Reviews and Previews

It's now official: author, The Washington Post Book World columnist, Pulitzer-prize winner and general bibliophile Michael Dirda will be opening our second annual Chestertown Book Festival. His most recent title is Classics for Pleasure, but he has also written a memoir: An Open Book: Chapters from a Reader's Life and four other books of literary criticism and recommendation: Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education; Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life; Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments; and Caring for Your Books. A Ph.D. graduate of Cornell University in comparative literature, he has been on the Advisory Council for "The Big Read," a program from the National Endowment for the Arts addressing America's need to read: "inspiring people across the country to pick up a good book," since 2006; and a National Council Member for The Atlantic Center for the Arts since 1999. You could call him a professional reader, with more experience, honors, awards and publications than I can possibly list here.

Michael Dirda will join us for an evening all about books: he will have a conversation with us about his work as a reviewer and the world of literary journalism. In many ways, he does what we attempt to do with this festival: celebrate books and writers (not indiscriminately, of course) by drawing the attention of an entire community and telling them why such works deserve our attention and appreciation (although, I must admit, our community is just a bit smaller than his). His medium is mostly newspaper and books themselves. Ours is more along the lines of getting authors and readers in the same physical space to share words, wine and cheese: more of a social medium. To connect with each other about one of our most solitary activities. But on Friday evening (October 8), Dirda will be engaging in a little of both.

Among Dirda's many qualifications, he also has a soft spot for our lovely little town. We plan to return the sentiment.

Photo credit: Amelia Beamer, Locus Publications 2009