West Virginia Author Matt Browning to be in Bridgeport at Farmers Market Sunday for Book Signing Event
By Connect-Bridgeport Staff on June 05, 2021
A new children’s picture book by West Virginia author Matt Browning celebrates the many ways farming can take place within city limits. 
“Chicks and the City” is a kid-friendly exploration of urban agriculture published by Headline Books. Browning will sign copies of the book at the Bridgeport Farmers Market in Bridgeport, West Virginia, Sunday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“Chicks and the City” is a kid-friendly exploration of urban agriculture published by Headline Books. Browning will sign copies of the book at the Bridgeport Farmers Market in Bridgeport, West Virginia, Sunday, June 6, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“The concept of urban agriculture has grown exponentially in recent years as people in cities and towns have become increasingly interested in growing their own food,” said Browning. “You don’t have to live on a large farm with acres of land to be a successful small-scale farmer, and this book illustrates examples of how to do that for young people.”
In the book, Chicken Stu, a typical barnyard bird, watches the city from atop a silo and longs to visit. He makes his way there and discovers the many ways farming happens in downtown areas, like urban orchards, community gardens, farmers markets and chicken coops.
The idea stemmed from the rise in urban farming Browning was seeing in West Virginia cities like Charleston and Huntington. Browning was one of the original planners of the West Virginia Urban Agriculture Conference, which launched in 2014 and is hosted annually by West Virginia State University Extension Service.
At the signing, Browning will also have copies of his first book, “Bookstore Explorer: West Virginia,” released in 2019 as a celebration of the Mountain State’s independent bookshops. The Bridgeport Farmers Market’s own book vendor and resident poets, the Bards of Yellow Wood, are featured.
Browning’s third book, “The Definitive Golden Girls Cultural Reference Guide,” a pop culture book about the popular television series, is slated for release this fall from Rowman & Littlefield. Learn more at MattBrowningBooks.com.
The Bridgeport Farmers Market is located off of exit 124 of I-79 in Bridgeport, within the Charles Pointe development.
