Except perhaps for New York City, that capital of world literary culture, South Florida is blessed with an unexcelled literary calendar, starting more or less the moment you read this, and continuing deep into next spring.
Three signature book events celebrate landmark anniversaries this season. Miami Book Fair, marking its 30th year, is among the oldest, while the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, celebrating a decade, is the newest.
Literary Feast, a fundraiser and author festival for the Broward County Library, marks its 25th anniversary in March by bringing a key event back to the Main Library in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
The origins of Miami Book Fair International have long since passed into local legend. Eduardo Padron, a vice president of what was then Miami-Dade Community College, happened upon a book fair while vacationing in Spain. Back home in Miami, he partnered with Mitch Kaplan, the young owner of a small Coral Gables bookstore, to put together a similar event here.
Almost from the beginning, Miami Book Fair International became the grandest and most influential literary event in the country, as it remains today.
Padron is now president of Miami-Dade College, Kaplan won an honorary National Book Award last year for his books activism, and his store, Books & Books, with multiple locations, is one of the enduring success stories of independent bookselling.
The traditional eight-day portion of the 30th edition runs Nov. 17-24. There will also be the customary street fair, with culinary demonstrations, children’s activities, and more than 300 national and international authors.
Getting the party started early this year, the fair boasts a series of special preliminary author appearances. Salman Rushdie is here today (Sept. 26), and Nicholas Sparks, here Sept. 30, and after that you can catch Elizabeth Gilbert (Oct. 9), Billy Collins (Oct. 24), Helen Fielding (Nov. 2), and Donna Tartt (Nov. 6).
“We want the authors and their readers to engage with one another,” Kaplan says. “That’s been our goal from the beginning. After the readings there is time carved out in each program for audience members to ask questions, and time for each person to say hello and get their book signed. All of Miami gathers under the big tent of the Fair.”
Most book fair events take place at or near the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College in downtown Miami. For more information, check the fair’s website, http://www.miamibookfair.com, or the Twitter account, https://twitter.com/miamibookfair, Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MiamiBookFair, or Tumblr account, http://thecenteratmdc.tumblr.com/.
Next on the season’s calendar, the Key West Literary Seminar takes a turn to The Dark Side for its 32nd year. A celebration of Mystery, Crime and the Literary Thriller may surprise some at the usually highbrow seminar, but associate director Arlo Haskell says a closer look uncovers a considerable degree of literary legitimacy in the crime fiction genre.
“As we discovered when we first explored the topic 25 years ago, with the late, great Elmore Leonard among us,” Haskell says, “crime fiction tackles the sort of primal human emotions that are the heart of all great literature. And it’s a heck of a lot of fun.”
The topic has proven so popular that a second session has been added. The first, Jan. 16-19, boasts Stephen L. Carter, Gillian Flynn, William Gibson, Laura Lippman, Joyce Carol Oates, Carl Hiaasen, and many others.
Just as glittery, the second (Jan. 16-19) features, among many others, such mean-street luminaries as John Banville, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Percival Everett and James W. Hall.
The first session has been sold out for months, but a few seats may remain for the second weekend. See the seminar website for more information at http://www.kwls.org/seminar32/. But don’t dawdle – it, too, will soon sell out.
The Palm Beach Poetry Festival, born fully formed from the brain of Miles Coon, like Athena emerging from Zeus’s forehead, marks a decade extolling poetry and poets, Jan. 20-25. On hand as the first among equals, Natasha Trethewey, reigning U.S. poet laureate, heads a sterling line-up.
The rest of the faculty includes Nick Flynn, Carolyn Forché, Campbell McGrath, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Tim Seibles, Linda Gregg, Mary Ruefle, and festival mainstay Thomas Lux, who has been at every iteration of the poetry festival. Also on hand: Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Chard deNiord, and performance poets Taylor Mali and Glenis Redmond.
A festival that combines workshops and craft talks for aspiring poets with public readings, lectures, and performances, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival allows public attendance at most events. Tickets are $12 to $15, with discounts for seniors and students.
Tickets to the midweek Festival Gala dinner are $250, but you can still attend the Natasha Trethewey reading afterward for $15 or less. For more information, see the Palm Beach Poetry Festival website at http://www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org/home/.
Literary Feast 2014 may be the last major event on the book season calendar, but it’s also among the most successful. Every year it brings 20-25 writers to Fort Lauderdale for fundraising fetes and public readings. The event allows the Broward County Library Foundation to sponsor programs such as the Summer Reading Program, Books ‘n’ Bears at the Holidays, Computer Instruction Classes and free SAT/ACT classes for high school students., raising much-needed funds for programs.
As executive director Dorothy Klein notes, this year there’s a twist – several playwrights have been invited to join the customary mix of genre novelists, literary writers, serious nonfiction writers, and authors of lighter nonfiction fare.
“Andrew Carroll, who was a Feast author in 2007, will be back with both a new play, ‘If All the Sky Were Paper,’ and a new book, ‘Here Is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History,’” Klein says. “It should all make for fascinating discussions over the Feast weekend.
Besides Carroll, other writers confirmed at this early date are memoirist Dani Shapiro, historian Brenda Wineapple, and thriller writer Michael Sears. Fifteen or 20 more will be added in the coming months.
“The Night of Literary Feasts Cocktail Reception is moving back home — to the Main Library’s sixth floor, after five years at Pier 66’s Panorama Room,” Klein says. “The renovation work at the Main Library continues, but is expected to be at the point of completion where we can host our guests without difficulty.”
Literary Feast 2014 is actually a succession of related events. LitLunch! Presages the main events with a luncheon at Pier Sixty-Six featuring a major author on Feb/ 28. Cost is $65.
The Night of Literary Feasts cocktail reception, followed by dinners honoring the assembled authors at locations all over Broward County is March 15. Price: $175. The following day the same authors will lecture and take part in panel discussions at Nova Southeastern University’s Alvin Sherman Library. Admission: free.
For more information on scheduling, ticketing, and to follow the announcement of additional authors, visit www.LiteraryFeastOnline.org or Facebook, www.facebook.com/bplfoundation.