This weekend book lovers and writers from around the Southeast will be in Montgomery, AL for the 12th annual Alabama Book Festival. Here is the full schedule.
This free event is held at Old Alabama Town, which really sets it apart from other book festivals in the region. It’s a great location with interesting buildings and lots of front porches on which to chat up authors.
The Alabama Book Festival officially opens at 8:00 a.m. and will close around 5:00 p.m. The lineup is quite extensive this year with more panels and poetry folks than I remember from years past.
With more than 50 authors present this Saturday, it’s a fully loaded schedule. There are some authors that I am very excited have made it to Alabama. The ones I am most excited about are:
- Joe Haldeman (Venue C at 3p-3:45p) – this guy is a legend in the sci-fi circles. He’ll be on a panel discussing graphic-novel adaptations of books. His book The Forever War is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi reads.
- The Outdoors Panel discussion (Venue C at 11a-11:45a) – I recognize a couple of the travel writers here. They’ve done some good books.
- Kyle Stevens (Venue B at 10a-10:45a) – Stevens is heading up the Social Justice Panel discussion. So many good books in this category over the past two years. The discussion is going to be worthwhile.
- Cassandra King (Venue E at 11a-11:45a) – Her works include The Sunday Wife and The Same Sweet Girls.
- Winston Groom (Venue E at 3p-3:45p) – Best known for writing Forrest Gump.
There are other panels throughout the day including Cozy Mystery, Dark Mystery, Kid’s Picture Books, Comics, Romance, Military History, Food and Spirits, and more.
There are also a few workshops for writers. I think these are all free as well, but you do have to register online as the seating is first-come, first-served.
The only thing really missing this year is Capitol Books. They closed down last year and won’t be there cheering on the authors and manning the Bookshop Tables. Books will still be available for sale though, as Barnes and Noble will be stocking the tables this year.
If the weather is anything like the past two weekends, it’s going be a great day for a book festival.
Sounds like a great weekend, Trav. Wish I could be there. I’ve never made an out-of-state book festival and would love to do so sometime. I’ve done the Texas festival more than a dozen times, San Antonio twice, and Kingwood once…and loved each of them. Have fun.
I remember watching one of the Texas Book Festivals on BookTV some time ago. It looked HUGE. The cameras would pan through the audience or people milling about and there were so many. The Alabama one is still chugging along, but nothing on the scale of what you’ve seen. It’s a fun day for sure. I’m hoping to make it to the Decatur Book Festival in GA some day. I should probably put Texas on my list as well.