2019 literary calendar with 98 holidays, weeks, and months for book lovers
There are so many occasions for celebrating books, reading, literacy, authors, and libraries this year.
You’re certain to find a day, week, or month you can use this year to promote reading and books.
Whether you want to support your local library, honor an important author’s birthday, or promote a literacy campaign, you’ll find something in the 2019 literary calendar.
How to use the calendar
It’s so easy to take advantage of a few (or many!) of these special days, weeks, and months. Here are the basics.
Step 1. Start by reviewing the list below and selecting those that resonate with you. For example, if you loved Beezus and Ramona as a kid or are a children’s book author, one of them might be Beverly Cleary’s birthday. If your book is a memoir, We Love Memoirs Day might speak to you.
Step 2. Add the dates you want to work with to your calendar. Then schedule time before each holiday or occasion to create the materials you’ll use to promote the event. You might want to do this a week or more in advance, or just a day or two before.
The timing depends on what you’ll do to recognize the event, how much time you need, and whether your plan involves collaborating with others. (That always takes more time.)
Step 3. Decide how you’ll recognize the occasion. Here are a few ideas:
- Reduce the price of your book for a limited time.
- Write a blog post about why it’s important to you. This can be for your blog, for someone else’s, or on a platform such as Medium.
- Join a local library committee to plan and execute library-related events.
- Create an event-related image to share on social media. This image I designed last year for Book Lover’s Day created a lot of fun conversation on the Build Book Buzz Facebook page.
Step 4: Execute your plan.
Your 2019 literary calendar
Ready to have some fun? (Look at all that’s coming up in April!) Here’s a month-by-month breakdown.
January
National Braille Literacy Month
18 – Thesaurus Day
18 – Winnie the Pooh Day (the birthday of author A.A. Milne)
19 – Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday
25 – Burns Supper (celebrates the work of poet Robert Burns)
February
Love your Library Month
1 – Read Aloud Day
2 – Take Your Child to the Library Day
3-9 – Children’s Authors & Illustrator Week
14 – Library Lover’s Day
26 – Tell a Fairy Tale Day
March
2 – Read Across America Day
2 – Dr. Seuss Day
3-9 – Return Borrowed Books Week
3-9 – Read an E-book Week
4 – National Grammar Day
5 – World Book Day
16 – Freedom of Information Day
April
National Poetry Month
Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Month
2 – International Children’s Book Day
2 – Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday
4 – School Librarian Day
7 – 13 – Library Week
11 – National Library Worker’s Day
12 – Beverly Cleary’s birthday
13 – Scrabble Day
15 – Rubber Eraser Day
16 – National Librarian Day
16 – National Bookmobile Day
18 – Celebrate Teen Literature Day
18 – Newspaper Columnists Day
23 – Shakespeare’s birthday
23 – World Book Day
24 – On this day in 1800, the U.S. Congress approved purchasing books to start the Library of Congress.
27 – Independent Bookstore Day
27 – Tell a Story Day
28 – Great Poetry Reading Day
29-May 5 – Children’s Book Week
30 – Children’s Book Day
May
Audio Book Appreciation Month
Get Caught Reading Month
2 – Harry Potter Day
4 – Free Comic Book Day – first Saturday in May
9 – Peter Pan Day
12 -18 – Reading is Fun Week
12 – Limerick Day
June
LGBT Book Month
10 – Ball Point Pen Day
12 – Anne Frank’s birthday (she received her diary on her birthday)
16 – Bloomsday (Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce’s Ulysses )
22 – Octavia Butler’s birthday
23 – National Columnists Day
23 – The first typewriter patent was awarded in 1868
July
Read an Almanac Month
3/4/5/6 – National Tom Sawyer Days
13 – Isaac Babel’s birthday
18 – 23 Hemingway Days
30 – Paperback Book Day (they were first introduced on this day in 1935)
August
2 – National Coloring Book Day
9 – Book Lover’s Day
10 – Love Your Bookshop Day
18 – Bad Poetry Day
21 – Poet’s Day
31 – We Love Memoirs Day
September
Library Card Sign Up Month
Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month
4 – Newspaper Carrier Day
6 – Read a Book Day
8 – International Literacy Day
22 – Hobbit Day
22 – Dear Diary Day
22-28 – Banned Books Week
25 – National Comic Book Day
October
National Book Month
1 – International Coffee Day (because, you know, so many great authors are fueled by coffee)
6 – Mad Hatter Day
11 – Myth and Legends Day
13-19 – Teen Read Week
16 – Dictionary Day
20 – National Day of Writing
20-26 – Friends of Libraries Week
27 – National Tell a Story Day in Scotland and the U.K.
November
National Novel Writing Month
National Memoir Writing Month
Picture Book Month
National Family Literacy Month
1 – National Family Literacy
1 – Author’s Day
2 – Book Lovers Day
6 – National Nonfiction Day
15 – I Love to Write Day
18 – High-Five a Librarian Day
December
Read a New book Month
1 – Sherlock Holmes Day
10 – Dewey Decimal System Day
16 – Jane Austen’s birthday
21 – Crossword Puzzle Day
21 – Celebrate Short Fiction Day
24 – Jolabokaflod, Iceland’s Yule Book Flood
Update, 2-18-19 — Thanks to helpful reader feedback, we’ve added a couple of holidays to the list. That means the count now exceeds 98 holidays, occasions, and themed weeks and months.
Have we missed anything? If you know of a holiday or occasion that should be on this calendar but isn’t, tell us in a comment. We’ll continually update this as needed. Thanks!
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Hi Sandra,
I’d love it if you could include “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day (http://www.nancychristie.com/focusonfiction/celebrate-short-fiction-day/)
Each December, we mark the first day of winter (also known as the winter solstice)—a day when we have the least amount of daylight. Depressing? Not at all—not when you can use that long winter night to “Celebrate Short Fiction” Day by reading a short story!
I created the day and it’s included in Chase’s Calendar of Events.
I’m happy to add it Nancy. What exact day do you celebrate it? I didn’t find a date at your link.
Sandy
Hi Sandy,
It always occurs on the day winter begins (the winter solstice) but that can vary by a day. In 2019, it takes place on 12/21.
Nancy
Exactly why I asked. Thanks.
Sandy
Sandra, thanks for this. Very helpful. And interesting!
You’re welcome, Trish. I’m glad it’s helpful. There’s something for everybody, right?
Sandy
Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Patricia! I hope you can have fun with a couple of them.
Sandy
Thank you for posting this great info, Sandra. Sounds like fun! :0}
You’re welcome, June! I hope you find something that works for you.
Sandy
What great topics to blog about. Thanks for the list. I intend to choose at least one a month.
You’re welcome, Linda. One a month is perfect! Have fun with them!
Sandy
Thank you for this list. I hope it will enable me to make at least a couple of comments on social media.
I hope so, too, Sally. The secret for me is putting these on my calendar.
Sandy
This is great! I’m going to share this on my Facebook page and also add some of these celebrations to my marketing plan for this year. Thank you!
Wonderful, Genene! I appreciate the share, and I’m sure the authors who follow you will, too. I’m so glad you’ll be using a few of these.
Sandy
Sandra someone shared your website with me and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs and accessing your tips, and resources. I have a suggestion that I would like to make, however since I didn’t linger long over all the calendar entries if this already exists just let me know and I’ll blush later. I would like to see a create a new word for the dictionary day. My husband was telling me a story about someone at work, he’s a born story teller and as we all know verbal story tellers differ greatly from those of us who creatively think as we write. The whole story is quite intriguing but he said as he told the man who was suppose to have ordered the material for their part of the job the week before from the list they had given him. He said when they told him they had given him the order list the week before, that he leaned on the shovel with a “fardazzled” look on his face trying to remember, what he had forgotten. I loved my husband’s new word, and I have seen people with a “fardazzled” look on their face. If you want to read about “Bears and Angels” you can read about a true story on my blog. https://joanjessalyncoxsays.blog/ I hope my sharing my blog is alright if not just take it off. Do you like “fardazzled” for a new dictionary word?
Thanks, Joan. I love your idea for a new special day. When you create it, have a date set for it, and introduce it to the world, please come back with the details and I’ll add it. Everything listed on this calendar is an actual occasion — none of it is a holiday we’d like to see. Each is an actual holiday, occasion, etc.
And I do like “fardazzled!”
Sandy
Wonderful resource! Thank you! Shared on Twitter.
You’re welcome, HL! Thanks for sharing the calendar. I love that you’re helping more authors discover all of these opportunities.
Sandy
Thanks for the Special Days list. I found it helpful in the possible sale of ‘My Good Morning Sam’ (a memoir about a 24-year relationship between wild mute swans and my husband and me. Have sold 650 books and have another 350 books to sell. Check our website for more information and pictures about this book.
I hope you find something on the list to support your marketing, Phyllis.
Sandy
Sandra, November is Memoir Writing Month. We offer a free, month long e-course for anyone wishing to launch a memoir.
Hooks are great ways, as you point out, to promote a book. People are less interested in the specifics of your book and more prone to be interested in a general topic.
Thanks, Denis. I’ll add that to the November events.
Sandy
Thank you for this calendar Sandra. I will be sharing the link with my Social Butterfly community. Good days for book promotion.
I’m so glad it’s helpful, LaShaunda. Thank you for sharing it.
Sandy
Thanks so much for this. How helpful!
You’re welcome, rae! I’m glad it’s useful. The trick is remembering to add the ones you like to your calendar!
Sandy
Missed out Fantasy Week, which starts the second Saturday of February. Maybe next year?
Thanks. Can you provide a link to more info on that?
Sandy
I’m afraid I don’t have a reference. I came across it a couple years ago and joined in a promotion.
Thanks. I asked because I Googled it a few different ways but didn’t find anything.
Sandy
I tried Google too and got nothing, not even my own campaign. Google isn’t what it used to be!
Hello-
I am creating a calender for our library system and found many of these dates fun and unexpected. I wanted to point out that the ALA lists a different set of dates for the National Library week in 2020. Celebrate National Library Week April 19-25, 2020http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek
That’s OK, Jennifer, because this calendar is for 2019. I’ll make a note of it for the 2020 update!
Sandy