The 25th Annual Southern Festival of Books
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The familiar marble of downtown Nashville’s Legislative Plaza will come alive this fall in celebration of the written word. The Southern Festival of Books, widely recognized as a fixture of fall in the South, is set to take place Oct. 11-13.
Activities in-and-around the plaza have ramped up in honor of the festival’s momentous 25th anniversary year, allowing festival-goers to experience their favorite authors and stories on a whole new level.
- Housed inside an 18-wheel tractor-trailer parked on Capitol Blvd. for festival weekend, The Digital Bookmobile National Tour will showcase the Tennessee State Library’s free eBook download services. Broadband Internet-connected PCs, high definition monitors, premium sound systems, and a variety of portable media players will give visitors an opportunity to experience multiple platforms.
- Straight from the pages of this popular series, the Wimpy Kid Hard Luck Truck will allow fans to, and grab some Wimpy Kid goodies.
- C-SPAN’s In Your Community Program will allow festival attendees to become part of the coverage while taking a hands-on tour of their multimedia demonstration center. Traveling around the nation to collect unique stories, C-SPAN will also be filming sessions and airing live from the Festival all weekend on BookTV.
The festival will feature three stages geared towards a few of our most beloved audiences:
- The Youth Stage will highlight storytellers, musicians, poets, songwriters, hands-on crafts and classic book characters to encourage reading, creating and sharing stories, and singing together for kids and kids-at-heart alike.
- The Café Stage will reflect Music City’s claim to fame, featuring a stellar lineup of popular musicians and local favorites.
- In a tribute to the state of Tennessee’s rich literary heritage, the Ch. 16 Stage will feature local Tennessee writers, readers and performers.
Once your creativity is satisfied and your tummy starts rumbling, enjoy refreshments from a wide variety of Nashville’s famed food trucks in the Charlotte Avenue Food Truck line-up including: Yayo's OMG, Bolton's, Deg Thai, Slow & Low BBQ, Grilled Cheeserie, Provence Breads & Café, Jeni's Ice Cream, and new to the scene, Crepe A Diem.
As you navigate through the wide variety of Plaza activities, browse the more than 50 exhibitor booths from all across the country that line the plaza perimeter, including the New York Times, the Oxford American: The Southern Magazine of Good Writing and many more.
Before ducking into some of the more than 150 author sessions throughout the weekend, be sure to visit the Parnassus Books book sales tent to purchase books from our 2013 Festival authors, with an opportunity to get them signed after each session. A portion of the proceeds from book sales benefits the Festival.
Visit http://www.humanitiestennessee.org/programs/southern-festival-books-celebration-written-word for more information on the 25th anniversary event. For updates on all of these exciting activities and more, connect with the Festival on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
About the Southern Festival of Books
The Southern Festival of Books is presented by Humanities Tennessee, a non-profit organization that promotes humanities education across Tennessee. The festival is proudly sponsored by the National Endowment for Humanities, Metro Nashville Arts Commission, Ingram Content Group, Dollar General Literacy Foundation, Nashville Scene, AWC Family Foundation, Nashville Public Library, Nashville Predators Foundation, Parnassus Books of Nashville, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Memorial Foundation, and the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.
