2010 AJC Decatur Book Festival

Bookzilla and friends made an even bigger appearance at the 2010 AJC Decatur Book Festival Labor Day weekend. A new addition, “The Bookie Monster,” was named with help from AJC readers and the thousands of book lovers in attendance. 300 national and local authors, live music and poetry, cooking demonstrations, parades, and a scavenger hunt kept the square packed and full of fun and activities for all. Click here to visit the 2010 Festival web site >>

Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College was the opening venue for the weekend festivities on Friday, September 3, with the keynote address by Jonanthan Franzen, the 2001 National Book Award winner. The AJC-Decatur Book Festival was Franzen’s first stop on tour for Freedom, his first novel since The Corrections. The weekend also featured Rosanne Cash, musician and daughter of the legendary Johnny Cash, who talked about her memoir, Composed, and performed her music on a custom-made Martin D-41 guitar donated by the Yuengling Beer Company.

This year’s events also included a scavenger hunt that utilized the growing number of smart- and web-enabled phones available in the crowd. SCVNGR, an interactive, location based game led players through festival grounds and nearby Decatur landmarks to award prizes to participants. Two parades featuring popular children's books Ladybug Girl, by Jacky Davis and David Soman, and Llama Llama Red Pajama, by Anna Dewdeny, also made their way through the square to entertain the younger book enthusiasts in attendance.

The book market and street fair brought several new and returning vendors to Decatur Square for the festival's fifth year. The Writers Conference @ AJC DBF, presented by Agnes Scott College, had several free workshops that filled up quickly and had participants learning about memoir writing, character development in fiction, ways to discover the truth in poetry, and more from experienced authors. Theatrical Outfit and its premiere of its original adaptation of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces brought several events to this year's festival.

Live music and poetry rocked the square the entire weekend, and the Zydeco Picnic featuring the musical stylings of Zydeco T entertained and satisfied the crowd with food from some of Decatur's top restaurants.

Authors who participated in the fifth annual AJC Decatur Book Festival included:

Diana Gabaldon, New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series
David Finkel, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the Washington Post
Natasha Trethewey, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection Native Guard
George Dawes Green, author of The Juror and founder of not-for-profit storytelling organization and Public Radio program The Moth
Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of the young adult saga The Mortal Instruments
Ridley Pearson, New York Times bestselling author of a dozen young adult novels, and more than two dozen adult crime fiction novels
Emily Giffin, New York Times bestselling author of Love the One You're With and The Heart of the Matter
Anna Dewdney, author of the Llama Llama children's book series
Joyce Maynard, author of To Die For
Lev Grossman, book critic at TIME and author of The Magicians
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning novelist and short fiction author of The Thing Around Your Neck
Patricia Smith, four-time National Poetry Slam champion and author of the National Book Award finalist Blood Dazzler