An Inaugural Oklahoma Festival Celebrates Books, Authors, and Readers – Susan McVey
Authors, poets, illustrators, and readers of all ages will convene at Oklahoma City’s Boathouse District on Saturday, October 20 for the inaugural Oklahoma Book Festival. More than 50 writers, including national bestselling authors, will be in attendance at the event. The Book Festival will begin at 10 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. There is no charge to attend thanks to the generosity of sponsors. Jane Jayroe Gamble and Bob Burke are the honorary chairs for the event.
Patterned after the annual National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., Oklahoma’s literary gathering will be filled with presentations, author panels, story times, craft activities, poetry readings, entertainment, book sales, and book signings.
Headliners for the festival include David Grann, author of the New York Times bestseller, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI; Edgar Award-winning mystery and suspense novelists Meg Gardiner (Into the Black Nowhere and Unsub) and Lou Berney (November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone); and illustrator Jerry Bennett, whose clients include Stan Lee, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Mattel and Dreamworks.
Bennett’s participation has attracted the attention of two Oklahoma Star Wars clubs. Members of the JediOKC fan and collectors club and the local 501st Legion costuming organization will participate in children’s storytimes and other activities.
As an event for the whole family, the festival will feature children’s authors and plenty of books for young readers. Award-winning children’s authors include Tammi Sauer (Knock Knock and Chicken Dance), Gwendolyn Hooks (Go Fish and Tiny Stitches), Cynthea Liu (Gus Loves Cinderella and Bike On, Bear), former Governor Frank Keating (Abraham, Theodore, and George), and author/illustrator Hannah Harrison (My Friend Maggie and Bernice Gets Carried Away).
Popular Young Adult authors will also join the festivities. The lineup includes Joelle Charbonneau, New York Times bestselling author of The Testing and Dividing Eden series, Oklahoma Choctaw Tim Tingle (How I Became a Ghost and When a Ghost Talks, Listen), and Alton Carter of The Boy Who Carried Bricks and Aging Out fame.
Authors of hot titles in the news will also be appearing, New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo (A Gathering of Secrets and the Kate Burkholder mystery series), and award-winning non-fiction writer Devon A. Mihesuah (Ned Christie: The Creation of an Outlaw and Cherokee Hero).
Sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and the Oklahoma Center for the Book with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which helped attract other sponsors for the festival.
Other sponsors are 110 Events, Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the Chickasaw Nation, Inasmuch, attorney Laurie Williams, author and historian Bob Burke. Love’s, and the Pioneer Library System. Media sponsors are The Oklahoman, Oklahoma Gazette, and News 9.
Organizers hope this event will become the largest literary festival in the state. Plan to attend the first ever Oklahoma Book Festival and make it an annual family event.