Book News: 2013 Gaithersburg Book Festival and More
The Gaithersburg Book Festival -- this year on Saturday, May 18, 2013 -- started out as a small gathering with local vendors and authors that has grown over the years to include some nationally recognized names. The 12 finalists for the teen short story contest the festival holds have been selected, and their pieces will be judged this year by best-selling novelist, Caroline Leavitt. If you want to check out the entries, go here. But fear not, there are things for adults as well, including writing workshops sponsored by The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Md., and those workshops will take up to 20 students beginning with sign-ups on the day of the festival. I'm really looking forward to meeting Tara Conklin, author of The House Girl (my review), in person. And everyone has been raving about The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins, and she will be there ... not to mention Tatjana Soli has a new book out, The Forgetting Tree, and I just loved her book The Lotus Eaters. The list of authors is growing daily, and I really hope that Beth Kephart is one of them, but I haven't heard one way or another and I know she's incredibly busy. In terms of poetry, Sarah Arvio will be there as well. This year's festival is shaping up to be another wonderful event, thanks to the hard-working volunteers and the city of Gaithersburg.
The 2013 National Poetry Month Blog Tour is upon us. I hope that everyone will take the chance to check out the schedule and offer up a favorite poem, poetry of their own, or poetry vlogs/vidoes and collection reviews during April. I'm really looking forward to the tour stops that are already scheduled, but I would love to see some more blogs sign up. April 5, 7, 11, 13, 15 are free at the beginning of the tour and I would love to see some volunteers for those dates. Just drop me a comment or an email about what date you'd like. Thanks to everyone who has signed up thus far. It is much appreciated. I hope everyone has a great weekend, and please do share any book-related news you are excited about.