As Los Angeles first responders brought wildfires under control last week, those in literary circles persevered in delivering mutual aid and contributing to fundraisers.
The Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which created a matching funds pool with contributions from Bookshop.org and Tokyopop, met its $55,000 matching goal, and is now the beneficiary of a Libro.fm fundraiser, Audiobooks for Binc. Until January 30, all of Libro.fm’s proceeds from Pardon My Frenchie by Farrah Rochon (Hachette Audio), Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith (Macmillan Audio), and Mac Undercover by Mac Barnett (Dreamscape Media) will support booksellers and comics store owners affected by the wildfires.
Kidlit for Los Angeles, an impromptu auction organized in less than a week by five children’s creators, was originally scheduled for January 20–26 but extended its bidding for an extra 48 hours. Bidders tagged their bids to one of four frontline charities: California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief Fund, L.A. Regional Food Bank, L.A. Fire Department Foundation, and the Animal Wellness Foundation Fire Relief Fund. When it was all over, “we raised an incredible $172,469, smashing our fundraising target of $120,000,” cocreator Caroline L. Perry told PW. “Many of our 435 items went into ‘extended bidding’ and some ended up in fierce bid battles.”
Perry counted almost 7,000 bids and said the auction’s biggest-ticket item was an in-person school visit from Jason Reynolds, which ascended to a high bid of $6,000. “Many of our items sold for four-figure sums, including a signed book and sketch by Loren Long that went for $3,250, a virtual school visit from Kate DiCamillo that sold for $2,010, and signed books from YA author Leigh Bardugo, which raised $2,005,” Perry added.
Perry, along with co-organizers Charlotte Offsay, Sydney Hanson, Tara Luebbe, and Jocelyn Rish, expressed gratitude to book industry donors and to bidders. “We’ve worked around the clock but it was well worth all the sleepless nights,” Rish said.
Sharing Essentials
Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena became a national model for mutual aid distribution. Not far from the Eaton Fire that ravaged Altadena, the shop rallied to provide community members with bottled water, personal care essentials such as toothbrushes, diapers, and other toiletries, and a place to charge electronic devices. Octavia’s owner Nikki High experienced damage to her nearby home but reportedly is OK.
The bookstore’s name nods to visionary author Octavia Butler and her prescient Earthseed novels, which describe interdependent communities along a West Coast marred by wildfires. “It is wild and uncanny indeed what [Butler] predicted,” Octavia’s Bookshelf manager Kiki Williams told PW. “We hope to continue to serve our folks how she might have.”
Williams mentioned aid centers at other bookstores, including a laundry drive at North Figueroa Bookstore. Laundry is “very important, especially for folks who are still displaced and jumping from hotel to hotel,” Williams said. At North Fig, Unnamed Press editor Allison Miriam Woodnutt took the lead on making sure people unhoused by the wildfires could utilize the Highland Park Coin Laundry next door to the bookshop.
“North Fig’s laundry fund is currently available on the store counter for anyone who wants or needs it, no questions asked,” Woodnutt told PW. “People are free to add to it by bringing in detergent, dryer sheets, and more quarters as well. If we receive an excess of supplies, they’ll be donated to the Pasadena YMCA.” While people wait for their spin cycle to complete, Woodnutt added, they can “grab a fish taco at Tacos Ensenada or hang out in the shop with a good book.”
Woodnutt paid it forward too, by recommending the Altadena Library Foundation Fund: “They'll continue to be servicing Altadena past present and far into the rebuilding process,” she said.
Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica, which was in a wildfire evacuation zone, collected clothes and books to give away to those who suddenly found themselves bereft of shelter and basic needs. Zibby Media CEO and founder Zibby Owens acknowledged that, while most people in the area escaped the wildfires alive, “we are devastated nonetheless,” adding: “So many friends have lost everything.”
Owens continued: “We launched a ‘pop-up’ clothing drive a few doors down from Zibby’s Bookshop to give away new clothing from 40-plus brands to those who have lost their homes in the fire or who have been indefinitely displaced.” More than 120 volunteers stepped up to provide brand-name, gently used or new clothes for an estimated 800 families. “Over at Zibby’s Bookshop, we’re giving away books from our shelves and select donated books by publishers to those affected,” Owens added.
‘L.A. Strong’
Mad Cave Studios of Miami is responding to the wildfires by crashing a comics anthology, L.A. Strong, with proceeds going to creators affected by the disaster. As the fires raged out of control, Mad Cave executive VP and editor in chief Mike Marts began hearing about comics creators who had lost their homes, including studios full of irreplaceable art. “I went to bed feeling helpless,” Marts said, but the next day, “I remembered Heroes, a benefit book that was assembled in the aftermath of 9/11 during my time at Marvel as the X-Men editor.” He envisioned a project “where comic professionals could pool together to volunteer artwork” and help their fellow creators.
Marts tapped newly appointed Mad Cave editor Sarah Brunstad to manage the book, and frequent creative partner Andrea Mutti shared artwork from a 2024 comic with Anthony Cleveland, Charred Remains. Other volunteers included Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Oeming, Stephanie Phillips, Brian Azzarello, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Connor, Phil Hester, and Greg Pak.
Marts is moving quickly to get L.A. Strong into print: “We know our creative friends who were affected are in immediate need of aid, so we’re hustling to get this done and assembled within a few weeks, tops,” he said. “As of right now the plan is to release a 48-page comic book with a cardstock cover.”
L.A. Strong’s distribution will be fast-tracked, Marts said, “so that comic book shops can place stocking orders beginning in February,” and readers can reserve copies through local comics retailers. “We anticipate having the comic in stores in mid-March, and proceeds will go directly to members of the comic book industry who have lost their homes,” he said. “We’re extremely lucky to have such a close-knit community that’s rushes to one another’s aid when needed.”
Book and Donation Drives
Literary organizations for young readers already are looking ahead to re-establishing childcare centers, school libraries, and home libraries too.
Lacey Benard, co-founder with Lulu Cheng of the bilingual children’s indie publisher Bitty Bao, is married to an L.A. County firefighter and spent the worst of the crisis pinned to the news. Bitty Bao is in a strategic partnership with fellow indie Lil’ Libros, and Benard recommended following Lil’ Libros co-founder Patty Rodriguez on social media for information on helping L.A. communities rebuild.
“Bitty Bao and Lil' Libros will be doing as much as we can,” Benard said. “We know it is going to be a long road for East and West Side families, and they'll need our support for many years to come.” Benard isn’t ready to initiate a book drive right now: “Receiving book donations at a time like this, where people are scrambling for temporary housing and essential needs, is more of a burden than a help” in many cases, she said. For the time being, she and Cheng locally organized a donation drive for Pacific Clinics Head Start, which lost one of its main sites and two home childcare centers in the fires.
Children’s Book Council executive director Carl Lennertz worked with CBC member publishers to organize mailings of new books to Children’s Book World in L.A., which will channel these donations to Title 1 students and others in need through its nonprofit arm, known as the Children’s Book Recycling Center. Immediately after the initiative’s launch, Lennertz said, “I heard from a dozen libraries and bookstores from around the country that are sending books.”
Antonette Franceschi-Chavez, CEO of the nonprofit Equity Through Lit and owner of Casita Bookstore in Long Beach, also has a goal of donating 1,000 books to parents and teachers affected by the fires. The Collective Book Studio is among the publishers that have given to the effort, donating 200 board and picture books, with “more to come,” per founder and publisher Angela Engel.
Literary agent and TV producer Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, CEO of the Gotham Group, likewise organized a Gotham Group book drive, in cooperation with Lin Oliver of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Impact and Legacy Fund. Goldsmith-Vein requested that new and gently used books for K–12 readers be sent to Gotham Group headquarters in West Hollywood, “to repopulate the school libraries that were lost in the fires.”
Initial response has been enthusiastic. “We’ve had so many people send books!” Goldsmith-Vein told PW.