Texas and Other Book Festivals

One of my young read­ers leaned across the table, and intent­ly watched me sign her book. “I love book fes­ti­vals!” she fair­ly gushed. “Do you?”

The Texas Book Fes­ti­val was begun twen­ty years ago by Lau­ra Bush (a for­mer librar­i­an) and at the time, the Governor’s wife. She went on to cre­ate the Nation­al Book Fes­ti­val on the same mod­el. Hav­ing recent­ly attend­ed the TBF, I enjoyed myself great­ly. Great crowds. Great ener­gy. Attend­ing the Nation­al Fes­ti­val a few years ago (then held on the Mall)  was enthralling. Thou­sands of book lovers of all ages engag­ing with writ­ers of many kinds, the balmy air filled with a per­va­sive sense of joy and dis­cov­ery. No doubt about the place of the book in Amer­i­can soci­ety there!

When this writer goes to such a gath­er­ing there is the mean­ing­ful hon­or of being invit­ed, plus the fun of engag­ing with read­ers, face to face. There is also learn­ing going on: what is it about a par­tic­u­lar book that held a par­tic­u­lar reader’s atten­tion? There is too, the vital oppor­tu­ni­ty to thank librar­i­ans and teach­ers for the work they do, for with­out them, my books may be on shelves, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly in the hands of read­ers. Final­ly, but not least, being at such con­vo­ca­tions, means meet­ing writer and pub­lish­er friends who you some­times see only at such events. Not infre­quent­ly, one makes new writer friends, too.

Let me tell you, writers—never mind their pre­sumed love of isolation—love to get togeth­er. They catch up, share fam­i­ly sto­ries, trav­el tales, and more than any­thing else, gos­sip. But then, it should be said, lit­er­a­ture is real­ly gos­sip, just fine-tuned. And a book fes­ti­val is a great place to gath­er it all in.

Do I love them? Oh, yes!