FLP - Philadelphia Book Festival

Exhibitor Packages On-Sale Now for the 2010 Festival

Communications Office — 2009-11-13T14:34:49-05:00

Exhibitor booths for the 2010 Festival are now available!
Exhibitors at the Free Library Festival's Street Fair & Literary Marketplace include independent and major publishers, university presses, museum publishers, self-publishing companies, independent bookstores, literary magazines, literacy organizations and educational programs related to literacy, and, of course, authors. Companies creating new products and technologies related to books, literacy, publishing, or writing are also welcome to participate. The Festival is a great opportunity to get regional exposure for your company, sell books, promote new releases, distribute information, and develop relationships with readers in person.

Space is limited and booths will be sold on a first come, first served basis. Booths have sold-out every year so far, so please register early! To reserve your booth, complete and return the Exhibitor Registration Form & Contract.

2010 Free Library Festival Dates Announced

Communications Office — 2009-11-13T14:24:00-05:00

Hello, Readers!

We hope you’ll join us for the Free Library Festival on Saturday and Sunday, April 17 and 18, 2010, at the Parkway Central Library. Our annual celebration--now in its 4th year!--has taken a prominent place in the literary life of the region, drawing 35,000 visitors in 2009! The Festival weekend will once again be packed with free events for the whole family, including high-profile author appearances, live musical performances, and children’s authors and entertainment—and a bustling Street Fair and Literary Marketplace showcasing what’s new in the publishing world.

We hope to see you there!

New slideshow of 2009 Festival photos!

Communications Office — 2009-06-08T14:38:48-05:00

Check out our photos from the 2009 Free Library Festival!

Podcasts from the 2009 Free Library Festival!

Communications Office — 2009-05-04T13:18:00-05:00

For those of you who missed authors on the Bank of America Main Stage during the Festival, the podcasts are now available for your enjoyment! Click event or author names to listen.

John Quiñones | Heroes Among Us: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Choices
John Quiñones is a co-anchor of the ABC newsmagazine Primetime, a correspondent for 20/20, and the sole anchor of the popular Primetime limited series What Would You Do?, which uses hidden cameras to capture people's unscripted reactions to compelling ethical dilemmas. In a career spanning more than two decades, Quiñones has earned seven national Emmy Awards and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award's Grand Prize for International Reporting, among many other distinctions. In Heroes Among Us, which grew out of his work on What Would You Do?, Quiñones captures the courage and dignity of average American heroes.

Kristin Chenoweth | A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages
Interviewed by 6abc's Tamala Edwards
Tony Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth originated the role of Glinda the Good Witch in the hit Broadway musical Wicked and was nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for her work with Pushing Daisies, ABC's Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated show. In addition, she has recorded three albums--A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas, Let Yourself Go, and As I Am--and sang for a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall. In A Little Bit Wicked, Chenoweth discusses the challenges she's faced balancing faith, family, private life, and her public persona.

Renegades: Radical African American Voices in the Arts
Amiri Baraka, Ed Bullins, and Sonia Sanchez
Moderated by Charles Fuller
Four revolutionary African American artists--including the controversial former New Jersey Poet Laureate Amiri Baraka (Home: Social Essays), award-winning poet Sonia Sanchez (Homegirls and Handgrenades), multiple Obie Award-winner Ed Bullins (The Hungered One), and Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Charles Fuller--took the stage at the Free Library Festival to discuss the history and future of African American voices in the arts.

Joyce Carol Oates | Dear Husband,: Stories
Over the span of more than four decades, Joyce Carol Oates has produced an enormous body of work consisting of novels, short stories, criticism, plays, and poetry. Not a year has gone by since the mid-1960's in which she has not published at least one book. Among her many distinctions, she has received the National Book Award for them, the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, and she was recently nominated for the Man Booker International Award. A collection of 14 character-driven short stories, "Dear Husband, like most of Oates' work, is vigorously dark, and it reminds us why we keep reading her in the first place: because we just can't turn away" (Elle).

First Person StorySlam: Philly vs. Chicago
This recording contains explicit content.
Slam-winning storytellers from First Person Arts in Philadelphia and Windy City Story Slam in Chicago took the stage to tell their true stories on the theme "Mortified." By cumulative score, Team Philadelphia, which included Angel Hogan, Katonya Mosley, Ryan T. Barlow, Amy Malissa and Rob Kogan, was declared the winner. The individual winner--and recipient of a "golden ticket" to the Grand Slam at the 2009 First Person Festival in November--was Chicago's Max Glaessner. You can read bios of all of the storytellers here and stream videos of the storytellers' Festival performances here.

Dara Torres | Age is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life
The first American swimmer to compete in five Olympic Games, Dara Torres has set three world records and won 12 Olympic medals, including four gold medals. Returning to the Games for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Torres-at age 41-brought home three silver medals. In Age is Just a Number, Torres speaks frankly about diving back in for her comeback, being an older athlete in a younger athlete's game, working through pain, seizing the moment, and never giving up.

William D. Cohan | House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street
"Masterfully reported," according to the Los Angeles Times, William D. Cohan's House of Cards chronicles the shocking fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street, explaining how a combination of risky bets, corporate political infighting, lax government regulations, and awful decision-making wrought havoc on the world financial system. A former senior Wall Street investment banker, Cohan is the author of the bestseller The Last Tycoons, winner of the 2007 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. His writing frequently appears in the Financial Times, Fortune, and the New York Times.

Jane Hamilton | Laura Rider's Masterpiece
Acclaimed novelist Jane Hamilton is the author of the PEN/Hemingway Award winner The Book of Ruth and the New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Map of the World, both of which selected for Oprah's Book Club. The Washington Post chose her novel When Madeline Was Young as a Best Book of 2006. In her new book, Laura Rider's Masterpiece, Le Divorce meets The Love Letter as Hamilton concocts a comedic tale of sex, manipulation, and delusions of grandeur in small town America.

Vicki Myron | Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
On a freezing morning in 1988, Spencer Public Library director Vicki Myron discovered a tiny, bedraggled kitten abandoned in the library's night drop box. She adopted the cat and named him Dewey Readmore Books, and for 19 years, Dewey lived at the library and grew into a strutting, affable cat that brought smiles to patrons' faces. A #1 New York Times Best Seller, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World is Myron's memoir of her loyal feline companion and how he became a beacon of hope for the struggling small town of Spencer, Iowa.

Festival event photographs courtesy of Katie Riggan

Festival Forecast: Sunshine and Inspiration!

Communications Office — 2009-04-17T11:46:00-05:00

We're looking forward to enjoying a beautiful spring weekend on the Parkway, with two perfect days to stroll the Festival's bustling literary Street Fair!

Featuring a thriving base of local Philly exhibitors, as well as several new organizations and authors from New York to California, the 60+ exhibitors at the Free Library Festival Street Fair comprise an eclectic group that is inspiring in its diversity. In the spirit of a true arts community, writers, publishers, indie presses, literary magazines, neighborhood bookshops, and libraries join together to enliven the Festival, share their missions, and develop relationships with new readers.

For sci fi fans, check out the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and meet author Lawrence Johnson, Sr., explore the spiritual with Swedenborg Foundation Publishers and the Islamic Circle of North America, get radical with Wooden Shoe, and get informed at PhillyHealthInfo.org. Find gems at DBookman's Used and Rare Books and Africana Homestead Legacy Publishers.

For the full listing of our fantastic 2009 Festival exhibitors, click here.

After all that brain-food, you'll need some refreshment!

Sample award-winning local wines from Chaddsford Winery and the excellent cheeses of Cabot Creamery Cooperative, and don't miss festival food by Stephen Starr Events: featuring lobster mac-n-cheese, BBQ chicken quesadillas, Thai chicken skewers, and awesome burgers and dogs--it's festival food Stephen Starr Style!

Festival Highlights for the Whole Family!

Communications Office — 2009-04-15T17:58:00-05:00

From noted authors to award-winning illustrators to lively musicians, this year's Free Library Festival offers something for everyone in the family. Here are just some of the highlights:

Don't Miss the Storybook Parade!
Saturday, April 18 at 12:00 PM, Target Children's Stage
Grab a free noisemaker and cheer on your favorite storybook characters as they parade around the Free Library Festival Street Fair grounds. Characters will be introduced by Festival Sponsor 6abc's Tamala Edwards.

Highlights for Young Adults

Peter Lerangis | The 39 Clues: The Sword Thief
Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 PM, Target Children's Stage
Peter Lerangis, author of numerous books for children and young adults, contributes to the New York Times bestselling 39 Clues series with The Sword Thief, the third installment in the series. More info>>

John Green | Paper Towns
Nerdfighters unite!
Saturday, April 18 at 3:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature. He is praised for his intelligent prose, "from hilarious, hyperintellectual trash talk and schtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths" (School Library Journal). More info>>

Alexander Stadler | Julian Rodriguez
Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 PM, Story Hour Room
In his newest graphic novel, Philadelphian Alexander Stadler, chronicles the adventures of Julian Rodriguez, a courageous young boy sent to earth to study human life. More info>>

Highlights for Children

Susan Orlean | Lazy Little Loafers
Saturday, April 18 at 3:00 PM, Story Hour Room
Deemed "one of the wittiest new-baby-in-the-family books of recent years" by Publisher's Weekly, Susan Orlean's first children's book Lazy Little Loafers began as a humor piece for the New Yorker. More info>>

Shadra Strickland | Bird
Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 PM, Story Hour Room
Shadra Strickland won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the 2009 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent for her work on her first children's picture book, Bird, about a young boy who uses drawing as a way to deal with his troubles. More info>>

Florence & Wendell Minor | If You Were a Penguin
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 PM, Target Children's Stage
The first 100 attendees will receive a free copy of the book! A collaboration between illustrator Wendell Minor and his author wife Florence Minor, If You Were A Penguin is the 2009 Pennsylvania One Book, Every Young Child selection. More info>>

Music for the Family

Trout Fishing in America

Saturday, April 18 at 4:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
Trout Fishing in America, the long-standing musical partnership between bassist Keith Grimwood and guitarist Ezra Idlet, is a Grammy-nominated, Parents' Choice award-winning group for the whole family. Introduced by WXPN's Kathy O'Connell. More info>>

The Jimmies | Make Your Own Someday: Silly Songs for the Shorter Set
Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
Winner of the 2007 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award and the 2007 Parents' Choice Award, The Jimmies take being silly very seriously. More info>>

Baby Loves Salsa
Sunday, April 19 at 4:30 PM, Target Children's Stage
Part of the Baby Loves Music family, Baby Loves Salsa helps children learn Spanish while learning about and dancing to salsa music! More info>>

10,000 Books for Children
Please consider purchasing a book for the Free Library's 10,000 Books for Children Summer Reading book drive. Stop by the Children's Book World booth (#54) or the Joseph Fox Book Shop booth (#65) at the Free Library Festival to purchase and donate a much-needed book for the Library's Summer Reading program. Books can be dropped off at these purchase points as well as at the Library Clubhouse booth (#50). For drop off locations at the Festival, see the Festival site map.

April is National Poetry Month!

Communications Office — 2009-04-12T23:15:00-05:00

Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Free Library Festival! All weekend long, stop by the Independence Foundation Poetry Corner (Room 108 of Parkway Central Library) to listen to readings by acclaimed poets, including:

Raymond Luczak
Assembly Required: Notes from a Deaf Gay Life
Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 PM
In Assembly Required, essayist, poet, and playwright Raymond Luczak meditates on what it means to be a gay man living between the deaf and hearing worlds. More info>>

Amiri Baraka | Transbluesency
Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 PM
Transbluesency collects many of poet, playwright, and political activist Amiri Baraka's poems into a single volume, combining "the personal and political in highly charged ways" (Publishers Weekly).
More info>>

Daniel Hoffman | The Whole Nine Yards
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 PM
Former United States Poet Laureate Daniel Hoffman recently received the Arthur Anse Prize for "a distinctive poet" from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
More info>>

Kevin Young | Dear Darkness
Sunday, April 19 at 2:00 PM
Inspired by the blues and the history of Black America, Kevin Young's poems appear in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, and Publisher's Weekly calls him "perhaps the most prominent African American poet of his generation."
More info>>

Susan Stewart | Red Rover
Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 PM
National Book Critics Circle Award-winner Susan Stewart explores the changing cycles of life in her new poetry collection, beginning with the fall of man and lofting into praise for the green and turning world.
More info>>

Exhibitor Spotlight: American Poetry Review

Communications Office — 2009-04-12T23:12:00-05:00

The Free Library Festival's Street Fair & Literary Marketplace is the place to check out what's happening in the literary and arts world.

American Poetry Review, Booth #32
America's Best Poetry Magazine
www.aprweb.org
Philadelphia-based American Poetry Review was founded in 1972, and over the past 30 years has grown to become one of the most widely circulated poetry magazines, with subscribers in 55 countries. Author Cynthia Ozick writes, "[APR] renews our sense that poetry is urgent, the emergency room of our culture where night and day give way to meticulous and powerful attention."

Poetry for the Whole Family: Jen Bryant on William Carlos Williams

Communications Office — 2009-04-12T23:07:00-05:00

Jen Bryant
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams
Sunday, April 19 at 1:00 PM, Story Hour Room
Jen Bryant is the author of more than a dozen books for children and young adults, including The Trial, Pieces of Georgia, and Ringside 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial, an Oprah's Book Club Kid's Reading List pick. Her children's biography, A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, artfully captures the life of the poet and was named one of the New York Times Book Review's Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008. A former French and German teacher, Bryant currently teaches children's literature at West Chester University.

Exhibitor Spotlight: Our Parkway Neighbors

Communications Office — 2009-04-07T15:22:00-05:00

Exhibitor Spotlight: Our Parkway Neighbors

The Free Library Festival's Street Fair & Literary Marketplace is the place to check out what's happening in the literary and arts world.

We're excited to be joined again this year by many of our neighboring Parkway institutions! Presenting fun, interactive activities for families and information about their missions, our Parkway Neighbors can be found on Vine Street (see Site Map) during the Festival!

Academy of Natural Sciences, Booth #44
Connecting People to Nature Since 1812
ansp.org

The Barnes Foundation, Booth #56
On the Parkway Soon!
barnesfoundation.org

Center City Independent Schools, Booth #55
Independent Schools. Independent Minds.
friends-select.org, greenetowneschool.org, st-peters-school.org

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Booth #45
Publisher of the Scholarly Books and Catalogues of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
philamuseum.org

Please Touch Museum, Booth #51
The Children's Museum of Philadelphia
pleasetouchmuseum.org