EASTHAMPTON — The Massachusetts Center for the Book is keeping its rich history of promoting literacy across the commonwealth right here in the Pioneer Valley where it started, making a short move this summer from Northampton to Easthampton.
With a new location come new opportunities, the center’s Executive Director Courtney Andree said in an interview Monday inside the new location, studio 307 in the Cottage Street Studios. The center will continue to unpack into the currently empty space over the coming weeks, but Andree said there has already been a warm welcome.
“There’s energy here,” Andree said about Easthampton. “It’s been so welcoming so far.”
The new studio, located straight through the One Cottage Street building’s front entrance and up the first set of stairs on visitors’ left, offers more affordability and accessibility than the previous location in downtown Northampton at the D.A. Sullivan building on New South Street, Andree said.
The Massachusetts Center for the Book, a nonprofit founded in western Massachusetts in 2000, is one of 56 centers chartered by the federal Center for the Book through the Library of Congress, with locations in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas.
While the center hosts several statewide programs each year, Andree said it plans to launch a number of local, community activities such as readings and lessons in its new Cottage Street spot.
“The Massachusetts Center for the Book is one of the largest centers for the book in the country,” said Andree, noting that each center looks a bit different.
Andree has been the center’s executive director since 2023. The center had been located in Northampton since 2021, returning to the Valley after a stint in Boston on the Simmons University Campus.
In Easthampton, Andree said the center has already made “fantastic” connections with the Easthampton Public Library and Easthampton City Arts (ECA), a city organization that drives art production. Andree hopes to incorporate the center in the monthly ECA Art Walk, an art show with various locations around the city, and to revive the Easthampton Book Fest, which ended during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Statewide, the center hosts a reading challenge which invites participants to read a book with a specific category each month and submit a review for rewards. Andree said the center’s oldest and most anticipated program each year, the Mass Book Awards, receives upward of 500 submissions annually for writers to be recognized across seven categories. Other programs include Letters About Literature, which participants can win money from for submitting letters, Great Reads from Great Places and more.
“We really exist to promote and support the cause of books, connect libraries and develop statewide programming that supports literacy and the literary community,” Andree said.
Some more recent initiatives includes a statewide directory where writers can create a profile to boost connection between authors, which Andree said started this summer.
This is also the third year the center has hosted the Kids Lit Fest, a festival that aims to spark a reading passion for children across the four counties of western Massachusetts.
“We’re really trying to reach rural areas and gateway cities with live author programming and school visits,” Andree said about the festival. “We’re bringing authors into schools and kind of boosting excitement around books at a time when that’s dwindling for our kids.”
Andree said declining readership for books and novels is a challenge right now for all ages. According to Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) data, in 2025, 7% of students across grades 3-8 exceeded expectations in English Language Arts (ELA), and only 34% of students met expectations. Eight years ago, in 2017, the number of students statewide exceeding expectations was 10%, and 42% of students met expectations.
To boost reading and literacy among kids, Andree said developing the skills need to start as early as possible in schools and homes.
“It’s a pattern that needs to happen in your household, and it needs to be something that’s familywide,” she said. “That’s something that we’re trying to tackle.”
The center collaborates with libraries across the state sharing similar goals, recently advocating for increased funding for libraries. Andree said the center receives funding from the state, donations, private grants and other sources, but not federal funding.
The center is currently piloting a program called Gateways to Reading, partnering with local WIC (Women, Infant and Children) providers and the Valley Opportunity Council to run an early literacy program which provides age-appropriate books to children at doctor visits.
“You need to read together as a family and you need to see your parents reading if you’re going to become a reader,” Andree said.
Andree said screens like cellphones and TVs are part of the decline in reading, but there are many things competing for people’s attention now. She said many schools have shifted to teaching ELA (English Language Arts) on laptops and tablets, starting at an early age.
“Some kids will graduate high school without having read a full-length novel,” Andree said.
But reading doesn’t need to always happen with physical media, Andree said, advocating for the consumption of literature through audiobooks, virtually and other ways. It’s important to support writers and authors in any way possible, Andree said, adding that there will always be a strong contingency of readers and literature lovers.
“There are fearless people fighting to get books into people’s hands every day,” she said. “We have to keep trying, and we have.”
For more information, visit massbook.org.
