Teen Activities

The 2010 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) presents an incredible lineup of teen authors, including several New York Times bestsellers. They will be featured on the Festival’s popular and newly expanded The Escape teen stage, which will be housed in the Old Courthouse and will feature events on both Saturday and Sunday for the first time.

Cassandra Clare, author of the Mortal Instruments series — which has been named a bestseller by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly — will speak about her new series The Infernal Devices, which will launch August 2010, and will sign copies of her books. Clare’s event will be held at the Decatur First Presbyterian Church stage.

David Levithan, author of Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist — which has been made into a major motion picture — will also speak on The Escape stage. Levithan is a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, which seeks to recognize excellence in the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature.

Due to the success of last year’s “Vampires vs. Werewolves” panel, the Festival is bringing back the popular supernatural discussion panel, with a brand new twist. Carrie Ryan, author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and Alyxandra Harvey, author of The Drake Chronicles, will now square off in the “Zombies vs. Vampires” panel.

Jackson Pearce, author of Sisters Red, will appear at the Festival with Robin Benway, author of The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June, and Michelle Zink, author of the Prophecy of the Sisters series, as part of the “Sibling Rivalry of the Worst Kind” discussion.

Kathleen Duey, author of Skin Hunger, will team up at the Festival with Cinda Williams Chima, author of The Seven Realms series, Jessica Verday, author of The Hollow: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Saundra Mitchell, author of Shadowed Summer, as part of the “The Methods Behind the Magic” discussion. The authors will discuss what kind of research and influences led to the rules behind the magic in their books.

Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. has compiled its fourth annual literary journal, which is comprised entirely of pieces by Atlanta-area high school students. On Sunday at the Festival, from 2 – 5 p.m. at Several Dancers Core, the student editors and contributors and their friends and family members will join to mingle, congratulate each other, and revel in their accomplishments with live music, food, and board games.

This year, the Youth Poetry Slam — a competition where poets read or recite original work and then are judged on a numerical scale by a panel of judges — will be completely run by teenagers. The first slam poet, who is offered up to the audience and judges as a sacrificial lamb before the competition begins, will slam Edgar Allan Poe, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth.