Celebrate the pure joy of reading and make plans today to attend the Fox Cities Book Festival, which will be held April 14-19, 2009.

The festival will connect readers and writers and offer an opportunity for all of us to celebrate the literary arts. It will also reach across all generations and genres with activities spanning the entire Fox Cities.

 

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For more information, contact Tammy Homan, Willems Marketing, at 920-831-6580, ext. 26 or tammy@willemsmarketing.com

Samantha Chang To Return Home for 2009 Fox Cities Book Festival
Michael Perry, Sherman Alexie also among big names for second annual festival

APPLETON (For Release, 5 p.m. on October 1, 2008) - After an inaugural event last year that far exceeded initial expectations, organizers of the Fox Cities Book Festival announced Wednesday that the event bringing readers and writers together will become an annual mainstay on the local arts calendar, including an expanded six-day run from April 14-19 in 2009.

In an announcement on the Lawrence University campus that also doubled as a thank you to the inaugural event's volunteers and donors, Book Fest organizers said they again expect nearly 40 authors will participate in readings and book chats this coming April. The 2009 Book Festival will again feature a Saturday Book Fair showcasing publishers, local and regional authors and their works.

Though more authors will be announced as they are finalized, organizers confirmed that several big names from the literary world will take part in the 2009 Festival. Headliners include Appleton native Samantha Chang, rising star Sherman Alexie, Wisconsin-favorite Michael Perry and popular novelist Elizabeth Berg along with Philip Gulley, David Giffels, A. Manette Ansay, Sandra Kring and British poet Simon Armitage.

Chang's appearance at the 2009 Book Festival is sponsored by UW-Fox Valley and is in conjunction with the UW-Fox Valley Lecture and Fine Arts Series. Chang will be the Festival's headline author on Friday night, April 17. Perry is making a repeat appearance at the Fox Cities Book Festival, having appeared last year in front of a standing-room-only audience at the Chilton Public Library. Perry will headline three different nights, making several Festival appearances at Fox Cities libraries between April 14-16 as part of the 2009 Fox Cities Reads program. Alexie, a noted Native American author and humorist, will headline the Festival on Saturday, April 18.
Also appearing for a second straight year is Sandra Kring, a Sheboygan author who is also on the literary fast track thanks to her latest book being selected as Walmart Book Club's Read of
the Month for October. Kring was on hand for the Festival reception and spoke to attendees about the importance of such festivals.

"Book Festivals are an extension of the ancient practice of communities gathering around its storytellers to garner knowledge and wisdom and to be entertained. Today, written words are the storyteller's voice, and the heart and mind, the 'listener's' ears. What was lost in sharing the stories voice to ear is recaptured in book festivals. How wonderful to gather as a community, writer and reader alike, to celebrate our love for stories," said Kring.
Honorary Chairpersons for the 2009 Book Fest are Rev. Will and Ruth Bloedow. The Bloedows served as major sponsors and key volunteers for the first Fox Cities Book Festival and the two are avid readers themselves who have supported literacy and local library programming for many years.

"A community book festival presents a buffet so delicious you have to jump in and sample everything! Authors you hadn't heard of quickly become favorites and you want a second helping. Each author's voice, spoken or written, feeds us, and after the meal the conversation continues-right up to the present. Our lives were enriched by the connections made at the festival last year," said Ruth Bloedow. "Meeting authors in the company of Fox Cities neighbors previously unknown to us, attending events with family and friends, and engaging in dialogue in a cafe conversation prior to the Festival were experiences we know we will repeat this coming April. The Fox Cities Book Festival will broaden, strengthen and keep our communities connected for years to come," said Rev. Will Bloedow.

Tasha Saecker, director of the Menasha Public Library, will serve as president of the Festival board for the next year as it oversees the 2009 event.

"Last year's Book Festival truly did exceed our expectations and many attendees expressed their interest in seeing it become an annual event," Saecker said. "After talking with a number of our donors and volunteers, we decided to push full-steam-ahead with an annual festival."
Saecker said the inaugural Fox Cities Book Festival attracted 75 sponsors and nearly as many volunteers. She said organizers anticipate the need for more than 100 volunteers in 2009 to
Fox Cities Book Festival to become annual event/page three accommodate more authors and programs. Nearly all of the Festival's events will continue to be free to the public, she said, as long as sponsors continue to support the event.

Judy Owen, chairperson for the Festival's Authors Committee, said the 2009 event will again feature a variety of local and statewide authors to complement the national headliners. In addition, a number of ancillary programs are being developed to round out the Festival. She said the roster of authors will be updated regularly on the Festival's web site at www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org.