Read & Run Tours

You don’t want folks to just remember your work. You want them to be moved by it.

That’s where we come in.

Read & Run Tours helps authors, publishers, nonprofits, and brands move beyond visibility to genuine connection. In a world crowded with content but starved for meaningful experiences, we provide creative marketing solutions — including event strategy and full-scale planning, speaking engagements and more — that turn strangers into superfans.

Drawing on founder Allison Yates’s background in experiential learning and event design, we believe that well-crafted, imaginative events build community, deepen relationships, and keep your work memorable. We also created the book-themed guided run, bringing stories to life in the places they’re set, through Read & Run Chicago and Read & Run on the Road nationwide.

  • "Working with Allison has been a consistently wonderful experience.

    My book, Chicago Transit Hikes, is intended for a very wide audience, and Read & Run events have been invaluable in helping to introduce the title to many different communities, which not only benefits me as the author but the community of readers as well. Additionally, Read & Run events have helped me better understand what my audience wants and how I can, as a writer, meet those needs.”

    —Lindsay Welbers, author of Chicago Transit Hikes

  • "I would highly recommend working with Allison to bring your story to life!

    I've worked with Allison for routes for my locally set novels, Gaybash and Summerdale. At each event, I met readers who wanted a deeper connection to my stories by exploring the neighborhoods in which they were set. Backstory and history came together on these routes, which were carefully plotted for not only the pace of the novels, but the pace of the runners. Read & Run welcomes all ages and abilities, and the deep diversity of participants made for a lively book discussion and Q&A after the run.”

    —David Jay Collins, author of Gaybash, Single & Cooking, and the Summerdale trilogy

  • "Working with Allison was great.

    She brought my book to new readers by offering an opportunity for them to read and then visit the places where the story’s action happened. And she did a great job of booking a TV spot to get the word out around Chicago about the event.”

    —Claire Hartfield, nationally recognized children’s book author and education leader

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