Passing the Torch

Mary setting up at NBF2003
with a Junior League Volunteer

On Monday evening, May 5, 2003 the NH State Library hosted a reception to open the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library. Among the honored guests at that event were John Cole, Director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress; Marie Harris, NH Poet Laureate at the time; and the NH authors Tomie dePaola, John Harrigan, and Rebecca Rule.  Katie McDonough was the Director of the NH Center for the Book at its founding. 

By the fall of 2003 we had kicked-off our first Ladybug Picture Book Award; organized our first year of Letters About Literature (a student writing competition that the Library of Congress unfortunately stopped supporting in 2019); and represented the Granite State at the first National Book Festival. 

By that time I had become the Director of the NH Center. In the 20+ years since then we have done a lot of great projects, I have attended more National Book Festivals than I care to count, and I have worked with an amazing group of writers, librarians, readers, and Directors from Centers for the Book throughout the country. It has been fun, educational, and occasionally exhausting. 

After all these years I decided, and former State Librarian Michael York agreed with me, that the time has come for someone new to take over running the NH Center. Luckily, Felicia Martin was ready and willing to become our 3rd Director. Mike appointed her Director before he retired.

Felicia has been Deputy Director of the NH Center since 2023; Chair of the Ladybug Picture Book Award since Ann Hoey's retirement in 2017; and a regular contributor to the Center's blog for many years prior to that. The Center is in very capable hands, and I will be here at the State Library serving as "Director Emeritus" of the Center which means I will be helping Felicia out in whatever ways she decides are helpful.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me with the Center for the Book all these years. I couldn't have done it without you!

State Librarian Michael York at NBF2003