The Possumtown Book Fest is returning for its second year with workshops, vendors and panels taking place Saturday.
The festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Columbus Arts Council’s Rosenzweig Arts Center and is free and open to the public. The event is being organized by Friendly City Books and the Friendly City Books Community Connection, a special project of the CREATE Foundation.
The festival will feature over 22 local vendors for the local author showcase. The authors will be selling and signing their books from 9 to 11:45 a.m.
Kids events will take place throughout the morning at the Friendly City Books, including a 10:30 a.m. storytime with Marshall Ramsey the author of the picture book Saving Sam! and pictures with everyone’s favorite big red dog Clifford at 11:30 a.m.
The event will also host a panel of 12 authors at 10 a.m. in the Rosenzweig’s Omnova Theater, which will feature keynote speaker Wright Thompson. The journalist and author will speak about his best-selling book “The Barn: The Secret History of Murder in Mississippi,” which focuses on the historical significance and attempted coverup of the lynching of Emmitt Till.
The keynote panel will be followed by a book signing from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m.
There will also be seven additional genre panels throughout the day including a nonfiction panel at 11:15 a.m., a mystery panel at 2 p.m. and a romance panel at 4 p.m.
Two workshops will also take place Saturday including a general poetry writing workshop hosted by Mississippi University for Women’s English professor Kendall Dunkelberg from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and a family friendly prose writing workshop hosted by memoirist Catherine Simone Gray from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
HOW TO GO
■ WHAT: Possumtown Book Fest Keynote Address
■ WHO: Wright Thompson, author of The Barn
■ WHEN: Saturday, 10-10:45 a.m.
■ WHERE: Rosenzweig Arts Center, Columbus Arts Council
Posted in Columbus & Lowndes County
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