Decade of page-turners – Louisiana Book Festival returns with diverse lineup and one strong librarian

The Louisiana Book Festival is always a quintessential local experience, with beautiful fall weather outside and the grand historical interiors at the State Capitol. Of course, there’s food and music, not to mention books, authors, more books, readers of every age … and did we mention books? This year marks the 10th anniversary of the festival, and the schedule is overflowing with authors, musicians, artists and chefs. “Having all of this Louisiana literary talent together this year will highlight why the Louisiana Book Festival was named one of the best books festivals in the world,” says State Librarian Rebecca Hamilton.

At louisianabookfestival.org, you can find the full schedule for the Nov. 2 event. Below, we’ve provided some notable events you’ll want to take in during the festival.

New to the festival this year, Josh Hanagarne is a librarian at the Salt Lake City Public Library who initially took up strength training as a means to “throttle” the symptoms of his Tourette Syndrome. His popular blog about strength training and reading grew into a recent book, The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette’s, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family.

A towering giant at 6’7”, Hanagarne saw becoming a librarian as a challenge. He’s a book lover with often severe and uncontrollable verbal and physical tics working in a place known for quiet and decorum. Before the media tour for his book, Hanagarne was already an experienced public speaker, often giving talks about Tourette’s, particularly to kids and their parents. Frank and self-deprecating in both his public speaking and his writing, he says, “Self-confidence is just left of self-consciousness.”

Many people might ask, “How does a man with Tourette’s perform as a public speaker?” Very well, as you’ll see during his talk at the book festival.

It’s become a tall tale, but the origins of the Shoe Burnin’ are reportedly true events: drunk writers at a winter house party near Fairhope, Ala., didn’t want to go outside to get wood for the fire. Finding a box of old shoes, each person told a story before relegating a shoe to the fire. This has become an annual after-Thanksgiving celebration of storytelling and has now inspired an anthology called The Shoe Burnin’: Stories of Southern Soul, edited by Joe Formichella and with shoe tales by Ed Southern, Shari Smith and George Singleton, to name a few. A CD will accompany the book, as quite a few of the contributors are musicians and songwriters, including Cliff Cody—a contestant on The Voice—Chuck Cannon and Lari White. The Shoe Burnin’ will debut at the Louisiana Book Festival, and 20 of the 24 contributors are slated to perform their stories and songs.

Editor’s note: 225 book reviewer Emilie Staat will be leading a panel discussion with Josh Hanagarne at the festival.

—The 2013 Louisiana Writer Award will be presented to Chris Wiltz, author of The Last Madam and this year’s Shoot the Money. At least six previous Louisiana Writer Award recipients will be in attendance, including John Biguenet, Jim Wilcox, Tim Gautreaux, William Joyce, Shirley Ann Grau and Ernest J. Gaines. Joyce is representing two books at the festival, The Mischievians and book four of his Guardians series: The Sandman and the War of Dreams, while Grau’s The House on Coliseum Street is the “One Book, One Festival” selection this year.

—Louisiana’s new Poet Laureate, Ava Leavell Haymon, will be reading from a new book of poems, Eldest Daughter.

—Susan Larson, host of WWNO’s “The Reading Life,” will be representing her new book, The Book Lover’s Guide to New Orleans.

—Wally Lamb’s new book, We Are Water, will be released shortly before the festival, and he’ll appear with his son Justin, the 2012 Slam New Orleans Grand Slam champion, whose live poetry CD was released in April. Wally will also interview musician Mary Gauthier, whose song “I Drink” was a part of the author’s personal playlist while writing his new book. Gauthier is leading a songwriting WordShop on the Friday before the festival.

—The cooking tent returns this year and will feature demos from Kit Wohl, Poppy Tooker and Helana Brigman.

—New this year is the Teen HQ, with programming throughout the day and a Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice Award Ceremony.

—Four of the seven volumes of the monumental St. John’s Bible will be on display at the festival. Begun in 1998, the illuminated Bible is an international collaboration between Artistic Director Donald Jackson and the monks of St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota. Each volume weighs 35 pounds, and festival visitors will be able to browse the pages of this project that unites artistry and theology.

The Friday before the festival (Nov. 1) will include several Wordshops on the craft of writing, with topics like writing engaging scenes, writing nonfiction with a literary style and more. For more on how to register, go to louisianabookfestival.org.