LEXINGTON — The third annual Lexington Book Festival will offer the usual meet-and-greet sessions with regionally and nationally known authors of books for children and adults, but it’s also going to offer the public a chance to polish their creative writing skills.
Davidson County’s first and only book festival will take place from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 22 at Arts Davidson County’s building at 202 N. Main St. Authors Val Nieman and Gail Williamson will lead the creative writing workshop from 3-3:45 p.m.
“We wanted to add something new this year,” said Kyle Mendenhall, who serves on the The Lexington Book Festival board of directors.
This year’s lineup showcases a variety of celebrated and emerging voices, said Daniel Everhart, chairman of the Lexington Book Festival board of directors.
“This year’s authors span various genres and age groups, and we’ve intentionally grouped them into panels that we believe will create some very compelling and inspiring conversations,” he said. “We’ve also added some sessions for aspiring writers.”
Fourteen published authors will attend: Ashley Belote, Valerie Bolling, Constance Lombardo, Gita Varadarajan, Micki Bare, Melanie Sue Bowles, Taylor Wilson-West, Gail Williamson, Kelley Shinn, Shannon Hitchcock, Valerie Nieman, Al Sirois, Jeffrey Blount and Rebecca Bruff.
Wilson-West and Williamson are Davidson County self-published authors. They will host a Q&A session on self-publishing from noon to 12:45 p.m.
Books will be available for purchase onsite through the festival’s official bookseller, Pig City Books. Vendors with items closing related to reading and authors selling their books will be set up selling a variety of items.
The book talks, moderated panels, meet-and-greets and book signings begin at 10 a.m. The schedule of events, as well as author biographies, can be found online at www.lexingtonbookfestival.org.
“We want people to learn what is out there to read,” Mendenhall said. “We want them to be able to learn from the authors, find out why they wrote what they wrote.”
Attendees are encouraged to bring questions for the authors if they’ve already read the books, Everhart said.
“This is your chance to ask authors face-to-face about characters, plots, that ending you loved or hated, and more,” Everhart said. “Even if you haven’t read the books, come get a sneak peek during the panels. You might just discover a new favorite. We attempt to keep the panels mostly spoiler-free.”
