Booklovers and families in quest of fun and of authors continue to flock to the nation's spring book festivals. Though fall is a more propitious time for book fair organizers, attendance has risen at the spring shows throughout the country, and newer "niche" festivals are growing in number.
This year the venerable Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival's annual five-day fête has expanded and celebrates its 15th anniversary. The Latino Book & Family Festival brings its stages and tents to New York City after breaking turf in L.A., Chicago, San Diego and San Bernardino, Calif. The Virginia Festival of the Book launches the first Independent ePublishing Awards and a full-day program for writers and publishers entitled "E-book: Publishing and Promoting Books Online."
But competition is also increasing the need to plan both carefully—and uniquely. This year's Bookfest in Palm Beach has been canceled because, according to Palm Beach County Cultural Council membership director Alicia Hammang, "Organizers couldn't make money or break even." (The festival may be back next year as part of the larger South Florida Festival.) The Harvard Square Book Festival, normally held in May, is also cancelled this year.
The Latino Book & Family Festival
San Diego, March 10—11
New York City, May 11—13
(310) 876-1002, www.latinobookfestival.com
The largest Latino book and cultural festival in the U.S. continues to expand its presence in cities around the country. This year's event in San Diego will take place in Convention City with 13,000 expected to attend. The organizers' entrée into New York City will be held in the Jacob Javits Convention Center. According to festival director Mario Cobián, "At least 10 Chicano and Latino authors will perform at each festival."
This year's festivals features four villages: Book Village for bookstores, publishing houses and retailers; Careers and Education Village, designed for colleges, schools, corporate recruiters and government agencies; Culture, Health and Mi Casita Village, designed for banks, home furnishings companies and insurance providers; and Recreation and Travel Village.
"This event represents more than just a cultural and consumer expo," explained actor Edward James Olmos, who is also the festival's producer. "It is a defining event in the Latino community that brings together the very best from every walk of Latino life, culture and business."
Invitational Cowboy Poetry Gathering
Oklahoma City, March 17
(405) 478-2250, www.nationalcowboymuseum.org
Taking place on St. Patrick's Day and presented by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, this western-themed gathering of nationally recognized storytellers, singers and poets drew more than 1,500 fans of cowpoke literature last year. This year's event will offer "workshops on western poetry and music by just plain cowboys," museum's PR director Lynda Haller told PW. Watch for plenty of cowboy and cowgirl poetics, as well as book signings, dancing and lots of music.
There will be more than 50 poets and singers, including Dan Roberts (a Garth Brooks songwriter), Andy Wilkinson, R.W. Hampton and Chuck Milner. After the readings and workshops, the festival will host its first "Range and Ranch Supper Dance" featuring Nashville recording artist/composer Luke Reed and his Panhandle Ramblers Band.
Border Book Festival
Las Cruces, N.Mex., March 11—18
(505) 524-1499, www.zianet.com/bbf
More than 7,000 attendees are expected at this weeklong event for the seventh annual Border Book Festival. A Chicano literature collection will be auctioned to benefit the festival and the Tia Chucha Center in California. Featured artists include Luis Rodríguez, Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday, Leroy Quintana, Demetria Martínez and many other writers and musicians.
This year's theme, Ancestral Voices: A Living Legacy, brings together writers, artists and storytellers whose work, according to artistic director, Denise Chavez, "echoes not only human voices, but also those forces and spirits we call rivers, mountains, the countless forms and energies—whose lives resonate within us." The festival includes the trade show with more than 50 vendors, a series of panels and workshops for adults and children, a storytelling program, and readings and performances in music, dance and spoken-word art.
The BBF's cornerstone program is its Emerging Voices program, which offers a series of hands-on writing workshops held throughout the year. Invited local and visiting national writers work with Emerging Voices writers of all ages to produce a series of readings in the community.
Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
New Orleans, March 28—April 1
(800) 965-4827; 504-581-1144, www.tennesseewilliams.net
The annual five-day Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, with more than 8,000 visitors expected. Most of the events take place at Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carré, festival headquarters.
John Goodman and Stephanie Zimbalist will read from Williams's plays at the festival's benefit opening. Additional attractions include a tribute to Louis Armstrong, New Orleans Cooks and Books, a Voodoo show-and-tell, a scholars' conference, French Quarter tours and a book fair. The festival's "master classes" will be led by Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Caputo and Michael Cunningham, Booker Prize winner Barry Unsworth, and bestselling authors Mary Gordon, Wally Lamb and others.
Panel discussions range from a discussion about voyeurism in the arts to the cultural renaissance currently surging in Louisiana; from writing about politics to how children's books authors capture the imagination of young readers. "Our programming committee has spiced up its menu of programs in this banner year," said Peggy Scott Laborde, festival board president.
Virginia Festival of the Book
Charlottesville, Va., March 21—25
(804) 924-6890, www.vabook.org
Bestselling authors David Baldacci and Lee Smith will officially open the seventh annual festival. Pete Seeger will sing and read from Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book (Harcourt) and keynote speaker Paule Marshall will read from her jazz novel, The Fisher King (Scribner).
Roughly 15,000 visitors are expected with scheduled appearances by more than 250 writers, including U.S. Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz, Jan Karon, John Casey, Norma Fox Mazer. The year's festival also features a mini-conference on music suppressed by the Nazis.
New this year are the first Independent eBook Awards and a full-day program for writers and publishers entitled "The E-book: Publishing and Promoting Books Online." A panel discussion on opportunities in e-publishing will feature participants from bn.com, Xlibris and Amazon.com, as well as smaller independent e-publishers. There will be a panel on successful e-book case histories with Douglas Clegg, M.J. Rose and Pauline Jones. After a luncheon for the first Independent e-Book Awards, there will be a marketing brainstorming event; attendees are encouraged to bring their e-book ideas and learn how best to promote online. A vendor's fair in the Omni Atrium will feature e-publishers, printers, POD printers, software vendors and allied industry vendors.
Small Press Book Fair
New York City, March 24—25
(212) 764-7021, www.smallpress.org
The 13th annual Small Press Book Fair will take place at the Small Press Center in midtown Manhattan. The book fair is one of several major events taking place during Small Press Month 2001, a nationwide promotion of small and independent publishers. More than 2,500 visitors and 200 vendors are expected.
There will be bookmaking and -printing demonstrations, readings and workshops featuring panels of authors and their publishers, talking about how they reached their publishing goals. Bill Henderson, founder and publisher of Pushcart Press, is this year's recipient of the Poor Richard's Award for outstanding contribution to publishing. Each year, an accomplished author whose writing career started with a small press is chosen to represent the spirit of small press publishing. According to executive director Karin Taylor, this year that award honors Edith Wharton with an exhibit.
Arizona Book Festival
Phoenix, April 7
(602) 712-1256, www.azbookfest.org
The fourth annual festival celebrating the Southwest's rich literary traditions will be held at Margaret T. Hance Deck Park. More than 18,000 people are expected to attend and interact with authors such as Tony Hillerman, Terry Tempest Williams, J.A. Jance and Jerry Spinelli.
Booklovers can browse through thousands of books from more than 150 exhibitors, including booksellers, publishers, libraries and bookmakers. Many exhibitors will host authors in their booth space. The festival also offers activities for children, such as making paper and meeting favorite costumed characters from popular children's books.
Proceeds from the Arizona Book Festival will benefit Motheread, a family literacy program that uses children's literature as texts to teach both adults and children.
New York Antiquarian Book Fair
New York City, April 19—22 www.sanfordsmith.com/nyabf/nyabf.html
The 41st Annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair begins with a preview held on the evening of the 19th. Approximately 4,500 attended last year and organizers expect 5,000 visitors this year; and the fair has added an additional 20 dealers, bringing the roster up to over 200 exhibitors from 14 countries.
Sunday is Discovery Day, when—between noon and 3 p.m.—fair visitors are encouraged to bring in rare books or manuscripts from their personal collections for appraisal by a selection of exhibitors. The New York Antiquarian Book Fair, sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, is one of the oldest and most prestigious antiquarian book fair in the country.
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles, April 28—29
1-800-LATIMES, www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks
For the second year, the sixth annual book festival will host the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Prize ceremony on April 28 in UCLA's Royce Hall. The festival will feature 80 panel sessions and 300 authors including Robert Bly, Ray Bradbury, Mary Higgins Clark, Michael Connelly, Chitra Banarjee Divakaruni, E.L. Doctorow, Elmore Leonard, Carolyn See, Jane Seymour and Sidney Sheldon.
Organizers are expecting approximately 100,000 visitors. This year, the festival will add a children's art mural—focused on reading and literacy—that will be painted during the festival. More than 250 exhibitors and sponsors—including specialty booksellers from throughout Southern California—will participate this year.
The festival helps support the Times's Reading by Nine program. Launched in 1999, Reading by Nine has collected more than 650,000 books to support reading programs and school libraries at elementary schools throughout Southern California. It encourages children to learn to read in English by age nine.
Printer's Row Book Fair
Chicago, June 2—3
(312) 987-9896, www.printersrowbookfair.org
The largest outdoor literary event in the Midwest, the 17th annual Printers Row Book Fair expects to attract more than 75,000 visitors. Five tented blocks in the historic Printers Row district will offer an array of new, used, antiquarian and specialty books for sale. The two-day fair also hosts more than 70 free literary programs on seven stages, with over 180 vendors in tow. Families with children can enjoy a full weekend of programming featuring live music, storytellers and favorite storybook characters in costume.
Highlights of this year's festival include a preview of the Chicago Blues festival, a program tie-in with the Chicago Gospel Festival, and a Book Sense tent. There will also be poetry readings, a free resource area for aspiring and established writers, and over 100 authors. "Our popularity, growth and longevity is due to our innovative and populist literary programming and our ability to make so many books so accessible to so many people in such an enjoyable way," said program director Mary Davis Fournier.
