Preview: Rick Bragg, Meg Cabot highlight SC Book Festival this weekend

Book lovers of all stripes will pour into Columbia this weekend for the 19th annual S.C. Book Festival. Presented by The Humanities Council of South Carolina, the event is widely considered one of the Southeast’s premiere literary events, due in no small part to its variety of offerings.

“Like our tag line says, it’s for every age and every interest,” says festival director T.J. Wallace. “There are cookbooks, there’s history, there are children’s activities, there’s fiction. Whatever you’re interested in, you really can find it here.”

So much so that the event – which features everything from popular fiction to poetry and Southern Literature – consistently brings in about 6,000 visitors each year. Last year’s festival drew close to 6,500 people, a record for the almost 20-year-old event first held as at the Koger Center in 1997. And while organizers hope to have about the same number of attendees for this year’s event, their main focus will continue to be on the variety of speakers and activities offered, Wallace says.

Some Highlights

This year’s festival, for example, will feature about 105 presenters sitting on such varying panels as “The Great Outdoors” to “Killer Thrillers.” The popular opening night reception, in which ticket holders can mix and mingle with authors, industry professionals and festival exhibitors, will kick off the event on Friday.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg will be among the presenters to headline the festival. Bragg, who will read from his new book “Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story,” returns to the festival after having been away since the ’90s, Wallace says.

Foodies will delight in the “Southern Kitchen” moderated by Will Balk and featuring Cheryl Day, Griffith Day and Nathalie Dupree. Many of the South’s literary favorites, including Ron Rash, Mary Alice Monroe, Dorothea Benton Frank, will be on hand as well.

What’s New

New to the festival lineup this year are free writing workshops geared toward new writers, or those wanting to receive critical feedback. The festival has always offered writing workshops, or “Master Classes” as they were previously called, and will continue to do so on Friday. But Sunday’s free workshop track, presented by the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop, is specifically designed with the beginner in mind, Wallace says.

“We hope it will bring out a crowd of inspiring new writers,” she says.

Among the more innovative new segments will be “Writers Rock and Read: A Literary Hootenanny” featuring a mix of musical performances matched to author readings, or what Wallace describes as “its own discrete event within the main event.”

Finally, a “lounge” for tweens and teens featuring upcycled art activities and Lego robotics will help round out the children’s offerings, so there is finally something for youth who have outgrown the popular Children’s Pavilion, Wallace says.

Mindy Lucas

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Preview: Rick Bragg, Meg Cabot highlight SC Book Festival this weekend."