Savannah, GA – February 5, 2010

The Third Annual Savannah Morning News Savannah Book Festival regretfully announces that Mary Chapin Carpenter will not be appearing at the Celebrating Eudora Tribute Concert.

This historic concert will still take place on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 8 pm in Trinity Church on Telfair Square with the three other wonderful singer-songwriters—Kate Campbell, Caroline Herring and Claire Holley—who plan to give their audience an exciting, moving performance in tribute to southern writer Eudora Welty!

Here is the official statement from Mary Chapin Carpenter:

“Due to extreme, ‘State of Emergency’ weather conditions throughout the eastern seaboard, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s appearance as part of the Savannah Book Festival has been regretfully cancelled. The Celebrating Eudora event will go on as scheduled with appearances by Kate Campbell, Claire Holley, and Caroline Herring. Ticket refunds will be made available from the Savannah Box Office to those who no longer wish to attend. ‘While I have always been a snow lover, I am not this weekend, as it causes me to miss joining up with my friends Kate, Claire and Caroline in Savannah,’ Carpenter explains. ‘Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can reconvene and join voices again to celebrate Eudora Welty in stories and songs.’”

Writer Georgianne Nienaber, who has seen two of these special concerts around the country, wants the public to know that this show will be spectacular, despite the absence of Mary Chapin Carpenter:

“It is a shame that the brutal weather has forced Mary Chain Carpenter to cancel her appearance at the Celebrating Eudora Concert at the Savannah Book Festival. However, as someone who has seen and reviewed this wonderful concert twice, I can all but guarantee that Claire Holley, Caroline Herring, and Kate Campbell will provide a beautiful and memorable evening. These women are consummate professionals and incredible singer/songwriters. I, for one, am looking forward to how they will take the Eudora tribute and soar.”

Georgianne Nienaber—Author, Journalist

For anyone wishing to refund a refund for their concert tickets to this amazing performance—which, again, will still go on with the remaining three singer songwriters—please contact the Savannah Box Office at www.savannahboxoffice.com; by phone at 912-525-5050; or in person at the Savannah Box Office window, 216 E. Broughton Street, Savannah, GA, 31401.

The Savannah Book Festival, which will take place February 5-7, 2010 in and around Telfair Square, is an annual, free and open to the public celebration of the written word and its role in improving the human experience.  Our mission is to promote reading, writing and civil conversation.  For each of the past two years, the Festival has attracted dozens of popular and critically acclaimed authors and thousands of readers from all over America to Savannah’s Telfair Square, and the culturally significant buildings that surround it—Telfair Academy, Trinity Church and Jepson Center for the Arts.  Within these beautiful venues, the Festival’s authors and their readers experience the intimacy and hospitality for which Savannah is famous.

See you at the Festival!

with Kate Campbell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Caroline Herring and Claire Holley

Presented in collaboration with the Savannah Music Festival

Co-sponsored by Carolyn Luck, & by John and Stephanie Duttenhaver

The Savannah Book Festival is offering a new ticketed musical event at this year’s Festival: five-time Grammy Award-winner Mary Chapin Carpenter and three other renowned singer-songwriters–Kate Campbell, Caroline Herring and Claire Holley–will perform a unique tribute to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern writer Eudora Welty in a tribute concert the evening after the Savannah Book Festival on Saturday, February 6th, 2010, in Trinity Church.

Presented in collaboration with the world-renowned, award-winning Savannah Music Festival, this exciting addition to the Festival schedule will feature Carpenter, Campbell, Herring and Holley singing their own songs chosen specifically for and inspired by the literary legacy of Mississippi writer Eudora Welty, whose 100th birthday would have been April 13th, 2009. The concert, which debuted at the centennial celebration for Welty earlier this year, received rave reviews, and it is in perfect keeping with the Savannah Book Festival’s mission to promote the written word, particularly the work of Southern authors.

Taking place in historic Trinity United Methodist Church at 8 pm on Saturday, February 6th, 2010, the concert will be a ticketed fundraising event for the Festival. Tickets for $50 are on sale now through the Savannah Box Office.

Sponsored by

The Festival is also thrilled to welcome back Festival favorite Julia Reed as our Sunday Brunch Speaker. Ms. Reed is the author of Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena; Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialties: An Entertaining Life (with Recipes), a collection of her essays on food for the New York Times Magazine and The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story, a memoir. The fundraising Sunday Brunch and talk by Ms. Reed, a much-anticipated event in Savannah’s social calendar, will be held in Jepson Center for the Arts on Telfair Square from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm.  Ms. Reed will be introduced by Savannah College of Art & Design President Paula Wallace.  Tickets for $75 are on sale now through the Savannah Box Office.

Sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Dick Eckburg

The Savannah Book Festival is proud to announce that internationally renowned and bestselling thriller writer Vince Flynn will kick-off the 2010 Festival with a Keynote Speech on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 5:30pm. Sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Dick Eckburg and hosted by Trinity United Methodist Church and free and open to the public, this exciting talk will feature a presentation by Vince Flynn, author of several New York Times bestselling novels, including his latest, Pursuit of Honor. Flynn’s novels feature counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp, who proves himself to be a hero unafraid “to walk the fine line between the moral high ground and violence” (The Salt Lake Tribune) for our country’s safety, for the sake of freedom, for the pursuit of honor.

Mr. Flynn will also appear during the Festival itself on Saturday, February 6th, 2010, again in the sanctuary of Trinity Church, to talk about his life in letters and his eleven novels, several of which are a part of the beloved Mitch Rapp series. Mr. Flynn, who overcame dyslexia and went on to fame and fortune as a writer, supports many worthy charities, including Tee it Up for the Troops and the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation.