Really though, Hollywood and literary glitterati notwithstanding, the biggest star at the fair is sure to be Bernie Sanders. In post-election mode, Sanders will take the stage at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19, to talk about his book, Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In. Admission is free, but tickets are required for admittance.
Noah, the South African comedian chosen to replace the beloved Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show, opens the fair at 6 p.m. Nov. 13 with what’s being billed as a “special event.” Tickets are $40. Noah will talk about Born a Crime, his memoir of growing up biracial in South Africa as apartheid gave way to black rule.
Other opening day festivities include bestselling YA author Eoin Calfer, and his new book Iron Man: The Gauntlet, and Spanish-language TV journalist Jorge Ramos — the first reporter in America to be kicked out of a Donald Trump campaign event — talking about his book, Sin Miedo: Lecciones de rebeldes (Take a Stand: Lessons from Rebels).
The rest of the week’s premiere “Evening with…” authors feature Cumming, James Carville, Maureen Dowd, Tavis Smiley, Annette Gordon Reed, Peter Onuff, Jeffrey Toobin, and, on Friday, “An Evening with the National Book Award Finalists and Winners.”
On Saturday and Sunday, the Street Fair explodes with a continuous celebration of books, demonstrations, performances, and appearances by hundreds of writers from all over the world. A sampling includes Colson Whitehead, Jay MacInerny, Art Speigelman, Joe Hill, Dave Barry, and Edwidge Danticat.
For a full schedule, locations, and tickets, visit https://www.miamibookfair.com/.
Novelists Teju Cole, Stephen L. Carter, Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Mallon, Rachel Kushner, and Curtis Sittenfeld will talk about various aspects of politics and power, joined by historians Annette Gordon-Reed, Robert Caro, and Brenda Wineapple, poet Billy Collins, satirists George Saunders and Calvin Trillin, and journalists Eugene Robinson, Francisco Goldman, Jane Mayer, and Gail Collins, among other luminaries.
Alas, this seminar sold out in a mere 20 minutes, almost a year ago, but two events will be open to the public. The first is the traditional Sunday afternoon free public session, featuring several of the seminar’s guest writers. The following Tuesday, Jan. 17, during the associated Writers Workshop Program, a free craft talk will be held. It will feature workshop faculty such as Collins, Robert Antoni, Dani Shapiro, and Daniel Menaker.
For more information, or, more importantly, to prepare for next year’s seminar, visit http://www.kwls.org.
Rounding out this season’s slate of writers: Carl Philips, winner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry (among many other prizes); Pushcart Prize poet Lynn Emanuel; National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Daisy Fried; Dorianne Laux, a Best American Poetry Prize winner; David Baker, poet and poetry editor of The Kenyon Review; poet and publisher Martha Rhodes; and Tufts Award winner Thomas Lux, who has appeared at every Palm Beach Poetry Festival since the beginning.
This festival is both a workshop for serious aspirational poets, and a series of public events featuring readings, craft talks, panel discussions, and performances. Tuition is $895, and includes 16 hours of workshop, plus admission to all festival events. The festival offers three fellowships: the Palm Beach Festival African-American fellowship for black poets, the CantoMundo Fellowship for Latino-American poets, and the Kundiman Fellowship for Asian-American poets.
For more information, applications, and a schedule of the public events, visit http://www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org/.
This year, the early word is just as impressive: Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer Egan, New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, Pulitzer-winning historian Jon Meacham, and physicist and science writer Brian Greene. For more information, check the festival website at www.festivaloftheartsboca.org.
Now in its 29th year, Feast 2017 (April 1) may have changed names over time, but it is one of the longest-running literary celebrations in South Florida. Centered on a gala society charity event that benefits Broward County Libraries, it brings a clutch of 20 or so writers to Fort Lauderdale each spring. Previous years have seen authors like Alafair Burke, Russell Banks and Helen Fielding.
Festivities also include LitLunch!, Feb. 10, with life coach and self-help author Samantha Ettis, at Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Pier Top Restaurant. And free lectures will take place at two Barnes & Noble locations on March 31. For more information on this and the list of authors, watch the festival’s site for information as it develops, www.bplfoundation.org.
Finally, in its third year, the Palm Beach Book Festival (April 21-22) may be the newest book festival in the area, but it’s also an overachiever. In its first two years, it has brought celebrated scribblers the likes of James Patterson and Jacquelyn Michard to downtown West Palm Beach.
Already lined up for 2017: nonfiction writer Sebastian Unger, author of The Perfect Storm, and New Yorker staff writer Jeffrey Toobin, author The Run of His Life: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson, among many other books. An excellent start by any standard. To see what authors are added, keep an eye on the website, www.palmbeachbookfestival.com.