A comic-strip creator, a grilling guru and a former U.S. Poet Laureate will be among the 45 or so authors at this year's Bookmarks Festival.
Yesterday, Ginger Hendricks, the executive director of the Bookmarks Festival, announced the bulk of the line-up for Winston-Salem's day for all things literary. The authors will include Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the MUTTS comic strip; Fred Thompson, the author of Barbecue Nation and Grillin' with Gas; and poet Billy Collins.
"He is amazing. What do I like about him? Well, he's incredibly sexy," Hendricks, laughing, said of Collins.
"He makes poetry accessible," she said. "He actually came in, and said you can understand a poem. I just find him very user-friendly as a poet."
Other big names are Diana Gabaldon, the author of the bestselling Outlander series that has been described as part romance, part science fiction and part historical fiction, and Zee Edgell, an award-winning Belizean novelist.
Bookmarks -- in its sixth year -- will take place downtown along and around Trade Street from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 11. This will be the festival's second year downtown and will include venues such as the Millennium Center, 5ive and 40rty and Artworks galleries.
About 7,500 people attended last year, Hendricks said, about the same number as attended the 2008 festival at Historic Bethabara Park.
Local and regional authors will include Wake Forest University professors David Coates and Peter Siavelis, the authors of Getting Immigration Right: What Every American Needs to Know; Bonnie Doerr, the author of Island Sting, an environmental thriller for young adults; Erica Eisdorfer, a Chapel Hill book-store manager who wrote a historical novel about a plucky Victorian wet nurse who services England's elite; and aspiring-lawyer-turned-writer Rachel Keener, who started her first book while she was attending WFU law school.
"The biggest thing we're trying to do is reach out to as many different groups in Winston-Salem as possible," Hendricks said. "I mean, we have the poetry … but we also have (race-car driver) Adam Edwards. He and Sharyn McCrumb have written a book about NASCAR."
That novel, by the way, is called Faster Pastor.
For young readers, storyteller Tom Tingle and graphic novelist Ursula Vernon will be making appearances, as well as Irania Macias Patterson, who will read in Spanish and English.
The festival is free. Along with cookbook demonstrations, author readings and Q&A sessions, there will be panel discussions and workshops on such topics as mystery writing.
For more information, go to www
.bookmarksbookfestival.org.
lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com
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