Wordy, Nerdy & Thriving

Books don’t grow on trees, but under the live oaks of the Capitol—hold on, I’m getting a call … what’s that?—ahem, books, which come from somewhere unimportant that we won’t get into just now, will be abundant under the live oaks of the Capitol when the Louisiana Book Festival sets up camp on November 2. For the sixteenth year, the daylong devotion to the written word takes over the Capitol and neighboring sites, with booksellers, librarians, publishers, and characters in costume adding a thrilling dimension to the delicate author-reader relationships that make books not objects, but worlds.

The festival’s roster of featured authors and panelists always elicits a squeal, and this year’s names illustrate what a vast range of fascinating literature was freshly inked in recent months. Consider that this one day includes Sarah Broom, whose National Book Award finalist The Yellow House is a memoir on the decline and destruction of her family home in New Orleans East; indefatigable seed saver John Coykendall, whose Preserving Our Roots: My Journey to Save Seeds and Stories, co-authored with Christina Melton, chronicles his decades-long effort to document the heirloom seeds of Washington Parish; Richard Campanella, recipient of this year’s Louisiana Writer Award for his illuminating work on human geography; and Christina Ward, who finds the fingerprints of fat-cats all over our country’s cuisine in American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us to Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O. But this is just one sliver of what awaits. Rouse yourself from your armchair, dog-ear your latest murder mystery, and get thee to the Book Fest.

The sixteenth annual Louisiana Book Festival will be held in and around the State Capitol on November 2, 9 am–4 pm. For a schedule and full list of featured authors and panelists, please visit louisianabookfestival.org.