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Best-selling novelists Ann Patchett and Amor Towles are among the more than 100 authors participating in the 2017 San Antonio Book Festival — the fifth — April 8.
“Five years represents a significant milestone for us,” said Katy Flato, festival executive director. “To make a positive and lasting impact in our community through the sharing of stories and to elevate the San Antonio cultural experience with a major free event is something all of us — our writers, moderators, donors, volunteers, partners — should be proud of.”
“Bel Canto” author Patchett’s latest novel “Commonwealth” is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle for fiction, while Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow” was chosen a best book of 2016 by National Public Radio, the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.
Festival headliners also include historian Alexandra Zapruder, whose latest book is “Twenty-Six Seconds,” a personal history of the impact her grandfather’s iconic JFK assassination footage had on her family; and Pakistani immigration specialist Ali Noorani, whose festival presentation for his book “There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration” will be covered live on C-SPAN.
Other notable authors include memoirist Reyna Grande (“The Distance Between Us”), historian H.W. Brands (“The General vs. The President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War”), longtime Bexar County coroner Vincent DiMaio (“Morgue: A Life in Death”), poet Martín Espada (“Vivas to Those Who Have Failed”), S.C. Gwynne (“The Perfect Pass”), Tim Z. Hernandez (“All They Will Call You”), Jessica Luther (“Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape”), Jon Scieszka (“Guys Read: Heroes and Villains”) and Lawrence Wright (“The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State”).
Festival literary director Clay Smith said that in times when the country is divided, a book can remind us that we’ve overcome major obstacles before.
“We’re in a pretty weird moment culturally,” he said, “and one of the things that books offer is context and a deeper insight into our history. So, you have people like Larry Wright, with his essays on terrorism, and Ali Noorani, with his focus on immigration, Jessica Luther, speaking about the Baylor sexual assault scandal, or even H.W. Brands, with his book on MacArthur and Truman and a moment when we came very close to nuclear war.”
A new addition this year is “The Moth Mainstage,” a live event at the Majestic Theatre from the Peabody Award-winning storytelling organization, which can be heard on podcasts and National Public Radio.
“It will feature five storytellers for about 20 minutes each, and it allows you to experience what good fiction does — which is feel empathy for people who are not like us — in real time,” Smith said.
Panel discussions include “Love Has No Borders,” with Grande, Marie Marquardt (“The Radius of Us”) and Pura Belpré Medal winner Guadalupe García McCall (“Shame the Stars”); as well as one with children’s book author Scieszka on getting boys to read and another on the Harlem Renaissance with Trinity University professor Michael Soto (“Measuring the Harlem Renaissance”) and Renée Watson (“Piecing Me Together”), who is behind the effort to restore Langston Hughes’ brownstone in Harlem.
Other highlights include the Mayor’s Book Club with Mayor Ivy Taylor and Jan Jarboe Russell ( “The Train to Crystal City”), an awards presentation for the winners of the festival’s annual student fiction contest and cooking demonstrations by Jarod Neece and Mando Rayo (“The Tacos of Texas”), Lesley Téllez (“Eat Mexico: Recipes from Mexico City’s Streets, Markets & Fondas”) and other chefs.
sbennett@express-news.net
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