Volunteer Decatur sends in this message…

The Book Festival is Less Than Two Weeks Away – Plenty of Volunteer Openings Still Available

Beginning Friday afternoon, August 29 and running through Sunday, August 31, the festival is Decatur’s largest special event and relies heavily on support from volunteers.
There are many different types of jobs – set-up, working at author venues, merchandise and souvenir sales, and more – so invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers to help. All volunteers receive a free festival t-shirt and a free book coupon to spend at the festival.

Have you already registered with Volunteer Decatur? Click here to see DBF openings: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/?FROM=119321

Haven’t volunteered yet in Decatur? Click here to get started: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=1003453979

Can’t find what you are looking for? Have questions? Please contact the Decatur Visitor and Volunteer Center via email at Volunteer.Decatur@decaturga.com, or call us at 678-615-0915. We are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm. We can find a volunteer opening that will work for you.

Thanks for your interest!

What are your favorite children’s books?  From present day or years past!

This post isn’t brought to you by the Decatur Book Festival, which just highlighted it’s Children and Teen Program slate in a press release.  But it was inspired by it!

The ninth annual Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) will feature a wide range of children and teen’s programming, including designated Children and Teen’s Stages, the third annual Kidnote Address, two festival parades, and a special screening of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival winners.

Children and Teen’s Programming Manager, Diane Capriola — owner of Decatur bookstore Little Shop of Stories — coordinates the children and teen’s programming for the 2014 festival. “It’s so great to be back working on the children and teen’s line-up for DBF,” said Capriola. “This year’s schedule is as exciting and diverse as ever; we will truly have something for every young festivalgoer.”

This year’s Children’s Stage is packed with new and engaging programming. Participating authors and illustrators include: Tom Angleberger, Mac Barnett, Kimberly and James Dean, Angela DiTerlizzi, Tony DiTerlizzi, Jennifer Holm, Molly Idle, Mike Lane, Peter Lerangis, Eric Litwin, Loren Long, Jude Watson, William Wegman, and Deborah Wiles.

This year’s Teen Stage moves to the MARTA Plaza and features some of the best and brightest names in young adult fiction. Participating authors and illustrators include: Adele Griffin, Ellen Hopkins, Kazu Kibuishi, Lauren Myracle, Jandy Nelson, Stephanie Perkins, Andrew Smith, Maggie Stiefvater, and Len Vlahos.

This year’s Kidnote Address will be given by Jon Scieszka, author of the beloved children’s book, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. Scieszka brings his new, middle-grade chapter book, Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor, to Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall on Friday, Aug. 29, at 5 p.m. for this Kidnote Address. No tickets are required, but the event is first come, first seated.

Festival parades will be held on Saturday and Sunday mornings during the weekend event. On Saturday at 9:30 a.m., Music in the Park ATL brings their mission — to experience live music by playing with professional musicians out in the real world — to the “Whistle Blowers Parade” orchestrated and led by Kebbi Williams. Kids of all ages are encouraged to bring whistles, kazoos, and other homemade instruments and join the first march to the Children’s Stage. On Sunday at 11:30 a.m., attendees are invited to dress up as their favorite character from The Wizard of Oz and once again march to the Children’s Stage, where actors from Serenbe Playhouse and puppets from Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts will perform a scene from the beloved story. Guests are invited to congregate on the south lawn of the DeKalb County Courthouse (556 N. McDonough Street) for both parades.

AJC DBF is proud to host a special screening of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival winners at this year’s festival. This annual nationwide contest allows kid filmmakers to create movies retelling the plots of Newbery winning books in 90 seconds or less. The showing will be held at the Decatur Library Stage on Sunday, Aug. 31, at 3:45 p.m.

For more information about AJC DBF’s children and teen’s programming, visit these links:

https://www.decaturbookfestival.com/2014/activities/childrens.php

https://www.decaturbookfestival.com/2014/activities/teens.php

Little Shop of Stories,

Volunteer Decatur sent out this call for Decatur Book Fest volunteers…

It’s Almost Book Festival Time! Lots of Volunteer Openings Available

The Decatur Book Festival is just around the corner. Beginning the afternoon of Friday, August 29 and running through the evening of Sunday, August 31, the festival is Decatur’s largest special event and relies heavily on support from volunteers.  There are many different types of jobs – set-up, working at author venues, merchandise and souvenir sales, and more – so invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers to volunteer. All volunteers receive a free festival t-shirt and a free book coupon to spend at the festival.

Have you already registered with Volunteer Decatur? Click here to see DBF openings: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/?FROM=119321

Haven’t volunteered yet in Decatur? Click here to get started: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=1003453979

Can’t find what you are looking for? Have questions? Please contact the Decatur Visitor and Volunteer Center via email at Volunteer.Decatur@decaturga.com, or call us at 678-615-0915. We are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm. We can find a volunteer opening that will work for you.

Thanks for your interest!

The Decatur Book Festival sent out this announcement this morning…

July 15, 2014 (Atlanta) — The 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) will release the 2014 Keynote Address tickets for sale at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 5. Famed American literary icon Joyce Carol Oates will deliver the Keynote Address at 8 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29 at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts (1700 N. Decatur Road, Suite 251).

Tickets for the Keynote Address are required, free, and limited to two per person. They can be collected by visiting the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts; by calling the Arts at Emory Box Office ); or by visiting www.Tickets.Arts.Emory.edu. Phone and online orders will incur a four dollar processing fee. A limited number of tickets are also available at A Cappella Books, Charis Books & More, Eagle Eye Books, and Little Shop of Stories.

At the Keynote Address, Joyce Carol Oates will launch her new short story collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories. The new collection has been described as “insightful, disturbing, and breathtaking in its lyrical precision,” and is said to display Oates’ “magnificent ability to make visceral the terror, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives.”

Best known for her works of fiction, Oates’ novels include Blonde, a bold reimagining of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe, and We Were the Mulvaneys, which follows the disintegration of an American family in the late 20th Century. Since 1963, 40 of Oates’ works have been included in the New York Times annual list of notable books. Among her many honors are two O. Henry Prizes, two Bram Stoker Awards, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Critics Circle, the Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the PEN Center USA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and The Poets & Writers Distinguished Lifetime Award. In 2010, reflecting the widespread esteem in which her work is held, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

More information about the Keynote Address can be found here:

www.DecaturBookFestival.com/2014/activities/keynote.php.

Photo courtesy of Decatur Book Festival website

The Decatur Book Festival announces…

Famed American literary icon Joyce Carol Oates will deliver the keynote address at the 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) Aug. 29 – 31.

Oates will kick off the ninth annual festival on Friday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m. at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. She will be joined onstage by her biographer and Atlanta resident, Dr. Greg Johnson.

The event will mark the launch of her new short story collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories. The new collection has been described as “insightful, disturbing, and breathtaking in its lyrical precision,” and is said to display Oates’ “magnificent ability to make visceral the terror, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives.”

Best known for her fiction, Oates’ novels include Blonde, a bold reimagining of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe, and We Were the Mulvaneys, which follows the disintegration of an American family in the late 20th Century.

Since 1963, 40 of Oates’ works have been included in the New York Times annual list of notable books. Among her many honors are two O. Henry Prizes, two Bram Stoker Awards, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Critics Circle, the Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the PEN Center USA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and The Poets & Writers Distinguished Lifetime Award. In 2010, reflecting the widespread esteem in which her work is held, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

AJC DBF Executive Director Daren Wang said he is honored to have Joyce Carol Oates as the keynote speaker for this year’s event.

“There are few authors — very, very few — that rise to Joyce Carol Oates’ level of accomplishment. She has created 40 novels, many of them good enough to base an entire career upon, and countless stories, essays, and poems. Instead of listing the major awards she has won, it is much easier to list the one or two she unjustly has not,” asserts Wang. “She does us all a great honor by coming to the Decatur Book Festival, but for me, having grown up less than 20 miles from her hometown of Millersport, NY, her keynoting the festival feels like an odd but wonderful kind of homecoming.”

Following the keynote at Emory on Friday, the AJC DBF will kick off Saturday, Aug. 30 with a children’s parade on the Decatur Square. Events and author presentations will continue in downtown Decatur throughout the weekend. A second children’s parade will start Sunday’s festivities, followed by another full day of author talks and events suited for all ages and interests.

AJC DBF Program Director Philip Rafshoon said he’s especially proud of the distinct, eclectic lineup at this year’s festival.

“Our lineup this year shows DBF’s commitment to showcasing the widest variety of authors and subjects possible. With strong support from publishers and our community, we are, once again, able to provide the region with an unbelievable array of today’s top writers and talent,” said Rafshoon. “I’m extremely proud of our diverse lineup and glad to know that there is going to be something for everyone at this year’s festival.”

Author highlights for the 2014 AJC DBF include:

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