This year’s Mid-South Book Festival, now in its second year, will run September 9th-13th and take place inside Playhouse on the Square and Circuit Playhouse and outside on Cooper. But according to Kevin Dean, executive director of Literacy Mid-South (which runs the festival), it’s not too early to check out what’s already posted at midsouthbookfest.org.
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That’s where you’ll find information on becoming a festival volunteer or vendor. And that’s where you can preview this year’s presenting authors, who run from A to if not Z then at least W — Richard Alley to Barry Wolverton.
It’s a comprehensive list of Memphis and Mid-South writers, and they’ll be joined by writers from farther afield to make this Mid-South Book Festival (free, except for a few ticketed events) even stronger than its impressive debut in 2014. As of this writing, the writers scheduled to appear, in addition to Alley and Wolverton, are:
Ace Atkins, Eric Barnes, Shelia Bell, John Bensko, Reshonda Tate Billingsley, Marshall Boswell, James E. Cherry, Dan Conaway, Molly Crosby, Eric Jerome Dickey, James Dickson, Heather Dobbins, Beth Ann Fennelly, Tom Franklin, and Daniel Friedman;
Christian Anton Gerard, Mark Greaney, Jennifer Haigh, Jamey Hatley, George Hodgman, Cary Holladay, Caitlin Horton, Tim Johnston, Janis F. Kearney, Harrison Key, Fredric Koeppel, Jamie Kornegay, Becca J.R. Lachman, Sonja Livingston, Sandy Longhorn, Jonathan May, Kim McLarin, Moriah McStay, Corey Mesler, Mary McCoy, and Tara Mae Mulroy;
Summer Owens, Rebecca Phillips, Heidi Pitlor, Ashley Roach-Freiman, Lonette Robertson, Bobby Rogers, Dana Sachs, Courtney Miller Santo, Margaret Skinner, Cheryl Smart, Dorchelle T. Spence, Kristin Tubb, Susan Vaught, Neil White, Holly Whitfield, David Williams, Brandy T. Wilson, Caki Wilkinson, and Miriam DeCosta-Willis.
Until September’s book festival …
Mark the date (June 12th) and the time (7-10 p.m.). That’s when Literacy Mid-South will be holding its annual fund-raising event, Literatini, at the Booksellers at Laurelwood.
Tickets are $50 per person/$75 per couple, and that entitles you to cocktails (including a “Martini Death Match”) and food from area bars and restaurants, in addition to live music and a chance to meet author and journalist Marja Mills. Mills’ The Mockingbird Next Door, a memoir of her time spent with novelist Harper Lee, is now available in paperback and just in time for the publication of Lee’s pre-To Kill a Mockingbird novel, Go Set a Watchman.
All proceeds from Literatini go directly to helping students in Literacy Mid-South’s reading program, which annually serves more than 500 low-literate adults in the Memphis area.
literacymidsouth.org ; on Twitter: LiteracyMSouth; on Facebook: Literacy MidSouth
