Festival of Reading
Annual event celebrates the written word
By LEE CLARK ZUMPE
| Article published on Monday, Oct. 15, 2012 |
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| The 20th annual Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading is Saturday, Oct. 20, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, 140 Seventh Ave. S., Bayboro Harbor. |
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ST. PETERSBURG – Novelists, journalists, aspiring authors and insatiable admirers of the written word will once again come together to celebrate literacy.
The 20th annual Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading is Saturday, Oct. 20, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus, 140 Seventh Ave. S., Bayboro Harbor.
This free festival will feature nationally renowned authors, book signings, panel discussions and a variety of entertainment. This year’s featured artists include Alafair Burke, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Grunwald, Rhoda Janzen, Michael Koryta and Dennis Lehane.
The festival has drawn an annual attendance of approximately 5,000 literature lovers through the course of its history. To date, more than 40 authors are confirmed to appear at the 2012 festival.
In addition to the author appearances, there will be an extensive book market featuring local merchants and entertainment, as well as food and drink concessions.
About the featured authors
Hailing originally from Boston, Dennis Lehane first novel, “A Drink Before the War,” published in 1994, won the Shamus Award. Since then, Lahane has published eight more novels with William Morrow & Co. that have been translated into more than 30 languages. His internationally bestselling novels include “Take My Hand,” “Sacred,” “Gone, Baby, Gone,” “Prayers for Rain,” “Mystic River,” “Shutter Island,” “The Given Day” and “Moonlight Mile.”
Lehane also published “Coronado,” a collection of five stories and the play.
Three of Lehane’s novels have been adapted into films, including “Mystic River,” “Gone, Baby, Gone” and “Shutter Island.”
Crime novelist Alafair Burke is the author of two series featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid.
Burke’s novels grow out of her love for writing, her experience as a prosecutor in America's police precincts and criminal courtrooms, and her ability to create strong, believable and eminently likable female characters.
Her novels include “Judgment Calls” (2003), “Missing Justice” (2004), “Close Case” (2005), “Dead Connection” (2007), “Angel's Tip” (2008), “212” (2010), “Long Gone” (2011) and “Never Tell” (2012).
Robert Olen Butler’s short story collection “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain” earned the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993. Butler has published 12 novels and six volumes of short fiction along with a volume of his lectures on the creative process, “From Where You Dream.” His novels include “The Alleys of Eden,” “Sun Dogs,” “Countrymen of Bones,” “On Distant Ground,” “Wabash,” “The Deuce,” “They Whisper,” “The Deep Green Sea,” “Mr. Spaceman,” “Fair Warning,” “Hell” and “A Small Hotel.”
A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Butler teaches creative writing at Florida State University.
Michael Grunwald is an author and a senior national correspondent for TIME Magazine. Grunwald won the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting and the Society of Environmental Journalists award for in-depth reporting.
In 2006, Simon & Schuster published Grunwald’s first book, “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise.” It earned critical praise. In August 2012, Simon & Schuster published his second book, “The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era.”
Rhoda Janzen is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestselling “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress” and the poetry collection “Babel’s Stair.”
Janzen holds a Ph.D. from UCLA and teaches English and creative writing at Hope College in Holland, Mich.
Michael Koryta is the author of many novels, some of which have won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Great Lake Books Award and St. Martin's Press/PWA Best First Novel prize, while also earning nominations for the Edgar, Quill, Shamus and Barry awards.
In addition to winning the Los Angeles Times prize for best mystery, his novel “Envy the Night” was selected as a Reader's Digest condensed book. Koryta’s work has been translated into nearly 20 languages. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, Koryta graduated from Indiana University with a degree in criminal justice.
Koryta’s novels include “Tonight I Said Goodbye” (2004), “Sorrow's Anthem” (2006), “A Welcome Grave” (2007), “The Silent Hour” (2009), “Envy The Night” (2008), “So Cold the River” (2010), “The Cypress House” (2011), “The Ridge” (2011) and “The Prophet” (2012).
In addition to this year’s featured authors, other writers scheduled to take part in the festival include Saundra Amrhein, John Brandon, Pam Brandon, Karen Brown, Roy Peter Clark, Tracy Crow, Eric Deggans, Jonathon Evision, Katie Farmand, Terry Catherine Fortner, Jill Giesler, Amy Hill Hearth, Ernest Hooper, Melanie Hubbard, Carolyn Ross Johnston, Bob Kealing, Robert Kerstein, William McKeen, Heather McPherson, Peter Meinke, Jim Melvin, Janis Owens, Ken Perenyi, Craig Pittman, Padgett Powell, Kris Radish, Daniel Ruth, Eliot Schrefer, Enid Shomer, Andrew Skerritt, Lisa Unger and Jim Clark.
Participating exhibitors will include booksellers, self-published authors and nonprofit organizations. Following is a list of scheduled exhibitors:
• ACLU Pinellas Chapter
• Author Ann Thomas
• Barnes & Noble
• Barry Foster
• Bob Andelman
• Chocolitbooks
• Chris Whalen
• Cox Radio
• Create Loveable Books
• David Scott Lillis
• D. Mariette Williams
• Deb Cheslow Consulting
• Dementia Caregiver Resources
• Eckerd College
• Emily Skinner- Author of Marquel
• Galaxy Press
• Guy Cote, Author of Long Live The King
• Harry Douglas Press
• "I Choose" Illuminated Publishing
• Jeff Park- University of Tampa MFA in Creative Writing
• Key West To Cuba "97 Miles South"
• L.G. Rivera
• Laura Kehoe
• Martin G. Lewis
• Oceanview Publishing
• Pathfinder Books
• Pinellas Public Library Cooperative
• Sabrina Simon (Roxanne Wilder)
• Sam Black
• Seaside Publishing
• Steph Post
• Tampa Bay Times
• Tampa Bay Great Books Council, Inc.
• Tampa Writers Alliance
• The Happy Hollisters
• Trancender: First- Timer
• University Press of Florida
• USF St. Petersburg
• WMNF
• Writer's Consortium (Bay Area Professional Writer's Guild, PINA WOR, St. Peter Writer's Club)
The USF St. Petersburg campus is in downtown St. Petersburg, and attendees may utilize campus and downtown parking, giving easy access to all events throughout the day.
For more information, visit www.festivalofreading.com.
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Article published on Monday, Oct. 15, 2012
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