To print! To print!

Our schedule of events for the second annual Chestertown Book Festival is completed! We will begin printing them this weekend and both a web-friendly and print-friendly version will be posted to the festival website by early next week. Keep your eyes peeled!

Getting it together

We are now just 39 days away from the second annual Chestertown Book Festival! By Friday, September 10, we will have a complete schedule of events ready and then we will print them in a tri-fold style brochure and set them loose around the region. In about a week and a half, you will see our colorful posters on bulletin boards and in shop windows, and stacks of festival schedules on the countertops. We have also been working on a billboard to help announce the imminence of this year's festival, as seen in the adjacent photo. But don't worry! We have the logo artist, Paul Hostetler, coming to paint our illustration onto the board. It will look much prettier soon!

In the meantime, here are a few of the events we're especially excited about:

2010 Chestertown Book Festival Kick-Off:

An Evening with Michael Dirda

Author, Washington Post Book World Columnist, Pulitzer prize-winner and general bibliophile, Michael Dirda, opens the festival with an intimate talk about the finer details of a reading and reviewing life. To be followed by wine and cheese reception.

Literary Picture Books for Adults (and Maladjusted Children): The Provocative Space Between Language and Image
Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson of Chestertown-based small press Idiots'Books will read from their catalog of illustrated volumes while discussing the pleasures and challenges of combining pictures and words. Topics will include running a small press, interactive storytelling techniques, and the critical role of the reader in confronting the confounding space between language and image.

Steelworks on the Chesapeake

Sparrows Point was the only American steelworks built on tidewater. Deborah Rudacille, author of Roots of Steel: Boom and Bust in an American Mill Town (Pantheon), talks about the impact of 120 years of steelmaking on the Bay.

Good to the Last Crumb

R. Crumb, founder of the underground comix movement, in conversation with Idiots’Books illustrator and admirer, Robbi Behr. Crumb and Behr will discuss his life's work, the importance of the public library in a community, and field audience questions. Book sale and signing to follow.

Voices of the Chesapeake: Book Fest Radio

Michael Buckley, author of Voices of the Chesapeake and host of “The Sunday Brunch” broadcast on 103.1FM (WRNR), will be recording interviews with Book Festival authors including Ginger Doyel (with the Hon. Lynne A. Battaglia), Vince Gisriel, Jr, Deborah Rudacille, Lenny Rudow, and Fran Severn. Join us to be a part of the live studio audience!

Faith & Inspiration panel discussion:

Finding the Words Through God

Author Terwana Brown will moderate this panel discussion with authors whose books focus on their faith in God and how that faith has inspired them, transformed their lives and their writing. Betty Chambers, author of On the Inspirational Side of Poetry, books I & II. Cathy Jones, author of Unpredictable Stories of Life Experiences Expressed in Poetry. Alishia Louis, author of Woman, Will Thou Be Made Whole: Healing from the Wounds of Divorce. Ciera McQueen, local author of Standing Still. J.L. Price, author of Poetry to Glorify the Father. LaDonna M. Smith, author of I Married Satan.

Humane Habits of Reading

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” –Groucho Marx. The Humane Society of Kent County and author Cynthia P. Gallagher present a discussion of dog breeds based on Gallagher’s books. Gallagher will be donating $5 from every book sold at this event to the Humane Society. Come buy a good book and adopt a good dog!

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

Change of Plans

So, a lot of the things I talked out in the last few blog posts are just not going to work out for us this year. Bombadil, unfortunately, is still on a touring hiatus (we'll miss you guys!). The Book Arts theme previously discussed seems to be losing its momentum (we'll just save that one for another year, I guess). So the small press exhibit is now out of the picture.

But on the brighter side of things, we are starting to get a bit more organized. We now have a working list of about 24 possible events with about 20 different local and regional authors and artists. This is shaping up to match the general goal we set out for ourselves earlier in the year: fewer events and literary guests than last year, but still an impressive number for one and a half days in a small, historic town. I will not reveal any of the authors' names until we have officially confirmed with each one, but I hope to have that information for you very soon.

A Literary Finale of Musical Proportions

Last year, we finished off the festival with a fun and energetic concert for all ages by folk musician and children's book author Barry Louis Polisar (he recently gained more mainstream recognition with his contribution to the soundtrack for the movie Juno). After a few discussions, I think our planning for this year is leaning toward a similar sort of finale performance, but one of a more collaborative nature.

In 2009, our favorite quirky author/artist/bookmaker duo Idiots'Books teamed up with fun, whimsical, experimental, independent-label band Bombadil for a different sort of book project. For Bombadil's newest album Tarpits and Canyonlands, Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson (of Idiots'Books) created the album art and a strange but fitting sort of story that is soundtracked by Bombadil's music. Yes, this album art/story is a real book--another example of the vast and under-appreciated realm of book arts. This album was also released as Volume 22 from Idiots'Books subscription service.

Again I will indulge our hopes for the ideal finale performance for this year: a collaborative musical multimedia performance with Bombadil and Idiots'Books. We would arm storytellers Matthew and Robbi with a projector (possibly their own) and projector screen, and Bombadil could play a soundtrack to the Idiots' interpretation of Tarpits and Canyonlands. I would like to add as a disclaimer, that (again) none of these plans have been confirmed with any of the artists. This is just what we would really, really, really like to happen. We were, in fact, saddened to learn of an illness in the band that has caused them to take a bit of a hiatus from touring to regain their strength. We hope that you will get better soon.

Beginning with a Bang

During last night's monthly meeting of the Chestertown Book Festival Committee, much discussion was devoted to the planning of the 2010 festival's kick-off event. Last year, Friday night's kick-off was a reading given by poet Michael Collier, former Maryland Poet Laureate, at the Bookplate with a delicious wine-and-cheese reception. We would like to have a similar start to the festival weekend this year, as well. And this is the list of potential Friday-night names (Disclaimer: none of these people have actually agreed or been contacted about this event yet!):


1. Michael Dirda: Pulitzer prize-winning book critic and author of many books about books, including An Odyssey in Print: Adventures in the Smithsonian Libraries and, most recently, Classics for Pleasure (2008).

2. Richard Ben Cramer: Local author of multiple New York Times Bestselling nonfiction sports titles, including Joe DiMaggio: A Hero's Life and an upcoming book about baseball player Alex Rodriguez (known as A-Rod).

3. John Barth: Local experimental fiction writer and winner of the National Book Award. Author of many novels and short-story collections, including Lost in the Funhouse, The Book of Ten Nights and a Day and, most recently, The Development (2008).

4. Christopher Tilghman: Celebrated writer of novels and short-story collections set in the Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay region, including In a Father's Place, Roads of the Heart and, most recently, Mason's Retreat (2006).

5. John S.D. Eisenhower: Celebrated Eastern Shore writer of nonfiction history titles, including The Bitter Woods (a definitive study of the Battle of the Bulge) and, most recently, a biography of American president Zachary Taylor (2008).

6. William Blatty: Maryland author of the original story of The Exorcist (upon which the famous horror movie was based). Blatty is also due to have a new book out this year.

So, this is our wishlist. We are hoping that we'll be able to snag one of these amazing authors to kick-off our festival with a reading followed by a cozy wine-and-cheese reception where everyone can mingle and plan their itinerary for the next day. Although it may be a pretty long shot, we also thought it would be absolutely wonderful if we could manage to get the new U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan to grace us with a reading. We're certainly not counting on it, but wouldn't that be something?

Official Call for Authors

ATTENTION LOCAL AUTHORS!


The Chestertown Book Festival Committee is planning the 2010 festival for the evening of Friday, October 8 and all day Saturday, October 9. Participating authors will be hosted at various venues in the downtown Chestertown area for readings, book discussions and signings. We welcome local Eastern Shore authors who were unable to participate in the 2009 festival and those authors that did participate but have published a new book this year. Official author selections will be juried by the Chestertown Book Festival Committee. Interested authors should contact Committee Secretary, Lindsay Lusby at 410-778-3636 or chesbookfest@gmail.com.