Michelle Stimpson and Eric Jerome Dickey among the authors at the eleventh annual National Black Book Festival in Houston, October 25-27
HOUSTON — The eleventh annual National Black Book Festival (NBBF) is scheduled for October 25–27, 2018, in Houston and is sponsored by Cushcity.com, one of the leading Web sites promoting African-American literature. The event attracts a wide array of authors, publishers, book clubs, libraries, and individual readers from the Southwest United States and nationwide.
The 2018 event will feature corporate and publisher booths; author exhibits; a children’s festival; featured author discussions and signings; live entertainment; an evening reception, two breakfasts and one luncheon, as well as a food court; workshops and seminars; and a book club meet and greet.
Participating authors represent a wide range of genres, from beauty and health to business and leadership, from children’s literature to poetry, including Michelle Stimpson, Eric Jerome Dickey, Dr. LaShonda Jackson-Dean, William Gordon, Mary E. Evans, Marcus Haynes, Susane Lavallais Boykins, Tyrone Gibbs Jr., Sharon Session-Thomas, Cedric Davis, Nicole Williams, Terrica Smith, and Jamal Shakur.
Seminars and workshops include Social Media 101, The How-Tos of Self-Publishing Your Book, Bringing Out the Book in You, Get in, get out! Learning the Language of Your Feelings, Black Votes Matter, and The Art of Blending Families and Co-Parenting Q&A Session.
All events will be held at Fallbrook Church, 12512 Walters Rd., in Northwest Houston, beginning with a Welcome to Houston reception at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 25. General admission is free but the reception and each meal event require a ticket purchased in advance. Tickets may be purchased online: www.nationalblackbookfestival.com/eventtickets.htm
The host hotel for this eleventh annual NBBF is the Sheraton North Houston; rooms are $89.00 each night. NBBF will provide complimentary shuttle service to and from the Sheraton daily. A list of hotels close to the venue can be found online: nationalblackbookfestival.com/hotels.htm
For more information, please see the NBBF website at www.nationalblackbookfestival.com or contact them via e-mail at info@nationalblackbookfestival.com.
(Information from organization’s press release)
Charlene Howell to be honored, Lawrence Wright to be featured speaker at annual Friends of the Dallas Public Library gala
DALLAS — The annual Friends of the Dallas Public Library (FODPL) gala takes place in O’Hara Hall at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library on Thursday, October 25 beginning at 6:30 p.m. Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose latest book explains Texas to the world, will be the featured speaker at this year’s gala.
Wright, who grew up in Dallas and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower, the definitive story of the rise of al-Qaeda. His ten books and four plays have explored religion, Scientology, Middle East peacemaking, twins, and Nicaraguan dictator Manuel Noriega. Wright’s latest bestseller is God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State, which weaves memoir, history, humor, and politics into a fascinating look at our state. “It’s a testament to Wright’s formidable storytelling skills that a reader will encounter plenty of information without ever feeling lost,” said the New York Times.
The gala will also honor Charlene Howell, a longtime champion of libraries and literacy in Dallas, with the May Dickson Exall Award. The award’s namesake campaigned for the establishment of the Dallas Public Library in 1899, was its first president, and hosted art exhibitions in the library that led to the founding of the Dallas Museum of Art.
The annual banquet benefits FODPL, the nonprofit organization that has raised financial support and advocated for Dallas’ twenty-nine libraries and their educational programs since 1950, when twenty-three citizens decided to “hold the City of Dallas accountable to expand and improve” the Dallas Public Library system, according to the FODPL website.
In 2016, FODPL partnered with the Dallas Public Library to present the Dallas Book Festival, featuring over one hundred national, regional, and local authors with 4,000 in attendance. The same year FODPL, along with Parkland Hospital, launched Books For Dallas Babies, which provides a copy of the bilingual book Read To Me/Vamos a Leer, to every new baby born at Parkland.
Other programs include ELL (English Language Learning) and GED classes, preschool story times, the Mayor’s Summer Reading Challenge, and Storytellers Without Borders. All of these programs, initiatives, and events are free to the public. This year FODPL became a Crystal Charities beneficiary with over $750,000 in funding for the soon-to-be-built Vickery Meadow library.
For more information and to become a member of FODPL, visit their website at www.fodpl.org.
(Information from organization’s press release and website)
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