Little Free Library (LFL), which provides book access to people across the world through volunteer-hosted book-exchange boxes, named Daniel Gumnit its executive director and CEO in June of last year. A longtime advocate for the power of community organizing, Gumnit previously spearheaded a literacy initiative at People Serving People, an organization supporting families navigating housing instability. He has also served in executive roles at Minnesota Alliance With Youth, which seeks to increase attendance in Minnesota schools, and Children’s Cancer Research Fund. He recently spoke about his first months with LFL and the new collaboration with One World to provide themed book boxes focused on justice, identity, and hope to applicants in select cities.
What drew you to this role at LFL?
We are a huge champion for banned and diverse books [and] focus on relationships and community. The other thing that really attracted me is the reach of the organization. We’re in all fifty states, 128 countries, seven continents, even Antarctica. Each year 83 million books are given away. Our app has 425,000 users. We’re reaching about 53 million to 54 million people a year. If I’m looking at taking my skills and passions and bringing them to a global scale, this is the type of organization that will really allow me to do that.
What’s your personal relationship to books and reading?
I was a kid who really struggled with reading and was not reading at grade level. I ended up doing a lot of extra work, and part of that was reading out loud to my mother for forty-five minutes a day for many years. [This] made me absolutely hate reading out loud. Then when I had children, my wife insisted that I read out loud to the kids, which was the most amazing blessing. We read together in bed, and we read everything. That bonding over the love of reading gave me a great appreciation for the relationship of an adult reading with a child. It was transformational for me.
Describe LFL’s project with One World. How did the collaboration come about?
We were approached by One World. They wanted to brainstorm the best ways to get these important books [including The Undocumented Americans (One World, 2020) by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Minor Feelings (One World, 2020) by Cathy Park Hong, and Just Mercy (One World, 2014) by Bryan Stevenson] into communities across the U.S. [in prestocked book boxes]. We have a selection process where we find really great places for them to go. I wouldn’t say it is a new model; it is just a super high-visibility, high-impact version of a model we had.
Your volunteer stewards can build their own Little Free Library box, buy one from your website, or apply for a grant that includes a prestocked box. Applicants for a One World Essentials prestocked box must be able to install it by June 30. What makes a strong application?
We are looking for applicants in book deserts. We are looking for stewards who are passionate about building community and have a clear plan for sustaining their new book box, and we are particularly excited to see applicants who are partnering with local organizations to create a support system around that book-sharing box. The more community-wide support there is for an initiative, the more likely it is to thrive.
The other thing that helps is if there is a specific connection to one of the books or authors involved. Is this box going to a neighborhood [in Philadelphia] where Quiara Alegría Hudes used to live, for example.
When you are granting a prestocked library to stewards who apply through one of your many granting programs—One World Essentials, Read in Color, Impact Library, and the Indigenous Library Program—how do you decide which books to include?
We have multiple kinds of packages that are curated with the help of the LFL diverse books advisory group, which is made up of authors, people who love books, stewards, booksellers, illustrators, book distributors, volunteers, and staff members. [They] create these book bundles that feature the best of the best for the communities that we are serving. Each of these book bundles includes titles that provide perspectives on issues like racism, social justice, celebrating BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized voices—that is the whole point of this Read in Color work. We are really focused on incorporating experiences from all the identities of our readers. The recipient can choose the bundle that best fits the needs of their community or the age range [of their readers].
Little Free Libraries have lots of potential for delight. What is your favorite book-box story?
When the government shut down the last time and SNAP benefits were curtailed, stewards started putting canned goods, sanitary supplies, and food in Little Free Libraries. What that says to me is that LFL is about the joy of reading and about books, but mostly we’re about community. And to me that’s a beautiful thing.
Emily Pérez is the author of What Flies Want (University of Iowa Press, 2022), which received the Iowa Poetry Prize, and a coeditor of the anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood (University of Georgia Press, 2022). She lives in Denver with her family.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Little Free Library