Meet
The ninth annual Alabama Book
Festival will be held in historic downtown Montgomery at Old Alabama
Town on Saturday, April 19. The free
public event is the state’s premier
book festival, with some 5,000 people
from around Alabama and the South
converging on the capital city to
meet and mingle with 45 celebrated
authors.
Featured authors include Mark Victor Hansen, renowned motivational
speaker and co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, with You Have a Writer in You; bestselling novelist Cassandra
King, with Moonrise; and New York Times bestselling author Sena Jeter Naslund, with
The Fountain of St. James Court, Or, Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman. Authors with
books for young readers include F. T. Bradley with Code Name 711, the latest in her middle grade reader adventure series; Wendelin Van Draanen with the most recent Sammy
Keyes book; and Don Tate, with a picture book, It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw. Poets include Robert Collins, with Naming the Dead, and Randall Horton,
with The Lingua Franca of Ninth Street.
Author readings and discussions will be followed by book signings. The children’s activity
area will feature storytelling and arts and crafts. More than 40 vendors and exhibitors will
be on hand to showcase their programs, services, and products. And there will be plenty
of delicious Southern fare for visitors looking for a break with food and drink.
Several festival authors will teach creative writing workshops for teachers and students
the day before the festival. Festival sponsors include the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Alabama Library Association, Alabama State Council on the Arts, Alabama Writers’
Forum, Capitol Book and