Program Highlight:
The Million Dollar Demise
RM Johnson will read from and discuss his latest, The Million Dollar Demise. Read more
CRAAASSH! ROOOAAR!!! BOOOOOK!!!
2009 Festival Overview
Look out! Here it comes! The fourth annual Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical! It's gargantuan! Shocking! And, mayhem and ruin notwithstanding, it's a whole lot of fun!
When we were planning the inaugural festival back in 2006, we had modest expectations for this literary creation. But like something born in a green smoke explosion in a lab filled with multichromatic bubbling beakers, burets and flasks, the festival grew faster and vaster than anything our scribbled formulae had conceived. In the few years since, it has continued to grow at a breathtaking pace. And still it grows. This year we named the monster: call it Bookzilla, and watch out when it stomps into the Decatur Square.
This year, the book festival will be the fourth largest in the nation, and, as it was last year, the country’s largest independent book festival. Despite an economic climate in which most publishing houses have had to slash their marketing budgets, publishers know their limited dollars are well spent sending their best authors to what has become one of the most prominent literary events in the country. And you'll get to meet all of these authors for free!
We may be big, but that doesn't mean we're going to just lumber through downtown Decatur, using brute force to dominate the literary landscape. Bookzilla is a creative monster who likes to surprise unsuspecting bibliophiles, so watch out for the unexpected at every turn. Sure, you'll hear electrifying talks and readings by your favorite authors, but you'll also find a pickled okra contest, a mariachi brunch, a dance about verbs and adverbs, an international cuisine picnic, an author wrestling one of Atlanta's most notorious professional wrestlers, and a five-time Grammy Award winner and three fellow singer/songwriters singing their tribute to a Pulitzer Prize winning author. Make sure to click on "Activities" for details on these and all the other tricks Bookzilla has planned for this year.
The weekend will begin with a keynote address at Agnes Scott College by a Knight of the Realm, Sir Harold Evans, who will offer his thoughts on whether print can rise to the challenge of pixels, in a talk titled "The Vital Future of the Printed Word." Can books, publishers, and authors thrive in the age of the e-book? Can newspapers and print journalists rise to the rivalry of the Internet? Evans' career has left him well suited to answer these questions. His resume includes a 14-year stint as the groundbreaking editor of the United Kingdom's The Sunday Times, seven years as president and publisher of Random House, and more than 20 books on writing, journalism and history, most notably The American Century. He is also the husband of iconoclastic publisher Tina Brown and the author of the forthcoming My Paper Chase, a memoir. Though the keynote is free, you will need a (free) ticket to get in. Tickets are available through the Agnes Scott box office and at participating independent bookstores.
Saturday morning will begin with a roar not of reptilian monsters but of tractors revving up for the Otis the Tractor Children's Parade as author Loren Long launches his latest book, Otis, the story of a very special tractor who befriends a little calf. March along with the tractors in your overalls or other farm friendly clothes, or, for the ambitious, costumed as a tractor or calf. Following the parade, Long will read from and talk about Otis at the Target Children's Stage.
And because one parade just didn't seem like enough this year, we'll also have a Mariachi Brunch and Promenade, on Sunday morning, featuring children's author Judy Schachner and her beloved sword fighting kitty creation Skippyjon Jones. Proceeds from the brunch at Decatur restaurant El Tesoro — planned in partnership with Decatur's Mingei World Arts — will benefit Libros Para Pueblos, an organization that builds free public libraries in Oaxaca, Mexico. (Tickets are available through Little Shop of Stories.) Following the brunch, all are invited to join a mariachi band in the promenade to the Target Children's Stage where Schachner will tell her latest tales of Skippyjon Jones.
Other highlights on the Target Children's Stage include: Kate DiCamillo, author of Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux; Jon Scieszka, best known as the author of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, and recently appointed by the Library of Congress as the first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; Georgia Shakespeare's Will Power performing "Alice in Wonderland;" Several Dancers Core's CORE Performance Company performing "Locomotion," a dance about verbs and adverbs; and on Saturday evening, our very popular annual Teen Poetry Slam.
Last year, we launched a dedicated venue, The Escape, just for teenagers and filled it with authors and interactive events for teens. It was a huge hit, so we're doing it again this year. It will be held once again in the studio of stage sponsor Several Dancers Core, with the space transformed into a lounge. The lounge will feature authors and events including: Richelle Mead and Maggie Stiefvater in an interactive "Vampires vs. Werewolves" debate; Jon Scieszka for a "Guys Read" discussion; Sara Shepard, author of the Pretty Little Liars series; the festival's children's programming co-director Terra McVoy, author of the purity ring inspired novel Pure; and the return of the popular "Break in Case of Emergency: This Book Could Save Your Life" panel. The panel will feature several adult authors discussing the books they loved or wished they had read when they were 16. Sunday afternoon will also feature the return of the Teen Literary Salon, a very cool launch party for Wayfarer's Diary, the literary journal published by the high school editors of the Wren's Nest Publishing Co., in partnership with the festival.
As the festival grows, we have to find more and larger spaces. We're grateful to First Baptist Church Decatur for joining our many other generous venue sponsors by providing not just one but three venues this year, including their main sanctuary, which will be our largest regular venue. On our nearly one dozen adult stages this year, you'll find the finest, most fascinating, most entertaining line-up of authors we've ever offered.
Our five Pulitzer Prize winners this year include Atlanta's Douglas Blackmon, who won the award this year for Slavery by Another Name. He'll headline our Civil Rights track sponsored by the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Also on that track: New York Times reporter Warren St. John, author of Outcasts United, the story of the Fugees, a youth soccer team of war refugees in Clarkston, GA; Calvin Johnson, a former prisoner freed by the work of the Innocence Project; and Kathryn Stockett, author of the breakout debut novel The Help, about a young white woman's interaction with African-American maids in Mississippi during the 1960s. Decatur's own Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey will headline a particularly strong Poetry Track this year. That track will also include, "How to Read a Poem," based on the popular book by Guggenheim Foundation executive director Edward Hirsch, who will appear in conversation with Georgia Tech poetry chair Thomas Lux. Both poets will read from their work. Also on the poetry track: four-time National Poetry Slam champion and National Book Award finalist Patricia Smith.
Festival favorite Robert Olen Butler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer, will return to read from and talk about his latest publication, Hell, a rewriting of Dante's Inferno. One of the tortures of Hell? All the streets are named "Peachtree." And Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg will return to talk about The Prince of Frogtown and swap stories with legendary Alabama author, editor, and bookstore owner Sonny Brewer.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hank Klibanoff will moderate a panel on "The Future of Newspapers," along with citizen journalism advocate Leonard Witt, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Leon Levitt. Also, Mary Wittenburg and Patrik Jonsson, both contributors to the Christian Science Monitor, will talk about that newspaper's new model of publishing on paper weekly and online every day.
Two panel discussions will address the direction of books in the digital age. Publishing 3.0 guru Richard Nash will be joined by UGA Press sales and marketing director John McLeod for "The Future of the Book," a discussion moderated by Atlanta Magazine book editor Teresa Weaver. And critically acclaimed author Chuck Rosenthal will be joined by several members of the Glass Table Collective, a new anarchist publishing venture, for "Blows Against the Empire: Publishing After the Fall of the Giants."
Last year, we missed festival regular Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander and Lord John series. She was busy not only writing new books but also working on a Lord John graphic novel, so we understood, but we're really happy to welcome her back this year.
Our line-up of thriller and mystery authors this year is particularly strong, headlined by internationally best-selling author Lee Child, whose last three Jack Reacher novels, including this year's Gone Tomorrow, have all debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best-Sellers list. We will also welcome back, for her third appearance, Kathy Reichs, best-selling author of the popular series of forensic anthropology thrillers that inspired the TV series Bones. We'll have Edgar Award-winning mystery authors Megan Abbott and Phillip Depoy, and fantasy-to-mystery crossover author Mitchell Graham. Romantic mystery author Stephanie Bond will bring along her very own body bag for a talk titled "How to Move a Body and Other Useful Skills." Rosemary Harris will discuss her latest deadly delight. And filmmaker Meredith Cole will read from her award-winning debut mystery Posed for Murder.
Speaking of murder, the author of Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill, N.M. Kelby, will return this year.
Our Religion & Spirituality Track is also exceptionally noteworthy this year, with authors including: Barbara Brown Taylor, the Episcopal priest, professor, and author best known for Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith. Benyamin Cohen, author of My Jesus Year: A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith. Richard Friedman, UGA professor of Jewish Studies and author of, among others, Who Wrote the Bible? And, for a twist, novelist Joshilyn Jackson, speaking on "Writing Covertly About Faith," a talk on writing about faith in ways that fall outside what a religious press would typically publish.
Jackson will also show up on another stage to introduce her friend and fellow writing circle member Sara Gruen, author of the best-selling sensation Water for Elephants. Gruen will be interviewed on stage by another member of the same writing circle, author Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City.
With the economy on everyone's minds this year, we decided to add a Business & Personal Economy Track. It will be headlined by nationally renowned business columnist Alan Deutschman, author of several influential books on business and leadership including Change or Die and his latest, Walk the Walk. And for those business decisions made closer to home, best-selling author and television consumer advocate Robyn Spizman will offer advice on how to live, give, and make the most of your money.
Atlanta's own nationally syndicated parenting expert Bob Lancer, author of Parenting with Love and Lighten Up!, will headline our new Parenting Track, with a talk on "Holistic Parenting." And, for the parents of student athletes (or anyone who loves football), NFL legend Karl Mecklenburg will talk about his new book, Heart of a Student Athlete.
Our Health & Wellness Track this year, presented by DeKalb Medical, will include a telling of the history of DeKalb Medical by Wytch Stubbs, Jr. and Susan Parry, a talk by Robert Davis, author of The Healthy Skeptic, and "Doc Hollywood" author Neil Shulman.
Our friends at UGA Press have put together three fascinating panels on social, political, and environmental topics, drawing on the publications of many of their writers. The panels are "Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South," "Environmental History and the American South," and "Obama: The Prequel."
The festival partners each year with other events to bring the best authors to our audiences. Our ongoing partnership with the Labor Day weekend fantasy, sci-fi, and gaming extravaganza Dragon*Con this year brought us several fantastic authors, including: Charlaine Harris, the wildly popular author of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, which have been adapted into the acclaimed HBO series True Blood, and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, author of the Count Saint-Germain series of vampire books. Both are presented at the AJC-DBF courtesy of Dragon*Con.
On the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, we're also proud to partner with the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival to present an LGBT Track of author events. Headlining that track will be Felice Picano, author, most recently, of Art & Sex in Greenwich Village: Literary Life After Stonewall. This year's AQLF will be held Nov. 4-7 at locations in Atlanta and Decatur.
Our friends at the Atlanta History Center are sponsoring an Atlanta Authors Track, featuring a cross-section of the many extraordinary authors this literary city has to offer, including Marc Fitten, editor of the Chattahoochee Review and author of the internationally acclaimed Valeria's Last Stand.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution presents... well, the entire festival, but the AJC also presents the AJC Track this year, a series of authors who are current or former reporters and editors with the AJC. They include Mary Kay Andrews, author of the New York Times best-selling The Fixer-Upper, and former AJC book editor Don O'Briant, author of Newcomer's Guide to Georgia and, as Sonny Bubba Ferguson, of Sonny Bubba's Southern Fried Semi-Low Calorie Cookbook.
O'Briant will appear with South Carolina satirist and short fiction master George Singleton, best known for The Half-Mammals of Dixie.
We have some magnificent memoirists at the festival this year, including: Kaylie Jones, daughter of novelist James Jones and author of the novel A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and a new memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me. (Jones will also give the Writers Conference keynote and a workshop on structuring memoirs.) Jessica Handler, author of the breakout Invisible Sisters, her story of living on after the loss of both of her sisters to terminal illnesses. Robert Leleux, author of The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy, a gay coming of age story. And Carlene Bauer, whose Not That Kind of Girl tells of Bauer's carnal awakening after an evangelical upbringing.
Speaking of carnal, don't miss the return of Eric Jerome Dickey, author of wildly popular novels with some serious heat, including this year's thriller Resurrecting Midnight. And #1 Essence best-seller R.M. Johnson will launch his latest, The Million Dollar Demise.
And the list of great authors goes on and on. More than 150 featured authors, more than 300 authors onstage, untold more authors at the marvelous Book Market Street Fair, and countless more authors rubbing shoulders with you throughout downtown Decatur all weekend. Bookzilla is going to dominate this town.
We hope you come and stay all weekend, and that you have a wonderful time. Immerse yourself in one of the largest gatherings of book lovers in the nation. Eat, drink, and be merry. And should the spirit of Bookzilla move you, maybe let loose now and then with a mighty roar of BOOOOOK!!!
All the best,
Thomas Bell
Program Director
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical
