Authors, book enthusiasts and volunteers are expected to fill the Capitol, its grounds and nearby Galloway United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson on Saturday for the 11th annual Mississippi Book Festival.
The festival, known as the state’s “Literary Lawn Party,' celebrates national, regional and local authors who have had hardback and paperback books published within the last year.
“That helps us narrow the focus from the vast number of books published eachyear,” said Ellen Daniels, executive director of the festival. “About a million books are published each year.”
Festival planners consult the fall/winter and spring/summer catalogs that publishers send out and consider topics that they know are of interest to festivalgoers.
“We start with a list of 500 titles,” Daniels said. “It’s a massive spreadsheet.”
The one-day festival, which runs from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and is free to attend, will feature 189 authors as participants in numerous panel discussions and 100 authors of self-published books for sale in Authors Alley.
Authors who will appear at the festival include New York Times best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning Geraldine Brooks, Belhaven University graduate Angie Thomas and locals Darden North and Ellen Ann Fentress, and that’s just a start. A complete listing is available on the festival website at https://msbookfestival.com/schedule.
Joe Lee, editor and chief of Brandon-based Dogwood Press, considers the festival a wonderful opportunity to share and learn more about Mississippi’s literary history.
“You can meet under-the-radar authors at Authors Alley and hear nationally known speakers of just about any genre you can name,” said Lee, co-author of “Jacktown USA: The Capitol City of American Music.” He will moderate a morning session about blues and southern soul artists with deep roots in Jackson and Mississippi.
The festival’s success is partly due to how well run and organized it is, which Daniels credits to its founder Holly Lang.
“Authors come and experience and have a great time,” Daniels said. “They tell their friends.”
The festival’s website includes glowing testimonials from former panelists.
This year’s festival will open at 9 a.m. with a remembrance of Greg Illes, a Natchez resident and author of the “Natchez Burning” trilogy. He died on Aug. 15 after battling the blood cancer multiple myeloma.
“We didn’t feel like we could carry on without celebrating Greg, who was a friend of the festival and participant several times,” Daniels said.
Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson, writer Jerry Mitchell and festival originator Holly Lang will offer tributes to Illes as they stand on the Capitol’s south steps. Some of Illes’ family members plan to be there, Daniels said.
Daniels recommends that festivalgoers map out their day by going online to the festival website and studying it to determine what they want to attend. A printed Festival Guide will be available at the Information Tent on the Capitol Grounds. Each panel will be recorded and available on the festival’s website. Events in the Galloway sanctuary will be livestreamed and on the festival’s website immediately.
The family-friendly event will offer numerous children’s activities. Food trucks will be there with their offerings for sale, and there will be live music.
New to this year’s festival will be Stephen Randle, “As Told by Sir,” who will be set up on the Capitol lawn and ready to create custom poems for attendees and type them on an old-fashioned typewriter.
“His poems are art with words,” Daniels said. “People can do that for free.”
Also new will be hands-on writing sessions led by Steve Almond, acclaimed author and storytelling pro.
“Attending one of his writing workshops can cost up to $4,000 and he’ll do three of them,” Daniels said. “Those are free and open to anyone who wants to come.”
About 8,100 people attended the festival’s sessions last year, with countless others participating in events on the Capitol grounds, Daniels said. That’s a 21 percent increase in attendance from the previous year, with all the festival events included.
The staff at the Capitol and at Galloway Church as well as countless volunteers provide support and help the event run smoothly, Daniels said. Volunteers handle many tasks, including shuttling authors to and from the airport, making sure the rooms where panel discussions are held are stocked with water for the speakers and answering questions from festivalgoers.
The festival costs $750,000 to produce, and in this year where nonprofits were hit by cutbacks “turned out OK,” Daniels said.
“We were a little bit anxious,” she said. “Some of our funding comes from
federally funded organizations, and we didn’t get what we typically get. But many people are invested in the festival and believe in it. We’ve had donors step up and have acquired some new ones, too.”
The beauty of the festival is it shows Mississippi with its best foot forward, Daniels believes.
“It’s all kinds of people getting together over a shared love of reading no matter their economic circumstances,” she said. “We have authors come from all over the country who come to this event and when they’re here they see the best the state has to offer.”
Tatia Kiser of Madison, who shares all things bookish on Instagram on her account known as MississippiMomReads, applauds the festival planners for working hard to ensure the festival is free to attend. “Most book festivals of this caliber have a high-ticket price,” she said.
Kiser said she plans to get to the festival early and make a whole day of it. Each panel discussion she attends leaves her more excited to read, she said.
“It’s an enriching experience,” she said.
