By Evelyn Giffin
On October 26, 2024, I had the honor of volunteering at the Boston Book Festival alongside many other Emerson students. This was an enriching experience for me because I come from a small town, and it was my first time at any book festival (besides the elementary school ones.) I saw so many readers and authors come together to appreciate the art of writing and show interest in a wide range of surprising topics.
A couple of weeks before the event, a friend of mine had mentioned that they would be volunteering at the event. I love books, so I decided to sign up as well. I filled out a simple questionnaire about availability, skills, and interest that took less than ten minutes. This was followed up by an email with introduction videos and a meeting time for orientation.
The orientation was about two weeks before the event. This was where they went in-depth about the introduction, answered questions, and gave us free T-shirts! When I arrived, a crowd lingered in front of the orientation room waiting to be let in as everyone discussed whether they’d volunteered there before, how they heard about it, and what had brought them. People smiled as they chatted, eagerly waiting to see what they could volunteer for.
One week before the event, I received an email with my assignment as a line manager from 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. at the old south church where Aiden Thomas, award-winning author of the YA novel Cemetery Boys, would be speaking. When I arrived, I signed in at the Boston Public Library, got my shirt and free lunch, then sat down and started socializing with some of the volunteers. The room filled with the soft din of conversation amongst the tables as people discussed their assignments.
There were at least three food trucks and I was able to try some dumplings at an Asian fusion food truck. The event also featured eight buildings to explore and tons of people who had come to support this huge event. Luckily, one of the volunteers at my table was going to the same place I was, and we walked there together. Once we arrived, we checked in with the building head and got into our roles.
My job was to be a line manager for the “trauma dump” panel and books on self-healing, meaning I had to count how many people went inside, keeping track of who was going to which room, making sure the line was orderly, and answering questions that attendees had about the events in the building. A lot of passersby hadn’t heard of the Boston Book Festival, so I got to tell them about it as well.
The most shocking part of the entire experience for me was the fact that people had lined up two hours early just to see Aiden Thomas. I had never heard of this author but got to know the books by discussing it with people while they waited in line. After they went in, I was sent in to help those in line get books signed by their authors. Award-winning biographer Doris Kearns-Goodwin was such a fast writer that her manager kept telling me to send more people when I was already sending four at a time.
I ended up staying a little late, even though there was a replacement for me, because I didn’t want to leave before the line was done and I wanted the chance to at least say hi to the author, which I thankfully got.
Throughout the entire experience, the accommodating and understanding nature I saw from everyone made it a great experience for both the attendees and the volunteers.
Author Bio
Evelyn Giffin is a graduate student at Emerson College in the M.A. Publishing and Writing program. They are entering their second year in the fall and are hoping to enter the book publishing industry. Media is something very dear to them because of the community it builds and the stories that are communicated to everyone whether they read or prefer watching. Their hobbies include crochet, writing, reading, and watching shows in their free time. They graduated from York College of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Professional Writing and Literary & Textual studies before working at a college bookstore as a manager for a year.
They hope to join the editing and publicity side of the publishing industry in the future and are currently looking for internships and other great opportunities to bolster their resume. Writing for PTM has been important and fulfilling because they enjoy getting the word out about volunteer opportunities. It also highlights ways to help the publishing community that aren’t just getting hired to edit or sitting behind a desk copyediting. They have a cat named Winthorp. You can find them online at www.sites.google.com/view/evelyn-sportfolio/home.
