Program Highlight:
Fixing Up the Lake House
Haywood Smith and Mary Kay Andrews will discuss and share excerpts from their latest novels. Andrews... Read more
What’s New
The Decatur Book Festival has built on partnerships with artistic, educational, business, and governmental organizations from Atlanta and all over the nation, and is now the largest independent book festival in the country and the fourth largest overall.
At this point, we could just keep doing what we’ve been doing and call that “good enough,” but where’s the fun in that? Here are some of the new and unique programs we’ve added to this year’s festival:
Wrestling Match: Is the pen mightier than the sword? Novelist, writer, and journalist Michael Muhammad Knight and legendary professional wrestler Abdullah the Butcher face off for the first time. Abdullah is widely known for his brutal fighting style.
Centennial Celebration: Five Time Grammy Winner Mary Chapin Carpenter, Caroline Herring, Kate Campbell, and Claire Holley come together for a Centennial Celebration of Eudora Weltly’s 100th birthday. Weltly was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Optimist’s Daughter. Tickets are $25 and available at Agnes Scott College’s box office, (404) 471-6430.
The Escape—Expanded: Last year’s popular teen stage is now bigger and better. Spanning two days of the festival instead of one, The Escape will host bestselling authors for interactive discussions — including a “Werewolves v. Vampires” debate between Richelle Mead and Maggie Stiefvater. Sara Shepard, author of the hugely popular teen series Pretty Little Liars, returns to celebrate the June 30th release of her newest book, Killer.
Good Eats and Lyrical Treats: Sunday morning features a Mariachi Brunch and Promenade with Judy Schachner. Southern Foodways Alliance presents a picnic Sunday evening at which attendees will be able to explore the intersection of international cuisines in the South as they enjoy live music. Oh, and did we mention the pickled okra contest?
Get Local: This year we will feature two local stages instead of one as part of our ongoing effort to support local writers. The Java Monkey Stage will be dedicated exclusively to local poets, and the Twain’s Stage will be dedicated exclusively to local prose writers.
Down on the Farm: Grab your John Deere hat and your overalls and come out Saturday morning to the wildly popular children’s parade. This year’s parade is tractor-themed, in honor of parade master Loren Long, author of Otis, the story of a little tractor who befriends a calf.
AQLF: The Atlanta Queer Literary Festival presents a themed track of events by noted LGBT authors.
Train Your Brain: Mental Floss will host a trivia show for info junkies. Mental Floss books and merchandise will be awarded as prizes.
The Glass Table Collective: Award-winning novelist Chuck Rosenthal and several other established authors have formed their own anarchist publishing collective. They’ll talk about what that means, and why, in the current publishing environment, they chose this publishing model.
Literature in Action: Georgia Shakespeare’s Will Power presents “Alice in Wonderland.” There will also be a staged reading of David Fulmer’s play “Storyville.”
