Fun (book) Festival

A monster, music, creative people, writing workshops and a bunch o' books.  Recipe for confusion or recipe for success?  Success, of course!  Such is the stuff that the AJC Decatur Book Festival is made of.  No snails and puppy dog tails here, but you may rub shoulders with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and even share a drink with PASTE magazine's books editor, Charles McNair.

Crowd building for poetry slam at Java Monkey

My husband Dewey and I have been enjoying the fruits of the Atlanta Journal Constitution's labor for three years in a row.  It's a given--every Labor Day weekend will be time well-spent in Decatur, Georgia, for three days of literary fun and exploration.

Between Bookzilla, the festival's monstrously large mascot, and Monday, the working man and woman's day off, are:

• Friday's writing workshops, which are free and open to the public.  In the morning, there are sessions at SCAD's Atlanta facility, and in the afternoon, workshops and a keyonote at Decatur's Agnes Scott College.
• Saturday is filled with talks, readings, book signings and other creative literary events, such as Atlanta's story-telling group, Carapace, offering 3 story-tellers around a theme like 20-eleven's "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Wolf or singer-songwriter, Rodney Crowell's performance of songs from his collaboration CD of songs written with writer, Mary Karr.
• Sunday is a slower day of surprises and more of what you experienced on Saturday, if you have room to absorb more.
• Oh, and then there are the delicious and refreshing breaks drinking beer in any of the town square's inviting and cozy eating spots.

THIS, my friends, is the festival for all of the cool, fun-loving book nerds.  The organizers are so creative.  For example, in this election year you can even vote for Bookzilla, the festival's mascot, for president!