From a DBF press release…

“The Council of Dads” Tells the Story of the Author’s Plans For His Children After A Cancer Diagnosis

May 7, 2010 (Decatur) —Bruce Feiler, the best-selling author of “The Council of Dads,” will speak at 7 p.m. May 25 at Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College in an event presented by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival (AJC DBF), and sponsored by DeKalb Medical.

Hosted by Agnes Scott College and the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, Feiler will be in town days after the publication of his latest book and an appearance on the Today Show.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to present Feiler and give readers in Decatur and metro Atlanta the chance to hear his story,” Daren Wang, Executive Director of the Festival, said.

The author of nine nonfiction books including “Walking the Bible,” “Abraham,” and “America’s Prophet,” Feiler is one of only a handful of writers to have four consecutive New York Times nonfiction bestsellers in the last decade. He is also the writer/presenter of the PBS miniseries “Walking the Bible.”

Cheryl Iverson, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at DeKalb Medical, said, “Presenting the actual Festival over Labor Day weekend has been quite rewarding, and having the chance to be involved with year-round AJC DBF events and wonderful authors such as Bruce Feiler is a tremendous opportunity.”

He was a young father when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. He instantly worried what his daughters’ lives would be like without him. “Would they wonder who I was? Would they wonder what I thought? Would they yearn for my approval, my love, my voice?”

Three days later he came up with a stirring idea of how he might give them that voice. He would reach out to six men from all the passages in his life, and ask them to be present in the passages in his daughters’ lives. And he would call this group “The Council of Dads.”

“I believe my daughters will have plenty of opportunities in their lives,” he wrote to these men. “They’ll have loving families. They’ll have each other. But they may not have me. They may not have their dad. Will you help be their dad?”

Feiler is a graduate of Yale and Cambridge Universities. He is a frequent contributor to NPR, CNN, and Fox News. The native of Savannah lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and twin daughters.

The AJC Decatur Book Festival will celebrate its fifth year of bringing a wide variety of authors and events to the Decatur Square Labor Day weekend, Sept. 3-5, 2010.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical is the largest independent book festival in the country and the fourth largest overall. In 2009, more than 300 authors and tens of thousands of festival goers crowded the historic downtown Decatur Square to enjoy book signings, author readings, panel discussions, an interactive children’s area, live music, parades, cooking demonstrations, poetry slams, writing workshops, and more. For more information visit www.decaturbookfestival.com.