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| Savannah Book Festival In The News |
| and other newsworthy items about books, authors and others |
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Mark your calendar for the second Annual Savannah Book Festival
February 6 - 7 - 8, 2009
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Scenes from the Inaugural Savannah Book Festival
February 1-3, 2008
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John Zeuli Photographs www.johnzeuliphotography.com |
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By RICHARD L. ELDREDGE | Friday, February 1, 2008, 01:20 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Apparently, no one ever instructed Savannah Book Festival executive director Matt Prickett to start small.
Even in its inaugural year, this weekend’s author extravaganza boasts some of the biggest Southern names in publishing, including “To Dance with the White Dog” author Terry Kay, Atlanta chick lit goddess Mary Kay Andrews (who used to toil at the AJC as Kathy Hogan Trocheck), Rosemary Daniell, Paul Hemphill, Tina McElroy Ansa, mystery novelist and Emmy-winning “One Life to Live” scribe Michael Malone and novelist Cassandra King who happens to also be married to one Pat Conroy.
Prickett, a Buckhead resident who purchased a second home in Savannah in 2004, says he was amazed that the seaside city didn’t already have an annual book festival.
“It’s like a movie set for a book festival,” Prickett says, laughing. “There are a lot of readers and retirees here. Plus, with Charleston, St. Simons [Island] and Hilton Head [Island] close by, the location is ideal.”
Prickett even invited a New Yorker to the festival this weekend: “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” author John Berendt.
“We flew to New York to discuss it with John and he couldn’t have been more gracious,” Prickett says. “After we explained what we were doing, the first thing John said was ‘What can I do to help?’ “
So in addition to a Saturday talk, Berendt also will play host at tonight’s reception with festival keynote speaker Kay.
When making the initial plans for this weekend’s events, Prickett says he relied on a 20-year friendship with Hemphill, a former Atlanta Journal columnist.
“The first person I called was Paul,” Prickett recalls. “His latest book [“Lovesick Blues, The Life of Hank Williams”] is just amazing and I knew that I wanted Paul to be a part of this.”
While Prickett doesn’t exactly know just how many readers will descend on Savannah this weekend, he says he’s encouraged by early response and the large number of hits the festival’s online Web site is receiving.
Readers also will have to double as efficient multitaskers in order to cram in all of Saturday’s scheduled author offerings.
“It’s ambitious but we’re extremely hopeful at this point,” Prickett told us just before heading out to pick up Berendt at the airport Thursday.
The weekend concludes Sunday morning with a book brunch hosted by acclaimed cookbook author and TV chef Nathalie Dupree.
For full details and a schedule: www.savannahbookfestival.org.
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Savannah Book Festival starts Feb. 1
Get a head start by reading books from several of the authors to be featured at the festival.
by Diane Bronson
Savannah Morning News, January 27, 2008
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Book lovers all over Savannah have a great week coming up - the inaugural Savannah Book Festival will take place Feb. 1-3, with a stellar list of authors from Georgia and points east, west, north and south heading the festivities.
Also, the Live Oak Public Libraries Foundation gala will take place Feb. 7, with a dinner and auction at the Bull Street Library.
Book festivals are always wonderful because you get the chance to meet the people behind your favorite books and to learn about authors that you haven't come across before.
On Saturday, as part of the fun, children's librarians from Live Oak Public Libraries will be telling stories at City Market. For adults, books and authors will be everywhere around Telfair and Franklin Squares, with more than 30 presentations and book signings. If you want to get a head start, here are just a few of the books, available at local Live Oak branches, whose authors will be featured at the festival.
To Dance with the White Dog and The Year the Lights Came On by Terry Kay
These two tales of a bygone South by Kay, the author of some of the most enjoyable Georgia-based books out there. His strong and feisty characters will make you love them, and I'm looking forward to hearing him Friday evening, when he'll be at the Lucas Theatre. It's free, so you have no excuse for missing what promises to be a great evening.
Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews
Andrews, the doyen of Southern chick lit, deals with the trials of BeBe Loudermilk, who lost most of her worldly possessions to a wily con man, and is left with only a down-and-out 1950s motor court on Tybee Island. She's making the best of what's left of her life, until she sights the scoundrel and puts a sting into operation to take her revenge.
The Hand I Fan With by Tina McElroy Ansa
This story is set in fictional Mulberry, Ga. Fortyish Lena McPherson, despite being a successful and prominent local businesswoman, feels a void in her life. She finds the antidote to her loneliness in Herman, the ghost of a man who died 100 years ago, who she conjures up with the help of a friend. The lessons she learns from him teach her more about living than she'd ever expected a dead man could know.
The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
Berendt is, of course, famous as the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the classic and bestselling Savannah story. His most recent book, "The City of Falling Angels," explores another uniquely beautiful city with a history and character to rival our own, Venice, Italy.
The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails by Erik Calonius
This is the story of how a sugar baron's racing yacht was turned by a trio of pro-slavery radicals into an illegal slave ship, smuggling 400 captured Africans to Georgia's Jekyll Island. Ironically, the federal government transformed the Wanderer into a gunboat for the Union during the Civil War.
Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women's Lives by Rosemary Daniell
Secrets of the Zona Rosa is only the most recent of several books by Savannah author Rosemary Daniell, the originator and leader of Zona Rosa, a series of creative writing workshops founded on the premise that writing can be not only a creative challenge but a tool for healing.
Ghettonation: a Journey into the Land of Bling, and the Home of the Shameless by Cora Daniels
The author fearlessly critiques America's embrace of a ghetto persona that demeans women, devalues education, and celebrates the worst African-American stereotypes, exposing the role of corporate America in exploiting the idea of ghetto-ness as a hip cultural idiom in order to boost profits.
Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher
This biography looks at Thomas' controversial life and jurisprudence, from his Savannah days to his Supreme Court tenure, painting Thomas as a conflicted man - a conservative whose success with the aid of affirmative action has led him to beliefs and political positions that have estranged him from much of the African-American community, even in his home town.
These are just a few of the authors and books being represented at the festival. You can find more at www.savannahbookfestival.org.
Diane Bronson is the collection development coordinator for Live Oak Public Libraries. To contact her, call 652-3615 or e-mail bronsond@liveoakpl.org.
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Savannah Book Festival brings nationwide, regional authors to town
by Joel Weickgenant
Savannah Morning News, January 27, 2008
Simons Island-based author Tina McElroy Ansa remembers the pink chair her mother used to sit in when McElroy Ansa was a child.
She would sit in that chair with a hardcover book - never a paperback, nor a magazine - and nothing Tina or any of her four siblings did could pull their mother away from it.
"It created this sense of wonder and fascination," recalled McElroy Ansa, who is one of the writers featured Saturday at this weekend's Savannah Book Festival. "What could be so important, that you just can't interrupt her? It was fascinating to me that there was something that keeps her away from me."
The organizers of the Savannah Book Festival hope that for one day, the hostess city will similarly serve as an oasis for lovers of literature - drawing readers from around the region to share their appreciation of books with the authors who write them.
Laying the groundwork
After reading up on Savannah through a travel guide, new resident Matt Prickett noticed something was missing. Savannah was filled with festivals, including a children's book festival, but there was no counterpart for older readers.
"How can this city, with this literary history and the appearance of the place, not have a book festival?" he remembers thinking.
Prickett, who had sold his business in the high-tech sector in the late '90s and moved to Savannah in 2004, decided it was time to go back to work and develop a book festival. As he got to know people around town, response was unexpectedly swift. He met publisher Frederic Beil at Johnnie Harris Restaurant in March 2005.
"(Biel) shows with three typed pages, double-spaced for taking notes, of people I should call," Prickett said. He began talks with what would become scores of people, while attending book festivals all over the Southeast. In 2006, the Savannah Book Festival incorporated as a 501-(c)(3). Sponsors started jumping on board, and Prickett went to New York City with Stan Deaton, a Georgia Historical Society vice president, to talk to publishers about sending their authors to Savannah.
Roster covers several genres
A familiar name to Savanniahans, John Berendt, will be a part of the book festival.
In the years since his book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil threw Savannah into the national limelight, John Berendt said, the city has seen sweeping changes, even as its physical appearance remains unaltered.
"Broughton Street was half empty when I lived in Savannah," Berendt said. Despite the growth, the people are still the same, he says - rather unusual, with a marvelous sense of humor.
Berendt will host the festival's opening event Friday evening.
The rest of the festival, which takes place Saturday, is modeled after the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. The venues hosting the event will be organized by genre. Authors will speak individually in front of audiences, rather than in panels. They will read from their books and field questions from those in attendance.
Some of the books are sure to generate lively discussion.
The authors
Social commentator and journalist Cora Daniels knew she had to write her second book after watching The Simple Life, the reality show that followed millionaire heiress Paris Hilton's halfhearted attempts at blue-collar life.
"I had been living with this for a long time," Daniels said of the idea for Ghetto Nation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless. The book contends that "ghetto" has moved from a physical place to a mindset - unrestricted by income, race or geographic location - institutionalizing within pop culture the glorification of low expectations and instant gratification. "Each ghetto example got me more aggravated, and I realized this was something that went way beyond my neighborhood."
When Hilton couldn't get a truck's ignition to turn during an episode, the heiress dubbed it "so ghetto," and the light went off in Daniels' head.
"In my first book, I wrote about the black generation under 40. The first generation after the fight for civil rights, people who had been to the best schools," Daniels said. "An undercurrent in many of those conversations is that we're succeeding here because of the nonsense that's going on out on the streets. I wanted to illuminate that this doesn't have to have class or income boundaries."
Michael Fletcher looks forward to appearing in the city where Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the subject of Fletcher and Kevin Merida's book Supreme Discomfort, spent much of his youth.
"I'm hoping for a big crowd. Of course. There will be people who know him," Fletcher said. "There should be some vigorous back and forth. They may challenge our take on him."
McElroy Ansa, a Macon native who has created a series of novels based on the fictional Georgia town of Mulberry, said her writing follows the tradition of Southern storytelling.
"Even television couldn't compete with my grandfather's stories," she said. "Some of the best storytellers, both oral and written, come from the South."
The town of Mulberry, which has evolved over the years, was a "gift" to McElroy Ansa - one that grew out of the belief that an author should write about what she knows. Many readers, she said, recognize traits that Mulberry shares with Macon.
"It happened when I started asking myself questions about where my character lived," she said. "I developed this idea of a small town, a small community in a small town. Because the more focused in you are, the more interesting it will be."
IF YOU GO
The Savannah Book Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in venues across the city. There will also be a free keynote address by Terry Kay, hosted by John Berendt, at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Lucas Theatre, 32 Abercorn St.; and a $50 champagne brunch fundraiser at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the First City Club, 32 Bull St. Nathalie Dupree will speak.
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Man About Town: Inaugural Savannah Book Festival is Just A Week Away
by Bill Dawers
Savannah Morning News, January 24, 2008
On Feb. 1, the festival begins in fine style with John Berendt introducing author Terry Kay, who will speak at 5:30 p.m. at the Lucas Theatre . That event and all of the next day's presentations are free and open to the public.
And let's hope the public turns out in droves.
Despite the presence of some excellent colleges and despite being the regional hub for culture in southeast Georgia, Savannah does not have a reputation as a literary city.
That's ironic, as I've noted before, since so many individual Savannahians have left lasting marks in a variety of areas of American culture, including literature.
I spent some time last weekend trying to think about the SBF's unique qualities, but then I realized that the entire ambitious project is unique.
The SBF, which has an excellent Web site at www.savannahbookfestival.org, will utilize four historic venues. A heated tent in Telfair Square will be devoted to poets and songwriters. Trinity United Methodist Church will host the fiction writers, including William C. Harris Jr., whose latest book will be unveiled at the event.
The Telfair Academy will be the venue for history and biography. Lifestyle authors will appear at the Jepson Center. First African Baptist Church will be devoted to contemporary issues.
It's sure to be a provocative and exciting day for lovers of the written word.
You'll be reading and hearing a lot more about the SBF in the next week, I'm sure. But mark the calendars now.
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City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
Winter 2008 Guide to Cultural Events
Check out the Savannah Book Festival spread on pages 4-5!
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Shaken Well, With a Twist
by Julia Reed - Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
from Newsweek, December 10, 2007
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Cassandra King & I
A profile of the author - Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
from the Georgia Public Broadcasting Cover to Cover blog, November 26, 2007
by St.John Flynn
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Winner of 2007 Stanley W. Lindberg Award Announced
It's Terry Kay - Keynote Speaker for the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
from the Georgia Public Broadcasting Cover to Cover blog, November 20, 2007
St.John Flynn
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Holiday Party with The Lee Brothers - Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
Southern Living magazine, December 2007
By Scott Jones
Photography Ralph Anderson
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Statesmen, soldiers and spies who made America—and the way they lived
Smithsonian magazine, December 2007
By Hugh Howard - Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
Photographs by Roger Straus III
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Think Global, Read Local
by Lee Smith, who mentions Kathryn Stripling Byer- Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
The New York Times
November 25, 2007
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Following Flannery - A good book isn't hard to find, and it's a thrill
Savannah Morning News
by K.B. Oxnard - Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
November 23, 2007
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Served Rare, With Passion
by Julia Reed- Appearing at the 2008 Savannah Book Festival
from Newsweek, November 12, 2007
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Children's Book Festival Highlights Savannah as a Literary Destination
Savannah Morning News
by Bill Dawers
November 11, 2007
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City Gears Up For New Festival and Novel
Savannah Morning News
by Bill Dawers
October 14, 2007
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Famous Writers In Print and Still Alive
Connect Savannah
by Robin Wright Gunn
September 25, 2007
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By the book with Wilmington Island's Matt Prickett
Islands Closeup
by Rich Wittish
September 6, 2007
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World-Class Book Festival, Architecture, Music Part of Our Scene
Savannah Morning News
by Rexanna Keller Lester
August 26, 2007
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| Savannah Book Festival Receives Grant from Georgia Humanities Council |
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