Tag: WV Book Festival

Featured Authors For 2022 West Virginia Book Festival Announced

The 2020 West Virginia Book Festival will be held on October 21 and 22 and will feature presentations from bestselling national authors, local and regional authors, writing workshops, family activities, a literary marketplace, and the annual Used Book Sale.

A reader’s favorite is returning to the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center this fall. In-person activities have been canceled the last few years because of the pandemic.

The 2020 West Virginia Book Festival will be held on October 21 and 22 and will feature presentations from bestselling national authors, local and regional authors, writing workshops, family activities, a literary marketplace, and the annual Used Book Sale. All events and programs are free and open to the public.

This year’s featured speakers will be:

  • New York Times bestselling fantasy author V.E. Schwab; 
  • mystery novelist C.J. Box; 
  • novelist Elin Hilderbrand; 
  • author, columnist, and public speaker Deesha Philyaw; 
  • and children’s author and illustrator Marc Brown.

Victoria “V.E.” Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, the Villains series, the Cassidy Blake series and the international bestseller The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Her work has received critical acclaim, translated into over two dozen languages, and optioned for television and film. First Kill – a Young Adult vampire series based on Schwab’s short story of the same name – is currently in the works at Netflix.

C. J. Box is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels including the Joe Pickett series. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, two Barry Awards, and the 2010 Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Award for fiction. Over ten million copies of his books have been sold in the U.S. and abroad and they’ve been translated into 27 languages. Box is a Wyoming native and has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a small-town newspaper reporter and editor, and he owned an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie.

Elin Hilderbrand is the author of twenty-eight novels, including the forthcoming The Hotel Nantucket (June 14, 2022). Elin is the proud mother of three, a dedicated Peloton rider, an aspiring book influencer, and an enthusiastic at-home cook (follow her on Instagram @elinhilderbrand to watch her Cringe Cooking Show). She is also a seven-year breast cancer survivor.

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church, and is being adapted for television by HBO Max. Deesha is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.

Marc Brown is one of the most prominent names in children’s literature. Author of the bestselling Arthur books, as well as the creator of the six-time Emmy Award–winning animated Arthur series on PBS (with 25 Emmy nominations), Brown is a household name and has been entertaining generations of young readers with his relatable stories featuring Arthur the Aardvark. Over 65 million copies of his Arthur books have been sold, and in recent years, Brown has illustrated such award-winning and critically acclaimed picture books as Wild About Books, Born to Read, ZooZical!, and Wild About You! His latest book, In New York, introduces children to the city he now calls home.

The West Virginia Book Festival is made possible by its charter presenters, The Kanawha County Public Library, The Library Foundation of Kanawha County, Inc., The West Virginia Humanities Council and The Charleston Gazette-Mail. Sponsors for this year’s festival are West Virginia Public Broadcasting, The West Virginia Library Commission, The Center for the Book, The Marshall University Foundation, The Friends of The Library, and TC Energy Foundation.

All activities are free and open to the public. For more information visit www.wvbookfestival.org.

Best-Selling Author James Patterson To Speak At West Virginia Book Festival

The best-selling author of all time will be at the West Virginia Book Festival this weekend. 

Credit Courtesy photo
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James Patterson will speak at the West Virginia Book Festival on Saturday, October 5.

James Patterson explained in an interview that he hasn’t always been a good public speaker, but he has improved over the years. Before becoming an author, he had a successful career in advertising. 

“When I got hired, the guy that hired me said that I was the shyest person he had ever interviewed. And part of the way I got over that and became a pretty decent public speaker is to tell stories. I just tell story after story after story and if Mayor Goodwin is cool, we will get people laughing and they’ll find out some stuff and I’m not about selling my books. I’m more about, you know, getting people reading,” Patterson said. 

Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin was scheduled to moderate Patterson’s presentation, but has had to cancel. Patterson’s talk is scheduled in the Coliseum at 3 p.m. on Saturday during the West Virginia Book Festival.

Patterson gets dozens of requests for appearances and many offer him large speaking fees. Patterson said the West Virginia Book Festival’ s invitation stood out.

“The approach was great. They said the right kinds of things. Libraries are a big deal for me and getting kids reading and getting the adults reading is huge,” he said. 

Reading is important for Patterson personally, too, but he has so many projects that he doesn’t have as much time to read as he used to. He said he has 33 live projects in his office right now. That said, he is still in the middle of a couple books. 

“I used to be a three or four book a week person. I just read a book “What it takes” by Stephen Schwarzman. He founded Blackstone (one of the largest private equity groups in the world), which is which is pretty cool. I’m reading a Robert Cray mystery. Jason Reynolds is a kids writer I like. I’m reading ‘Ghost’ right now,” Patterson said. 

Patterson is a big advocate for children’s reading programs. He created a program called ReadKiddoRead that helps parents find interesting books for their children. 

“A lot of people don’t know I write kids books, but I do and I love it. I think they’re actually my best books. And our mission at Jimmy books, which may sound simple, but I think it’s actually pretty smart, is when a kid finishes a Jimmy book to say ‘please give me another book,’ as opposed to ‘I don’t like to read’,” he said.   

As one of the most successful authors in the world, Patterson said he makes an effort to return that success to the community. 

“We have actually 450 scholarships for teachers. We do a thing with scholastic for another couple of million for classroom libraries. I think we had 112,000 teachers ask us for help. I think we helped 18,000. My mother was a teacher for I don’t know, 192 years so that’s sort of in my blood,” he said. 

Listen to an additional Q&A with James Patterson. 

To get a book signed by James Patterson at the festival this weekend, you need to show up early. He is on a tight schedule and only 100 ticket holders will be able to meet him. 

To receive a ticket, you must purchase either “Killer Instinct” or his children’s book “Max Einstein: Rebels with a Cause” at the West Virginia Book Company booth.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting is a sponsor of the festival, which runs from from 10 a.m. -8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. 

There will be a marketplace where local authors will sell their books, along with the used book sale and writing workshops. Other authors that will make presentations include: Salina Yoon, Orson Scott Card, Anthony Harkins, Meredith McCarroll and Denise Keirnan. 

To qualify to have Patterson sign your book, doors for the ticket line will open at 7 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5. Patterson’s presentation is at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Patterson will only sign one approved title per person; personalization and photographs are not permitted. A ticket and an approved title are required to enter the signing. 

In addition, at the Kanawha County Public Library’s table in the Marketplace, you can enter into a drawing for a ticket. The winners will be announced before James Patterson’s presentation in the Coliseum. If you win the drawing, you must purchase either James Patterson’s “Killer Instinct” or “Max Einstein: Rebels with a Cause” at the West Virginia Book Company booth.

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