By Rich Fahle, Detroit Public Television

The 31-year legacy of the Miami Book Fair International has played a key role in Miami’s continued cultural resurgence, and is perhaps the country’s most shining example of the power that books and literacy have to fuel urban renewal and community engagement.

Detroit Public Television, recognizing the national importance of Miami’s storied literary event—and borrowing a page from the revitalization playbook of its fellow Knight community—stepped in this past November with support from the Knight Foundation to provide national coverage of the Book Fair for PBS and public media audiences nationwide.

The three-day showcase of ideas on Book View Now offered a digitally diverse mix of broadcast, live-stream and on-demand programming that generated significant media interest from the likes of The New York Times, and others. In addition to live-streaming throughout the weekend on PBS.org, three daily 30-minute highlight programs were broadcast to television audiences in more than 150 markets nationally on PBS WORLD Channel. The highlight programs were also distributed to individual PBS stations nationwide, to WNYC-FM radio in New York, and many other partner distribution websites.

Coverage of the Miami Book Fair International was anchored by Jeffrey Brown, Chief Correspondent for Arts, Culture and Society for PBS NewsHour and co-hosted by The New York Times bestselling author Kelly Corrigan, and Executive Producer, Rich Fahle. The featured interviews and special segments were with distinguished authors such as Richard Ford, Norman Lear, Judy Blume, Walter Isaacson, actor Jason Segel, Questlove, scientist Richard Dawkins and several National Book Award winners, to name just a few.

Books hold a special place in the hearts of PBS viewers, and the programming from Miami Book Fair International opens the door to an opportunity that goes beyond the program’s initial air-date.

More than just a single, branded program, Book View Now is a system-wide programming initiative that can feed other PBS programs and stations, as well as NPR programs and stations, plus other third parties with an interest in authors, experts and ideas. This year, several of the interviews from the Miami Book Fair appeared separately as part of the PBS NewsHour program.

“In Detroit, we celebrate the power of the arts and the creative class to drive urban transformation, and the Miami Book Fair International is a wonderful example of that concept in action, “ said Rich Homberg, Detroit Public Television President and CEO.

“Our unique partnership with Mitchell Kaplan and the MBFI team, Dr. Eduardo Padrón and everyone at Miami Dade College, together with the Knight Foundation, helped showcase this inspiring idea for a national audience, Homberg said. It’s a remarkable concentration of energy, ideas, storytelling, and community.”

To watch coverage of events and interviews from Miami, go to Book View Now on PBS.