Another year, another festival

So we did it again. This year's festival has been deemed a success! We had slightly smaller crowd than last year (an estimated 643 non-unique visitors to all events), but we did have slightly fewer events. The variety of genres and interests embraced this year shows an enlarging of the idea behind the festival, though (and Kate B. definitely embraced a bit more with R. Crumb). Thanks again, everyone, for another great weekend of book-loving fun!



Here are a few other fun moments from the 2010 Chestertown Book Festival:

Pulitzer-prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda with Chestertown's favorite Idiots, Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr (photo courtesy of Andrea B. Neiman):










R. Crumb and R. Behr (photo courtesy of Peter Heck):









WRNR's Michael Buckley interviewing Fran Severn about the Arts on Delmarva for "Voices of the Chesapeake: Book Fest Radio:"










Student bookbinder Katrina Skefos shows off her portfolio of bookbinding experiments with the help of Master Printer (and storyteller) Mike Kaylor:










And our Faith & Inspiration panel discussion led by Terwana Brown. The panelists shown are (from left to right): Cathy Jones, Ciera McQueen, Alishia Louis, Betty Chambers, and LaDonna M. Smith:










In other news, this will probably be my last post on this blog because I am stepping down from my position as Committee Secretary. The amazing Kate Bursick is also stepping down from her office of Committee President. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we are proud of all the work we have done with the rest of the Committee and the authors and the volunteers. But it's time for a new set of minds to take the reins of the Chestertown Book Festival (and they will certainly need some reins--this thing has taken on a life of its own, I think!). We welcome the new Committee President, Jim Dissette (who will probably be taking over the duty of blog-posting) and the new Vice President/Secretaries, Lucy Maddox and Carol Schroeder. Our steadfast Treasurer, Karin Cowperthwait, will be maintaining her position. I know that the festival is in creative and capable hands. I look forward to seeing how it will continue to grow and evolve.

Signing out,
Lindsay L.

The Second Annual Chestertown Book Festival

It's finally here! The second annual Chestertown Book Festival begins tomorrow: Friday, October 8. We will begin with a classic: the Friends of the Kent County Public Library Used Book Sale will run from 10:00AM - 5:00PM at the Kent County Public Library. Then join us for the Festival Kick-Off event: An Evening with Michael Dirda from 7:00 - 9:00PM at Bookplate. And you'll want to get to sleep early Friday night so you can rest up for the full day of events we have scheduled for Saturday, October 9! We will have something for just about everyone: kids, animal-lovers, mystery-readers, devoted church-goers, history-buffs, radio-fans, the undiscovered-writer, even the comic-geek (that's a term of endearment, I assure you!). Please take a look at our full schedule of events for more details. You can have a look online or print it out. Either way, don't miss out on this weekend of book fun!