Reading space advocates, educators, storytellers, and artists will converge in Iloilo City from August 20-22, 2025, for the annual “Book Nook” Conference to address book accessibility and educational challenges across the Philippines.
Organized by the National Book Development Board (NBDB), the three-day conference is billed as “Sug-álaw: A Grand Encounter of Stories, Cultures, and Communities” and is designed to act on the nation’s urgent reading crisis through collaboration and culture production.
“What we are looking at right now is essentially the result of over four years of slow but consistent and meaningful changes to reading communities in the regions. The Book Nook Project has always committed to ensuring that love for reading is not just centralized in our urban capitals, but also nurtured in the remotest reaches of the Philippines,” NBDB Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade said.
Founded by Aquino-Tugade in 2021, The Book Nook Project is a nationwide network of safe and inclusive reading sites housing thousands of quality Filipino books. It is a direct response to the urgent need for wider access to Filipino-authored and published reading materials, embodying the core belief that “aklat para sa lahat” (books for everyone) is a fundamental right. There is a “reading crisis,” Aquino-Tugade said, that necessitates collaborative responses to ensure the survival of our cultures, languages, and national literatures.
Reading in Action
The conference’s call to action to collaborate with fellow reading space advocates, spurred by a nationwide reading gap, is not merely a theoretical exercise. The three-day conference will feature a series of practical workshops, from building sustainable community reading spaces to leveraging digital platforms for wider reach. The conference plans to be a boon to Iloilo City’s reading community through a day’s worth of reading activities that will take place at the Nabitasan Integrated School in Barangay La Paz.
“We have partnered with the local community, and we’ve brought the nation’s storytellers, artists, and educators to show what ‘It takes a village’ really means. In our most ambitious Book Nook Conference yet, we are envisioning a space for forging new partnerships and strengthening existing ones, ensuring that the collaborative spirit of The Book Nook Project continues to thrive long after the event concludes,” Aquino-Tugade said.
The NBDB’s vision for the conference is for it to go beyond a traditional gathering by creating tangible, long-term outcomes. The event aims to strengthen the NBDB’s network of reading space advocates and to formalize community-specific strategies for ensuring book access in
underserved communities. This initiative reflects the NBDB’s goal of empowering communities to become self-sustaining hubs of reading and culture.
“Ultimately, the 2025 Book Nook Conference is the manifestation of a movement in action. We’ll witness how the power of stories connects and wills people to ensure that no child, no family, and no community is left without access to our rich and storied Filipino literature,” Aquino-Tugade said.
