BAMB strikes new partnerships for autumn campaign

Annual bookshop campaign Books Are My Bag has unveiled its campaign plans for the autumn, featuring partnerships with National Poetry Day and the Wellcome Collection, and a dedicated flagship event.

First, BAMB will be partnering with National Poetry Day, with poetry events taking place in bookshops across the UK on both National Poetry Day (Thursday 4th October) and Bookshop Day (Saturday 6th October). Poets Charly Cox and Jen Campbell will each be releasing a new poem dedicated to bookshops, and in addition, a new Poetry category will be included in the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards.

BAMB will also be be partnering with London museum The Wellcome Collection. The musuem's Wellcome Shop will host an event on Bookshop Day, and the Wellcome Book Prize will also be releasing a BAMB Limited Edition Bag to mark the 10th anniversary of the prize.

Meanwhile, bookshops across the country will be giving children the opportunity to go behind the till and experience running a bookshop for the day. Bookshops taking part include Moon Lane Books, The Book Case, Pickled Pepper Books, Chicken & Frog Bookshop, Children’s Bookshop Huddersfield, and Dulwich Books.

This year, for the first time, Books Are My Bag will host a dedicated flagship event in London on Bookshop Day, featuring authors and poets, with more details to be revealed in the coming weeks.

This year's Limited Edition Bag, which will be available exclusively in bookshops from Bookshop Day, has been designed by pop artist Sir Peter Blake, while, a Limited Edition Children’s Bag, inspired by Philip Pullman’s new The Book of Dust trilogy, has also been designed, based on Chris Wormell’s illustrations.

Thursday 4th October will also be Super Thursday, the day when more than 660 new books will hit the shelves as bookshops gear up for Christmas. Authors with new releases include: David Attenborough, Judith Kerr, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpurgo, Graham Norton, Sue Perkins, Jeremy Vine, Gizzi Erskine, Cressida Cowell, Melvyn Bragg, Anthony Joshua and Zoella.

Poetry releases on Super Thursday include titles from Raymond Antrobus, Leonard Cohen, and Paul Auster, and the paperback edition of Ben Okri's Rise Like Lions (Hodder).

Susannah Herbert, executive director of the Forward Arts Foundation, said: “Poetry helps people find words for the things that really matter to them, which is why live poetry events bring people together so successfully. Booksellers are central to the poetry boom we are seeing at the moment and we are delighted to be joining forces with the Bookseller Association on the Books Are My Bag campaign."