Every morning, Jo Canham starts her day by quietly carrying her bookshop's A-frame sign to the middle of Port Fairy, a little seaside town in regional Victoria.
"I'm really hoping it wakes people up to support the little book shops who are supporting the local authors and everyone to sort of support their own community, " she says.The COVID pandemic gave booksellers a much-needed boost. "Readers are torn between so many distractions at the moment and even I find myself distracted a lot more than I should be."Lately, that distraction has been in the form of the Port Fairy Literary Weekend, a festival Ms Canham created to share her love for literature beyond her bookshop doors.