The Capital BookFest is this weekend, Counting all mics at the store and the downtown Public Library, there will five (5) stages running currently, featuring the likes of poets Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez, Rumi’s translator Coleman Barks, local stars like Bret Lott, Josephine Humphreys, Mary Alice Monroe, Nathalie Dupree, and Gary Smith (SI Sportswriter), and, for us aging hipsters and their toddler children: Roscoe Orman, better known as Gordon from Sesame Street.
The first 1,000 people will get a gift bag with a free children’s book. Like story hours? The CBF’s Kidszone will feature 11 authors in a row reading their picture books.
This is easily the biggest, most exciting literary festival Charleston has ever put on, sure to become an annual event. Absolutely free.
The signings at Blue Bike are listed below, and you can check out the downtown Public Library’s lineup here.
10:40a.m. – 11:20 a.m. Panel: The Sights and Tastes of Charleston!
Holly Herrick, The Charleston Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Heart of the Old South
Ida Becker, Charleston Icons 50 Symbols of the Holy City
Host: Emily Abedon, Freelance Journalist
11:30p.m. – 12:15 p.m. Talk
Cathy Forrester, At Home Charleston
Dianne J. Shaver & Suzette Latsko, Bride’s Advisor Charleston
Host: Emily Abedon, Freelance Journalist
12:20 p.m. – 1:10p.m. Talk
Gary Smith, Beyond the Game and Going Deep
Erik Calonius, The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy that Set its Sails
Host: Christopher Chambers, Novelist & Essayist
1:20. – 2:10p.m. Reading/Talk
Beth Webb Hart, Love, Charleston: A Novel
Anthony Varallo, Out Loud
Host: Marjory Wentworth, SC Poet Laureate
2:25p.m. – 3:20p.m. Talk
Donna Ebron, New Kid on the Block
Carol Mackey, Sistergirl Devotionals
Dr. Anita Davis-DeFoe, A Woman’s Guide to Soulful Living: Seven Keys to Life and Work Success
Host: Dr. Patricia Lessance, Director, Avery Center
3:30p.m. – 4:15p.m. Talk
Cleo Scott-Brown, Witness to the Truth
Batt Humphreys, Dead Weight
Host: Tinesha Davis, Novelist
4:30p.m. – 5:10 p.m. Poetry Reading
Bryan Penberthy, Lucktown
Deanna Nikaido, Voice Like Water: Love Poems
Host: Carol Ann Davis, Poet & Director, Creative Writing, CofC
5:20p.m. – 6:00p.m. Poetry Reading
Linda Annas Ferguson, Dirt Sandwich
Susan Laughter Meyers, Keep and Give Away: poems
Host: Kwame Alexander
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Bowman Gray will sign copies of his book of photography, which is set to James Allen’s As A Man Thinketh, at Blue Bike on Sat. Jan 15, 1 – 3 pm. Allen’s book, published in 1902, is a classic book on self-examination. Gray’s edition couples his own color photographs with Allen’s timeless advice to produce an inspirational book. Read more about Gray here.
