LEH Sponsors Louisiana Book Festival

The 12th annual Louisiana Book Festival will open to the public in downtown Baton Rouge on October 31st. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities is among the sponsors of this celebration of writers and readers that is presented by the Louisiana Center for the Book and the State Library of Louisiana. We invite you to join us from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the State Library of Louisiana, the State Capitol and grounds, the Capitol Park Museum and other nearby locations. Whether you’re young or old, just can’t get enough of poetry or love to cook up some great Louisiana dishes, the national award-winning event has something for every book lover.

In partnership with the Louisiana Book Festival, for the second year in a row the program is being designed by Louisiana Cultural Vistas. Along with the authors’ biographies, event schedules and maps, the 80-page program contains reprints of past articles from LCV, including interviews with the LEH’s Humanist of the Year, broadcast and print journalist Cokie Roberts; Ann Dobie, recipient of the inaugural Light Up for Literacy Award; previously unpublished poems by Louisiana poet laureate Peter Cooley; and a profile of Louisiana Writer of the Year Tom Piazza. The cover features a photograph of a Catahoula cur from a new book about the Louisiana state dog by John Slaughter.

Featured speakers will include Louisiana poet laureate Peter Cooley, Louisiana Writer of the Year Tom Piazza, internationally known political commentator Cokie Roberts, Pulitzer Prize-winners Rick Bragg and Yusef Komunyakaa, and historians Sally Asher, Richard Campanella and Gary Joiner, among 200 other authors. Louisiana Cultural Vistaswill host a booth on the festival grounds with prize giveaways throughout the day, and PRIME TIME Family Reading Time will sponsor the children’s storytelling tent.

Click here for more information.