The AJC Decatur Book Festival presented by DeKalb Medical, the largest independent book festival in the nation, held their official press launch yesterday at Eddie’s Attic. Executive Director Daren Wang and Program Director Terra Elan McVoy spoke to an excited and supportive audience about a variety of new events for 2012 and an amazing list of authors already committed to coming to Decatur this coming Labor Day weekend. As it is impossible to list all the highlights in this space, what follows is just a taste. More information is available at the DBF website. More photos of the press launch are available here.

Keynote Address
Emory University has become a major sponsor of the festival this year. The keynote is moving to Emory’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. Emory professor Natasha Trethewey was just named Poet Laureate of the United States of America. As such, it is kismet that the keynote speaker will be Natasha Trethewey. Ms. Trethewey will be launching a new collections of poems, Thrall.

Authors
Meg Cabot is best known around my house for her YA and children’s books, but she is also a successful writer of adult fiction. Her newest is Size 12 and Ready to Rock: A Heather Wells Mystery.
Michael Connelly, who graced the very first DBF, is returning this year. One of the top authors of crime fiction in the country, Mr. Connelly has won just about every single honor awarded to mystery writers.
Adam Goodheart has been contributing to a stunningly superb series in the New York Times. “Disunion” follows events of The Civil War and puts them in a broader context that gives the reader a different lens through which to view America’s defining conflict throughout the war’s 150th anniversary. 1861: The Civil War Awakening is his first book.
Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel, The Night Circus, is one of the most talked about books of the past year.
Julie Otsuka is an outstanding historical fiction author and a National Book Award finalist. When the Emperor was Divine and last year’s The Buddah in the Attic have both been highly acclaimed.
Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and also of Emory, will be discussing The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.

I could go on and on and on, but I can’t. DBF will be regularly updating this list of authors.

New Tracks
Southern Issues (the Atlanta track has been expanded)
The Environmental Track (noting that 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the 150th anniversary of the death of Henry David Thoreau)

Fun Fundraisers

Book the Brick! is back for its second year. That’s where you can bid for an hour with an author at a table outside Brick Store Pub. A signed book and a round of beverage are also included. The auction benefits the Decatur Education Foundation’s youth literacy programs. Participating authors will be announced later.
Little Free Libraries Auction is a new and rather impressive fundraiser. The Patch posted about these a while back, and they sure seem like a cool concept. A dozen, featuring paintings by local artists, will be open for bid at a silent auction. Details to follow.

Miscellaneous Cool New Things
Acoustic Music Stage on Sunday on the West Court Square
Free bicycle valet parking!

Children’s Stuff
So much that it will get its own post in a couple of weeks.

One More Thing
Bookzilla formally announced that it is running for president of the United States. To the surprise of no one, it is seeking the nomination of the Green Party.

 

This Week

Claire Cook, author of Wallflower in Bloom, Thursday, June 21st,  6:30 pm, Savannah College of Art and Design’s Savannah College of Art and Design‘s Ivy Hall, free.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., author of Freeman, Monday, June 25th, 7 pm, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, free.

Sam Bracken, author of My Orange Duffel Bag: A Journey to Radical Change, Monday, June 25th, 7:15 pm, Decatur Library Auditorium, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story, Tuesday, June 26th, Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free. FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED — THIS IS A MAJOR EVENT — DOORS OPEN AT 6 PM.

Alexandra Fuller, author of Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Wednesday, June 27th, 7 pm, Margaret Mitchell House, sponsored by the Atlanta History Center, $5 for members, $10 for nonmembers.