The first Mississippi Book Festival will take place Saturday, August 22, at the State Capitol in Jackson. The festival will feature more than 75 authors who will read, sign and participate in 20 panels; more than 50 exhibitor booths (all indie stores in the state have been invited to exhibit and sell books); themed tents, including cooking and photography; live music; food booths; children's events; and more.
Organizers noted that despite being the home of many writers and having a rich literary tradition, Mississippi has never had a statewide literary festival. Last year, a group began meeting to organize the event; among them were representatives from local bookstore Lemuria Books, the University Press of Mississippi, the Mississippi Library Commission, the Mississippi Development Authority, the Mississippi Arts Commission and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. On the board of directors are John Evans from Lemuria; Richard Howorth, co-owner of Square Books in Oxford; Jamie Kornegay, owner of Turnrow Book Co. in Greenwood; and Scott Naugle, co-owner of Pass Books/Cat Island Coffeehouse in Pass Christian. The nonprofit festival aims to promote literature, libraries and literacy in Mississippi.
In a blog post for the festival, John Evans of Lemuria wrote, in part: "In my 40 years of bookselling, I have witnessed the power of real books in the hands of readers. In our first statewide book festival, the Mississippi Book Festival, we will celebrate the joys of reading and the authors who bring our culture to the page. Reading real books is where it all starts....
"The first Mississippi Book Festival, I hope the first of many, will bring awareness to our strong literary history. Perhaps this festival will be the first step toward creating a Literary Book Trail in Mississippi and eventually, a Mississippi Writers Museum."
Author John Grisham will participate in the official kickoff of the festival and appear later on the panel "What Reading Means for Our Culture: Reading, Writing and Journalism's Influence in Mississippi," along with Pulitzer-winning journalist Jerry Mitchell and William Ferris, founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, former director of the NEH and co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Other panels focus on such subjects as "Margret Walker Alexander, Eudora Welty and the Making of Literary Jackson," "Eudora Welty: Letters, Flowers, Loves, and the Latest Scholarship," the Civil War, African-American history, civil rights history, contemporary Southern fiction, poetry, historical fiction, comics and cartoons in Mississippi and more.
Among the authors who will appear at the festival are two booksellers: Turnrow Book Co.'s Jamie Kornegay, author of Soil, and Lisa Howorth, author of Flying Shoes and co-owner of Square Books. In addition, the festival will host former Governor Haley Barbour, author of America's Great Storm; Sara Gruen, author of At the Water's Edge; Rick Bragg, whose upcoming book is My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South; Ellen Gilchrist, author of Acts of God; Greg Iles, author of The Bone Tree; and Steve Yarbrough, author of The Realm of Last Chances.
