The AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) will kick off its fifth annual extravaganza Sept. 3 with a keynote address by National Book Award Winner Jonathan Franzen followed by a weekend filled with internationally known authors, two children’s parades, and a scavenger hunt.
Franzen will open the festival Friday night of Labor Day weekend as he launches a national tour for his first book since The Corrections, which won the 2001 National Book Award for fiction. Franzen’s widely anticipated new book, Freedom: A Novel, will be released on Aug. 31.
The Festival kicks into full gear on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 4-5, hosting more than 300 authors and is expected to attract tens of thousands of book lovers to the historic Decatur Square.
“As we celebrate our fifth anniversary, the Festival has come of age, and we’ve really knocked it out of the park with this line-up of authors,” Daren Wang, Executive Director of AJC DBF, said.
Wildly popular author Diana Gabaldon, author of the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling Outlander novels, will return to the festival this year after hosting standing-room-only crowds at the 2009 festival. Other featured authors include Pulitzer Prize winner David Finkle, George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization, young adult author Cassandra Clare, adult and young adult author Ridley Pearson, and New York Times bestseller Emily Giffin.
The festival will also partner with Atlanta’s Theatrical Outfit to celebrate the company’s original adaptation of John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. Events planned with the acting company include a presentation by executive artistic director Tom Key and scenes from the play.
SCVNGR, an interactive, location based game that will lead players through the festival grounds and nearby Decatur hotspots will also premiere at the Festival. Prizes will include signed books, t-shirts, posters and other goodies. “It’s a twenty first century scavenger hunt, and it’s a real hoot to play,” Wang said.
This year’s festival will feature not one but two children’s parades to generate excitement among local children about books and reading. Each parade, one each morning of the festival, will feature a popular children’s book and the book’s creators. The books this year are Ladybug Girl, by Jacky Davis and David Soman, and Llama Llama Red Pajama, by Anna Dewdeny.
And Bookzilla, the popular cartoon character created for the 2009 festival, will return along with a host of literary monsters befitting classic comic books of the mid 20th century.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical is the largest independent book festival in the country and the fourth largest overall. In 2009, more than 300 authors and tens of thousands of festival goers crowded the historic downtown Decatur Square to enjoy book signings, author readings, panel discussions, an interactive children’s area, live music, parades, cooking demonstrations, poetry slams, writing workshops, and more. For more information visit www.decaturbookfestival.com.
Interviews available upon request.
Thank Goodness for our Sponsors!
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This is YOUR festival. We are very grateful for our corporate sponsors, but we count on individual donations to ensure that the festival is free to all. If you are looking forward to this year's festival, please consider joining us in building this great tradition! Any contribution you make will help ensure that this is the best AJC DBF ever. Donate now.
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