October 11 & 12, 2008at the Charleston Civic Center
Word Play – Activities for Children
The Festival offers several hands-on learning, play and crafts stations for children in Word Play (West Hall II), with activities provided by:
- The Charleston Gazette
- Kanawha County Clerk's Office
- Kanawha County Master Gardeners
- Kanawha County Public Library system
- Newspapers in Education
- Sit! Stay! Read to the Dogs
- South Charleston Public Library
- TerraSalis
- West Virginia Public Broadcasting
- Author Jill Stemple (Sunday only)
The annual Charleston Gazette Storybook Character Parade starts at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Dress as your favorite character from a children's book and march in our parade!
Featured Authors
Richard Paul Evans
When Richard Paul Evans wrote the #1 best-seller, The Christmas Box, he never intended on becoming an internationally known author. His quiet story of parental love and the true meaning of Christmas made history when it became simultaneously the #1 hardcover and paperback book in the nation. Since then, more than eight million copies of The Christmas Box have been printed, and Evans has written 12 consecutive New York Times bestsellers. His latest title is Grace.
Julia Spencer-Fleming
Julia Spencer-Fleming studied acting and history at Ithaca College and received her J.D. at the University of Maine School of Law. Her debut novel, In The Bleak Midwinter, won St. Martin's Best First Traditional Mystery Award in 2001, thereby launching her Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne series. Her latest title in the series is I Shall Not Want. Originally from upstate New York, she now lives in a 180-year-old farmhouse in Buxton, Maine, with her husband and three children.
Bob McLeod
Bob McLeod is best known for co-creating and illustrating The New Mutants for Marvel Comics. He began his career in 1974 working on Marvel Comics' now-defunct Crazy magazine, penciling and inking movie and TV satires and the Teen Hulk humor strip. He then quickly became a top inker on such titles as The Black Panther, Conan the Barbarian and The Incredible Hulk for Marvel, and The Legion of Superheroes, The New Titans, and Batman in Detective Comics, and Wonder Woman for DC, along with countless covers for both companies. He also penciled several issues of Marvel's Star Wars, and did pencils and inks on Spider-Man, Venom, and Superman in Action Comics, and The Phantom. In 2006, Bob wrote and illustrated a children's book, Superhero ABC, published by HarperCollins, which received two starred reviews. He's currently the editor of Tomorrows' Rough Stuff magazine.
Chris Soentpiet
Award-winning illustrator,Chris Soentpiet (SOON-peet) is the recipient of the Parents' Magazine Best Book of the Year for Something Beautiful. His other prestigious honors include the International Reading Association (IRA) Book Award for More Than Anything Else, Molly Bannaky & Coolies which also won the Parents' Choice Gold Award. Soentpiet's works have appeared on national television. His illustrations have been featured or reviewed in the New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Ebony Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today and others. He is the recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for his illustrations in My Brother Martin. In 1996, he received the highest honor, a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. This award, Soentpiet states, is the most meaningful bestowed to an artist because unlike the Caldecott, this award is judged by fellow illustrators. His latest title is Brothers.
IreneMcKinney
Irene McKinney is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and a West Virginia Commission on the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. She is the author of four books of poetry: The Girl With A Stone In Her Lap (1976); The Wasps At The Blue Hexagons (1984); Quick Fire And Slow Fire (1988); and Six O'clock Mine Report (1989). She is editor of Backcountry: Contemporary Writing In West Virginia, and has held fellowships at MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Blue Mountain Center. She was appointed Poet Laureate of West Virginia in 1994. Recent poems and forthcoming poems are in American Voice, Arts & Letters, Artful Dodge, Kenyon Review, Confluence, South Dakota Review, Kestrel, Poetry Northwest, Clackamas Literary Review, The Georgia Review and others. She has been writer-in- residence at Western Washington University at Bellingham and the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, among others. She is Professor Emerita at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her new book, Vivid Companion, is published by West Virginia University Press.
Looking for Volunteers
If you would like to volunteer to help out at this year's book festival download the volunteer application, print it and return it to:
Lisa Mack
West Virginia Book Festival
Kanawha County Public Library
123 Capitol Street
Charleston, WV 25301
2008 Festival Marketplace Is Sold Out
There are no more spaces available for this years marketplace. Check later for vendor information on being a vendor at next year's festival.
Mark your calendar! The eighth annual West Virginia Book Festival will be held October 11 & 12, 2008, at the Charleston Civic Center. Each year the festival offers something for book lovers of all ages and interests: authors, publishers, book vendors, the Festival Marketplace, a special section just for children, a used book sale, meet the author events, workshops and panel discussions.
Admission is free. Don't miss the chance to meet visiting authors! Book Festival organizers will begin to announce authors and programming by late spring.
Note to authors and program presenters: Most of our programs and presentations are scheduled by invitation, although we welcome ideas year-round. It is not always possible for us to respond to all of the many inquiries that we receive. The schedule for each Festival is finalized by May 31. Any ideas that are presented to us after the schedule has been finalized will be considered for the next Festival.
Be added to our mailing list! If you would like to receive our brochure, please e-mail us your name and complete mailing address.
Please type "Book Festival brochure request" in the subject line of your e-mail. Brochures will be mailed out in August.
Future Dates for the West Virginia Book Festival
(subject to change)
October 11 & 12, 2008
October 10 & 11, 2009
October 9 & 10, 2010
October 8 & 9 2011
October 13 & 14 2012
Presented by:
- Charter Presenters -
- Secondary Sponsors -
BB&T Foundation
Elizabeth H. and H. B. Wehrle Foundation
Friends of the Library Foundation of Kanawha County
West Virginia Library Commission &
West Virginia Center for the Book
- Contributing Sponsors -
Borders Express, Charleston Town Center
South Charleston Public Library