BY STEVE BENNETT : FEBRUARY 12, 2014 : Updated: February 12, 2014 10:57am
SAN ANTONIO — TV icon Jane Pauley and National Book Award winner Barry Lopez are among the more than 70 authors who will participate in the San Antonio Book Festival on April 5. The free daylong event, sponsored by the San Antonio Public Library Foundation, will be held at Central Library and the Southwest School of Art.
In addition to author readings, signings and panel discussions, the fiesta-like atmosphere of the festival is enhanced by children’s activities, cooking demonstrations, food trucks and live music add to the fiesta atmosphere of the book festival. Last year’s debut festival drew 4,000 book lovers and organizers believe they can double that this year, said festival director Katy Flato.
Other authors include Laura Lippman, Owen Egerton, Kevin Powers, Roxana Robinson,Carmen Tafolla, Texas Poet Laureate Rosemary Catacalos, Robert Hilburn, Miriam Pawel,Kathi Appelt, Sandra Cisneros, Alfredo Corchado, Elizabeth Crook, Ignacio García, Artis Henderson, Robert Hilburn, Paulette Jiles, James Magnuson, Leila Meacham, Kevin Powers,Richard Rodriguez, Tim Tingle, Natalie Q. Treviño, and three-time Houston Mayor Bill White. “There is literally something for everyone in this festival,” Flato said.
Panel subjects include government surveillance, water issues and women’s view of war. The day will end with the “Literary Death Match,” featuring four authors competing with their work for three judges, at the Empire Theater. Pauley will discuss her new book “Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life”; Lopez won the National Book Award for “Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape.”
For a complete list of SABF authors, click here.