Tag Archives: book fests

Recap of the Book Festival

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The Kerrytown BookFest took place on a gorgeous late summer Sunday in Ann Arbor, MI. It was the first book festival I participated in as an author.

Kerrytown

Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende, a scholar-practitioner in public health with a focus on minority women’s sexual and reproductive health, founder/director of the Africa Research Foundation for the Safety of Women, and author,  moderated the panel on “Women in History.” She kept the conversation lively as four of us (two nonfiction writers, two fiction writers) talked about our work.

Laurel Davis Huber and Greer Macallister have written fascinating novels based on the lives of real women. Laurel’s is about Margery Williams Bianco, author of The Velveteen Rabbit, and her daughter Pamela, a passionate and troubled artist.

Greer’s takes readers into the life of Kate Warne, the first woman hired as a detective by the Pinkerton Agency.

Pamela Toler, one of the co-founders of the Nonfiction Fans discussion group on Facebook (I’m another co-founder), wrote the companion book to the popular PBS series Mercy Street.

And I rounded out the panel talking about some heroines of World War II.

What was especially great was being able to talk to readers–those who asked questions during the panel as well as those who visited our book table afterward. It’s always nice to know that there are readers who are just as fascinated by history as I am.

And I am very much looking forward to the next books by all of my co-panelists.

Of Book Fests and Libraries

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Next week I will be heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take part in the Kerrytown Book Fest.

On Sunday, September 10 at 11:00 a.m. I’ll be in the Main Tent with Laurel Huber Davis, Greer Macallister, and Pamela Toler talking about “Women in History” in fiction and nonfiction. Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende will moderate.

It’s certainly not the first time I’ll be talking about women in history, but it will be my first appearance at a book festival. I’m sure I’ll be meeting all sorts of interesting readers and writers. (Maybe I’ll even see more of Ann Arbor than I did the last time I was there, when all my views were of the inside of an archives!)

And on Monday, November 20, the Paging Through the Past book club at the Portage County (Wisconsin) Public Library will be discussing Angels of the Underground. I’ll be on hand for that, too. For additional details, click here.

I’m glad to have these two events on my calendar. I love talking to people about what they’re reading–whether it’s my book or someone else’s. Plus it helps keep my mind off the whole book proposal submission process, which is where I’m at right now.