Our Mission
The Bronx Book Festival aims to promote literacy and foster a love of reading among children, teens, and adults. The festival will cover a wide range of topics relevant to the Bronx community through panels, workshops, and more with award-winning and bestselling authors, illustrators, and creators. The festival will help build the reading culture in the Bronx and become the premier literary experience open to Bronx residents and the general public.
Many children attending Title I schools in the Bronx have never owned their own books or experienced an author visit. The Bronx Book Festival aims to change that with The Bronx is Reading. This literacy program seeks to create an interest for reading among young people while also promoting reading and writing skills through engaging author visits, reading group guides from publishers, and new books for children. The Bronx Book Festival will also donate books to each participating school’s library for all students to enjoy.
All Bronx schools that qualify as Title I are encouraged to apply. If selected, schools will be asked to sign an agreement and provide detailed enrollment information to The Bronx Book Festival (in accordance with FERPA guidelines). Applications will be scored on eligibility, need, and completion.
Meet the Team
Saraciea J. Fennell is the founder of The Bronx is Reading - Bronx Book Festival. She is also a book publicist who has worked with many award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors like Daniel José Older, Tui T. Sutherland, Peter Sís, Chris Colfer, Deborah Wiles, Javaka Steptoe, and many more. Fennell is passionate about books and devours anything sci-fi/fantasy related in books, TV, and movies. She sits on on the steering committee for Latinx in Publishing and on the advisory board for People of Color in Publishing. You can find her somewhere in NYC boxing or practicing yoga in the next up and coming studio. The Bronx Times listed her as one of 25 Influential Women in 2018, she was listed on the Bitch Media 50 list for 2018, part of the Unsung Hero Campaign for Nike, and included among Remezcla’s 30 Latinxs who made an impact in 2018. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA at Lesley University and has studied under David Elliott, Jason Reynolds, A.J. Verdelle, and Tracey Baptiste. She splits her time between the Bronx and Brooklyn, but will always rep the Bronx. Visit www.saracieafennell.com for more on Saraciea or follow her on social @sj_fennell.
The Bronx is Reading, Founder, CEO & Bronx Book Festival, Executive Director
The Bronx Poet Laureate, Co-Founder
Roya Marsh is the co-founder of The Bronx Poet Laureate. A Bronx, New York native, Roya is a nationally ranked poet/performer/educator/activist. She is the Poet in Residence at Urban Word NYC and works feverishly toward LGBTQIA justice and dismantling white supremacy. Roya’s work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, Flypaper Magazine, Frontier Poetry, the Village Voice, Nylon Magazine, Huffington Post, Button Poetry, Def Jam’s All Def Digital, Lexus Verses and Flow, NBC, BET and The BreakBeat Poets Vol 2: Black Girl Magic(Haymarket 2018). In Spring 2020, MCD × FSG Originals published Roya Marsh’s dayliGht, a debut collection of experimental poetry exploring themes of sexuality, Blackness, and the prematurity of Black femme death—all through an intersectional feminist lens with a focus on the resilience of the Black woman.
Bronx Book Festival Team
The 2023 festival planning committee is made up of Bronxites, publishing professionals, educators and more.
Milena Brown, Adult Planning Committee Chair
Milena is the Associate Marketing Director at Atria Books. She has managed publicity and marketing campaigns for a wide array of authors including Alice Walker, Mike Tyson, Sister Souljah and Phoebe Robison, and executes marketing campaigns for a variety of #1 bestselling fiction authors and narrative nonfiction titles.
Dominique R. Jenkins, Adult Planning Committee Chair
Dominique R. Jenkins is a Bronxite and Assistant Director of Author Events.
Leah Clark, Kidlit Planning Committee Chair
Leah Clark is a proud NYC public school teacher and Bronx resident. She has taught visual art and literacy at an international school in the South Bronx for the past ten years.
Shaughnessy Miller, Kidlit Planning Committee Chair
Shaughnessy Miller is a Brooklyn-based marketing professional in children's book publishing. When she's not reading too many books at one time, she enjoys visiting her family in the Midwest, making a mess in the kitchen, and listening to sad girl songs.
Graphic Designers: Theresa Evangelista
Publicity: Saraciea Fennell & Jessenia Lopez
Marketing Lead: Isa Caban
The Bronx is Reading Assistant: Jessenia Lopez
Operations & Logistics: Rachael Gilkey
The 2022 planning committee is made up of Bronxites, publishing professionals and more.
Adult Planning Committee Chairs: Milena Brown & Saraciea J. Fennell
Kidlit Planning Committee Chair: Shaughnessy Miller & Leah Clark
Graphic Designers: Theresa Evangelista
Publicity: Saraciea Fennell
Marketing Lead: Isa Caban
The Bronx is Reading Assistant: Daniela Escobar & Jessenia Lopez
Operations & Logistics: Rachael Gilkey
The 2021 planning committee is made up of Bronxites, publishing professionals and more.
Adult Planning Committee Chairs: Tanisha Herrera & Sarah Gonzalez
Kidlit Planning Committee Chair: Shaughnessy Miller & Leah Clark
Graphic Designers: Theresa Evangelista
Publicity: Saraciea Fennell
Marketing Lead: Isa Caban
The Bronx is Reading Assistant: Daniela Escobar
Operations & Logistics: Rachael Gilkey
The 2020 planning committee is made up of Bronxites, publishing professionals and more.
Adult Planning Committee Chairs: Darise Jean Baptiste & Tanisha Herrera
Kidlit Planning Committee Chair: Shelly Romero & Shaughnessy Miller
Graphic Designers: Theresa Evangelista
Publicity: Saraciea Fennell
The Bronx is Reading Assistant: Olivia Dontsov
Operations & Logistics: Rachael Gilkey
The 2019 planning committee is made up of Bronxites, publishing professionals and more.
Adult Planning Committee Chair: Ebony LaDelle
Kidlit Planning Committee Chair: Shelly Romero
Kidlit Planning Committee Chair: Nicola
Graphic Designers: Theresa Evangelista and Jasmine Cordero
Publicity: Ro Ferguson, Lizzy Mason, Alex Hill
Operations & Logistics: Rachael Gilkey