Events

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) believes stories matter. The event began in 1999, and in 2005, National Novel Writing Month became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. NaNoWriMo’s programs now include National Novel Writing Month in November, Camp NaNoWriMo, the Young Writers Program, Come Write In, and the “Now What?” Months.

In 2017:

• 402,142 participants, including 95,912 students and educators in the Young Writers Program, started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
• 972 volunteer Municipal Liaisons guided 646 regions on six continents.
• 1,195 libraries, bookstores, and community centers opened their doors to novelists through the Come Write In program.
• 65,962 Campers tackled a writing project—novel or not—at Camp NaNoWriMo.

Hundreds of NaNoWriMo novels have been traditionally published. They include Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Hugh Howey’s Wool, Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl, Jason Hough’s The Darwin Elevator, and Marissa Meyer’s Cinder.

Each year, authors offer mentorship to our participants through pep talks. Past author mentors have included Gene Luen Yang, Roxane Gay, John Green, N. K. Jemisin, and Veronica Roth.

The Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) launched National Reading Group Month (NRGM) to further its mission to promote reading, a love of books, and women’s careers in publishing and allied fields. The oldest continuously running women’s literary organization in the country, WNBA was founded in 1917. For the past 90 years, it has united women — and now men — from every corner of the book world: writers, editors, librarians, bookstore owners, avid readers, and others.

Here are the 2018 selections for great Book Group Reads:

America for Beginners by Leah Franqui
As Wide as the Sky by Jessica Pack
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce
The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills by Jennifer Haupt
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
The Lido by Libby Page
Maggie Boylan by Michael Henson
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
Shores Beyond Shores: From Holocaust to Hope, My True Story by Irene H. Butter with John D. Bidwell and Kris Holloway
Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story by Wyomia Tyus and Elizabeth Terzakis
The Vain Conversation by Anthony Grooms
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
Wolf Season by Helen Benedict