Last fall, I got to chat with a writer named Melody Warnick. She was interviewing me for CityLab, but 30 seconds into the interview, it didn’t feel like an interview at all. We talked about city building and placemaking and what it is to love where you live. She’s written a book about it and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

How we come to feel at home in our towns and cities is what Warnick sets out to discover in This Is Where You Belong. She dives into the body of research around place attachment—the deep sense of connection that binds some of us to our cities and increases our physical and emotional well-being—then travels to towns across America to see it in action. Inspired by a growing movement of placemaking, she examines what its practitioners are doing to create likeable locales. She also speaks with frequent movers and loyal stayers around the country to learn what draws highly mobile Americans to a new city, and what makes us stay. The best ideas she imports to her adopted hometown of Blacksburg for a series of Love Where You Live experiments designed to make her feel more locally connected. Dining with her neighbors. Shopping Small Business Saturday. Marching in the town Christmas parade.

All. The. Yes.

And I’m SO honoured that she’ll be hosting Love Lettering Project events at her book launch in Washington, D.C., at Kramer Books, (my very favourite bookstore I hid letters in in 2010), and in her hometown, Blacksburg, Virginia!

Event info:

Washington, D.C.: Wednesday, June 22, 2016. 6:30pm
Kramer Books, 1517 Connecticut Avenue, NW in Dupont Circle
More info here!

Blacksburg, VA: Friday, June 24, 2016. 4-6pm
Book launch party and Mini “I Love Blacksburg” Fest at Alexander Black House, 20 Draper Rd.
There’ll also be a scavenger hunt, a chance to play Blacksburg bingo, eat Blacksburg food and more!

A 2010 love letter to Washington hidden in Kramerbooks.