Annual Louisiana Book Festival returns this fall

The 11th annual Louisiana Book Festival, a celebration of readers, writers and their books, returns Nov. 1 at the State Library of Louisiana, the State Capitol, Capitol Park Museum and neighboring streets in downtown Baton Rouge.
The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and feature presentations by local and national bestselling writers, panel discussions, activities for children and teens, live music and food, according to the news release from of office of Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne. The 2013 festival attracted nearly 30,000 attendees, the release stated.
This year’s festival will feature author presentations on “Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story,” by Rick Bragg; “Life after Life,” by Jill McCorkle; “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” by Charles M. Blow; “Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home,” by James Carville and Mary Matalin; and the children’s book “Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies,” by Cokie Roberts.
Other participating authors and poets include Natalie Baszile, Clifton Crais, Sally Asher, Legs McNeil, Susan Mustafa, Gary Krist, Ernest Gaines, Ava Leavell Haymon, Michael A. Ross, Laura McNeal, Earl Swift, Darrell Bourque and many others. For a complete list and biographies of the more than 200 authors and participants, visit LouisianaBookFestival.org.
The Book Festival cooking tent includes demonstrations by chefs and cookbook authors such as Daniel Shumski and Anne Byrn.
A variety of writing WordShops are scheduled for the day before the festival, including a fiction writing session led by author Jill McCorkle (Fellowship of Southern Writers) and a teen writing session on experimental writing by author Mark Dunn. Descriptions of all WordShops as well as registration and fee information are available at the festival website.
For more information or to volunteer, visit LouisianaBookFestival.org. Also look for Book Festival updates on Facebook and Twitter.