We’re looking forward to introducing you to Emily Barth Isler. Check out our conversation below.
Emily, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Who are you learning from right now?
Last week, we hosted a meetup for our volunteers– the book lovers and readers who are going to help make the Burbank Book Festival happen! We’d been having some zoom meetings and lots of emails, and a few people mentioned that part of the reason they wanted to volunteer for the festival is because they want community. They want to meet other people who love books or want to build community here in Burbank, and they want in-person connection! Well, once we realized that, we were excited to make it happen. We met up at a local park, I brought donuts and my co-founder, Erin, brought coffee from the coffee shop where it all started– where we held our inaugural festival last year– Three Sisters Coffee and Tea, and we talked with the volunteers about our plans and their ideas. They had amazing ideas, of course! I learned so much from them, and it makes sense– the whole point of the book festival is to enrich the community and provide a place where readers and book lovers and writers and authors can all connect. So, of course, we should totally learn from the community and see how we can best serve them!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m the author of two award-winning books for kids and people of all ages, with two more books coming out next year and one more in progress for after that. I love writing books, but being an author can be a solitary life. When my friend and fellow author, Erin La Rosa and I had the idea to do a little authors gathering and book signing at the coffee shop we both frequent, we had no idea it was going to turn into the Burbank Book Festival! That was almost two years ago, and we’ve since had the first annual Burbank Book Festival (August 10, 2024) and are working hard on the second annual Burbank Book Festival, coming up November 8, 2025! We’ve outgrown our beloved coffee shop, Three Sisters Coffee and Tea on Magnolia in Burbank, but we are still fueled by their lattes and matcha. This year, our festival is growing rapidly– from the 20 authors we hosted in 2024 to over 80 authors joining us in 2025!! Luckily, the Burbank Public Library’s Buena Vista Branch offered to host us, and we have three awesome booksellers coming to sell the authors’ books so readers can come get them signed. We’re so grateful and excited, and can’t believe how much we’ve grown in our first official year.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I think that moving from New York City, where I had lived for my entire adult life, to Los Angeles (Burbank), just before turning 40 was a huge moment for me in how I see the world. I was lucky to make the move with my husband and children, voluntarily, with all the advantages and privileges one could have in such a large transition, but it was still hard. That taught me so much– I had never made a move like that before, and had to face so much change and make a million decisions that felt hugely consequential. It gave me a deeper well of empathy and sympathy for people who are forced to move or make big changes in their lives due to circumstances beyond their control, often sad and difficult ones. I got to move to a place I’d always wanted to live, and had friends in LA and many “soft landing” supports. But I thought about immigrants, refugees, people leaving places they loved and would never be returning to– all the people who have to start over without all the choice and advantages I had. This includes my ancestors– grandparents and great-grandparents who fled places where they were unsafe and had to start over completely in America, which is part of most of our histories here! The whole experience allowed me to access deep compassion and pointed out to me the importance of community, which, however indirectly, led me to co-found the Burbank Book Festival. I want it to be easier for people to find their people, their place, to feel welcomed and at home.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
There are times when I am flooded with gratitude for all the “failures” that came before I eventually sold my first novel, AfterMath. Before that, I so desperately wanted to be an author– I wanted to write, of course, but that can be done on one’s own. What becoming a “real,” published author promised was camaraderie, community, and being part of a team. Longing for those things has made them all the sweeter now that I am a multi-published author. It also drives me to create inclusive spaces for those coming after me, and to appreciate the ways in which I have connection now because of my work. Writing is a very lonely, solitary job sometimes, but being an author is not– it means having a dialogue and a platform from which to listen, to receive information, and to give back to one’s community. Becoming a “real” author allowed me to create programs like the “Meet the Author” program at my kids’ school, to connect more kids with authors and books that will help them become storytellers, too.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
I think there’s a lot of scarcity mentality in publishing– the fear that there’s not enough success to go around, or that people will only read one book by a certain type of author or one book on a certain topic, That’s just not true! I don’ think anyone has ever read a book and said, “Wow, that was great, but I never want to read another book again, I’m all done.” Reading begets more reading! People need stories, and they want more the more they read! So when I hear people in the publishing industry say, for example, “oh we already have a book about synesthesia,” or “that publisher already published a Jewish book,” I just think that’s so limiting. We need all the stories. We need all the different takes. A wise friend once said to me about a book I was working on, that was similar to something that got published before I had finished it: “no one else can write your book. Whatever you bring to it is going to be unique and different because it’s your perspective,” and that has stayed with me. I hope that in creating the Burbank Book Festival, we’re making space for more voices and diverse communities and underrepresented people to share their stories!
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What false labels are you still carrying?
I definitely still think of myself as a kid. I know I’m not a teenager– I have children of my own, so I’m clearly not a kid anymore! But I still often think of myself as too young or too new or too small to start something. That’s why it helps to have a partner or team in work (and in life!)– but specifically, I would never have thought I could start a real book festival were it not for my co-founder, Erin La Rosa. I think we encouraged each other, and since we each bring different things to the table, it helped with the feeling that I wasn’t enough. I didn’t have to be everything– I was part of a team! And then we brought other people on board– booksellers and volunteers, our web designer, Michelle Nadell, and our Festival Project Manager, Carrie Smith, as well as the Burbank Public Library and so many others who have helped make the festival a reality, and suddenly, it didn’t feel like we were out of our depth. It felt like having a big idea, such as creating the festival, didn’t have to be overwhelming when you let other people share that dream and make it their own, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.burbankbookfestival.com/ and emilybarthisler.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burbankbookfest/ and https://www.instagram.com/emilybarthisler/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-barth-isler-9657665/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61578257345185
- Other: co-founder Erin La Rosa: www.erinlarosacreative.com
graphic designer Michelle Nadell design: https://mieche.net/
Burbank Public Library: https://www.burbanklibrary.org/
The three booksellers who will be at the festival:
https://annabellesbookclubla.com/
https://zibbymedia.com/pages/zibbys-bookshop
