The Ohioana Book Festival is an event I look forward to every year. I have a blast, and my family kindly goes too, although I don’t think they are as excited about it as I am.

From the press release:

Live music, food carts, exhibits, fun-loving crowds and….books—lots and lots of books! The Ohioana Library’s goal, as it prepares to present the 6th annual Ohioana Book Festival, is creating a festival that brings readers, writers and books together for an inspiring, fun learning experience.

Activities during the May 12th festival will include more than 20 panel discussions on a varietyof topics. The 10 featured authors will appear in a track of five panels, including conversations about their own literary influences, the writing life and the creative process. Additional panel dialogue will explore children’s literature and poetry, along with several “behind-the-scenes” opportunities for new writers to find out more about how to get published. Author roundtables will be devoted to popular genres such as mystery, romance and science fiction.

The panels I’ve attended in the past have been insightful, inspiring, full of information. I’m already planning which ones to attend this year. I’m thinking Fiction by Women: A Writer’s Roundtable with Julie Drew, Mary Ellis, Sherri Hayes, Susan Gee Heino, Donna MacMeans. And definitely Literary Fiction: The Story Behind the Story with: Donald Ray Pollock and Robin Yocum. Maybe Novel Ideas with Karen Harper and Robin Yocum and How We Write What We Write with Tom Batiuk, Casey Daniels. Or maybe the one focussing on short stories. There are just too many choices, from panels focusing on genres, like fantasy and mystery, to the writing life, to non-fiction topics, like food.

And I have to admit that I’m a little excited that there will be food trucks there during the lunch break. Last year, for lunch David and I ate chips and pop out of the vending machines. The rest of our group went out to lunch, but it took them forever and I didn’t want to miss anything. And I’ve never eaten at/from a food truck before. We just don’t have them in our town.

Of course, we’ll also probably come back with a bag of books. With so many authors talking, signing, reading, it’s hard not to buy one or several.

For more information, visit their website or check out this year’s program. Maybe I’ll see you there.

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