The seed was planted over a dinner shared between good friends Tom Corwin and author/journalist Peter Laufer with the idea of buying a classic bookmobile, stocking it with donated books from libraries and publishers, and driving it cross-country through small towns with acclaimed authors taking turns at the wheel.  At each stop Corwin opens the bookmobile’s doors inviting the public in to take their choice of digital and analog titles in exchange for an interview about what books have meant in their lives.  A documentary film crew and a radio production team capture those stories, along with conversations with those authors along for the ride.

“Books influence our lives in ways too often untold,” says Corwin.  “Our trip is designed to tell some of those stories.” Laufer says the back roads route connects the project to America’s literary history, “The rural landscape, small towns, and a road trip are a heritage that fuels our cosmopolitan lives, and we aim to capture it.”    

Corwin has a growing list of authors who have signed on to support the project and in most cases take a shift behind the wheel of the bookmobile: including Pulitzer Prize winners Michael Chabon, Junot Diaz & Lawrence Wright as well as bestselling authors Robert Anderson, Tamim Ansary, Ethan Canin, Peter Coyote, Dave Eggers, Andrew Sean Greer, Daniel Handler, Mark Kurlansky, Annie Lamott, Arthur Phillips, Michael Pollan, Scott Simon, Amy Tan, Vendela Vida, Ayelet Waldman and Tobias Wolff – with more joining the trip day by day.

Michael Swendrowski with authors Tom Corwin (left)

and Peter Laufer (right)

After the formal launch on Sunday, July 12, 2009, the actual journey begins in September, following the Lincoln Highway, America’s first cross country roadway, and concludes in mid-October in San Francisco at San Francisco’s literary festival Litquake, where Corwin’s bookmobile will be a float at the concluding “lit crawl,” cruising up and down Valencia Street in the famed Mission District loaded with authors.

An ongoing literacy education and outreach program will be designed around Behind the Wheel of a Bookmobile’s continued travels.  As the bookmobile tours coast to coast, its video travel blog, interviews, and web-isodes featuring authors and readers will be distributed to schools, teachers, and classrooms across the nation through its affiliations with the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers and other leading literacy organizations’ existing outreach programs.  Further information about this exciting project can be found at the project's website at www.bookmobiletravels.com.

Tom Corwin is an author, musician, and music producer. His credits include work with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Patti Labelle, Booker T., and Stevie Wonder.  Tom is the author of the bestselling book Mostly Bob (New World Library) and Mr Fooster: Traveling on a Whim (Doubleday). In addition he was consulting producer on “Emile Norman: By His Own Design” which had a national PBS airing in fall 2008.