this yearly celebration aims to show how literature can be a tool for individual empowerment. Books and reading can enable people in secondary education to engage with ongoing social and personal challenges.
The Day is also an opportunity to emphasise the importance of all the programmes and initiatives already running in individual EU countries to promote reading.
Activities organised during the Day of European Authors
The first edition of the Day of European Authors is taking place on 27 March 2023.
There are 3 parallel activities organised during the Day:
Reading sessions in schools
Secondary schools across the EU are invited through the eTwinning community and other channels to organize reading aloud sessions with European authors.
Useful tips for schools participating
Who to invite
Schools may like to invite an author or a popular personality to read aloud. To raise awareness of the diversity around book publishing, you may like to invite a representative of the sector to present the different professions (author, illustrator, translator, editor, etc.) as well.
Find the right person for your event: this is not limited to people working in the book sector. You may like to invite an actor, an athlete, or a role model in your community to read from a book of their choice. It may be easier to find someone in the network of your alumni students. Reach out to them as soon as possible to ensure that they have availability on this day.
If none of the above is an option, teachers may like to organise a read aloud session with their students.
Get organised
Think about the format and location of the reading session:
- would you like it to take place in your library, classroom or a different space?
- would you like your guest to do the reading for the whole school or in smaller groups?
- perhaps your students have a wish list which will give you an idea who to invite?
These are some important things to consider in preparation for your event.
Share your story
Share your favourite photo of the school event or a European book on social media with our picture frame following these steps:
- take a picture of your favourite book
- download the frame from our toolkit (below)
- open the photo editing app of your choice, crop your photo to make it square and place the frame on top of it – done!
- Share it on social media with the hashtag #ReadWithEurope!
Also, after the reading session, please share your experience by sending us an email with pictures or videos and a short description.
Toolkit for communication
Use these graphic design elements for your communication purposes:
A conference on reading promotion
The European Commission is organising on 27 March 2023 a one-day conference in Sofia (Bulgaria) on reading promotion. The event is gathering Member States’ representatives of the ministries of Culture or Education, relevant public institutions and national non-governmental organisations active in this field as well as organisations representing the book and cultural sectors at European level.
The conference is an opportunity to share examples and practices on how the education system and the book sector are collaborating to implement reading promotion actions in schools at local, national and European level.