The Mississippi Book Festival will hold its second annual “literary lawn party” at the Mississippi State Capitol Building in downtown Jackson Saturday, Aug. 20. Several area authors will be featured in some of more than 30 panels on topics ranging from “Southern Fiction Today” to “The Presidential Year.” Golden Triangle writers including Kendall Dunkelberg, Becky Hagenston, Donald C. Jackson, Mary Miller, Sid Salter, Michael Farris Smith and Jason Ward join a host of participating authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners Richard Ford, a Mississippi native, and Random House Executive Editor Jon Meacham.
More than 3,700 attendees turned out for the state’s debut festival last August. Even more were able to watch much of the event live on C-SPAN.
Book signings, live interviews, Capitol tours, a kids’ corner, live music and food vendors are among highlights of the free festival that begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. The stately rooms of the Capitol, Galloway United Methodist Church and the Foundry at Galloway will become venues for panelists. The Capitol lawns will be a gathering place for book lovers, and surrounding streets transform into a marketplace for booksellers and food merchants.
Author Becky Hagenston of Starkville has won two O. Henry Awards and special mentions in Pushcart anthologies and Best American Short Stories. The associate professor of English at Mississippi State University attended the 2015 festival and will serve on the Short Stories panel Saturday.
“I’m thrilled to be a participant and panelist this year,” Hagenston said. “There’s something about Mississippi that brings out the most interesting things in literature. It’s a land of storytellers, and the festival celebrates that. I’ll be on the Short Stories panel, and I’m looking forward to our discussion about why we love to write and read them!”
Panels proved so popular last August that the format is being expanded this year.
“The panels, which were held in the Capitol, were packed. In response to the greater-than-expected crowds last year, they are being held in more locations,” said Kendall Dunkelberg of Columbus. The professor of English directs Mississippi University for Women’s Creative Writing curriculum and The W’s annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium. He was a volunteer at the inaugural festival and will be featured on the Poetry panel this weekend. Many former and current writers from the Welty Symposium will also be presenting this weekend.
“There was a lot of excitement surrounding the first Mississippi Book Festival, and there was plenty for everyone to do,” Dunkelberg said.
Well-known names among the many authors scheduled include Kate DiCamillo, Bill Dunlap, Ellen Gilchrist, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, Trent Lott, Marshall Ramsey, Julia Reed, Robert St. John and Neely Tucker, to list only a few.
C-SPAN will broadcast live throughout the day from the Old Supreme Court Room in the Capitol.
Access the schedule of panels and events at msbookfestival.com. For more information, email [email protected] or call 769-717-2648.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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