We'll see you in 2021. Thank you for your support.

Dear friends,

We have bad news and good news. The 2020 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair has been cancelled. That’s the bad news (which is actually good news because our highest priority in this COVID-19 pandemic is the health and safety of our book fair patrons and our booksellers, and their families.)

The other good news is that the 2021 book fair is scheduled for April 23-25, 2021, when we will once again gather for the largest and oldest antiquarian book fair in the Southeast.

As you may know, on Thursday, March 26, Pinellas County officials issued an ordinance that requires “places of public and private assembly” to close. This includes The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg, our venue for the book fair.

Pinellas County’s Safer at Home order is designed to keep people safe and healthy by reducing the chances they will contact and spread this deadly virus. That’s a goal we can all appreciate.

So, while we won’t see you at the book fair for 2020 we have a favor to ask. Patronize our booksellers anyway. Just contact them by email, by phone or visit their websites.

They’ll be thrilled to hear from you. Tell them you miss seeing them at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair (and, of course, that you’ll see them in person again at the 2021 book fair). If you find something wonderful on their websites, go ahead and buy it, just as you would have in person.

To make it easier, here's a link to the list of booksellers who were to exhibit at the book fair and all the information you need to contact them. Thank you for supporting our booksellers. They make the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair possible.

And you do, too. Thank you for your support over the years. We look forward to seeing you at the 2021 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

What's coming up for the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair? You can get a glimpse in this ongoing live streamed TV program

Here's a glimpse of some of what to expect at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in April. This is Rare Book Cafe, the world's only regularly scheduled live streamed TV program devoted to rare and collectible books. You can watch it in real time each Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the Rare Book Cafe page on Facebook. For the next few weeks, you'll meet booksellers who will be exhibiting at the book fair. Tickets for the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair can be ordered online. In the right column on this blog page you'll find a BUY TICKETS NOW link where you can have them delivered to your email instantly.

Be clever and win tickets. Enter right now!

You could win free tickets to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair by being oh so clever right now. From now until April we're running a monthly Limerick contest on Facebook and the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair blog (floridabookfair.blogspot.com). 

 It's easy to enter. Just write a brilliant limerick related to the book fair and submit it. You can enter TWO ways. Post your entry on Facebook on the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair page or send it to us by email. Use LIMERICK CONTEST in the subject field and send it to floridabookfair2@gmail.com. Be sure to include your name and how to contact you.

The contest runs from September 2019 through March 2020. Entries will be considered in the month they were received. New month. New entries. Winner for each month will be announced after that month closes. Winners receive two three-day tickets to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, April 24-26, 2020.

LIMERICK CONTEST RULES

Entries should be about books, reading, the book fair, and related subjects.

Plagiarism is no-no. Copying won’t get you anywhere. Clever parodies, however, will get you a long way. Be original.

Don’t be mean or nasty. Be funny. And clever.

Use the standard limerick AABBA rhyme scheme. Meter counts. A lot.

How many times your entry is shared and liked on Facebook won’t help you win but it won’t hurt either.

Enter a fresh limerick each month of the contest.

If you’ve already won the top prize, you can’t win again this year. Give someone else a chance.

The decision of the judges is final. There’s no appeal. The judges are a smart young woman, an old editor, and a church deacon. Mind your manners.