By KEITH RYAN CARTWRIGHT
Rutherford County Schools
MURFREESBORO — Following the success of the Southeastern Young Adult Book Festival, which took place last March, organizers announced the reveal date for the list of 2017’s authors will be Thursday, Oct. 27.
The reveal event, which will feature five of the 39 authors, will take place at the Linebaugh Public Library from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
In addition to revealing the list of authors, the festival cofounders – Liz Hicks, Erin Alvarado, Barbara Collie and Sonya Cox – will talk about the festival along with the five authors on hand, who will introduce their current books.
“They’ll spend time talking about the impact of festivals like this one,” said Alvarado, who also said authors will talk about relationships like the one that developed between author Sharon Cameron, who is an advisor to the festival, and Central Magnet School senior Carma Sharp.
Alvarado is a librarian at Central, while Hicks and Collie are librarians at Stewarts Creek High School. Cox is an academic coach with Murfreesboro City Schools.
Parnassus, an independent book store co-owned by bestselling author Ann Patchett, will be selling books at the library and again at the festival.
Much of the reveal evening will be authors and attendees engaging in literary conversations, which is a unique precursor to the festival.
“As middle and high school librarians, we wanted to make sure that we offered a free event for the students and Rutherford County,” Alvarado said.
She explained that young adult festivals like the one that will be revealed at the Oct. 27 event, catches kids at a time when they might otherwise lose interest in reading, life becomes busier than it once was or, perhaps, they’re simply developing other interests.
Alvarado and her cofounders are hoping an event like SE-YA will inspire young adults to rediscover their love of reading.
“So many students get that excitement back,” Alvarado said.
Last year’s festival drew close to 2,000 attendees from 40 different Tennessee schools, 12 states and 1,000 of whom were students from Rutherford County.
Alvarado said they promoted the first year of the festival mostly through word of mouth and social media platforms. In addition to www.seyabookfest.com, they can be found on Facebook and Twitter.
This year, SE-YA hopes to increase the attendance, especially considering last year’s overwhelmingly positive response.
Beforehand there were students who could not conceive of what a book festival was like and afterward there was a palpable excitement in feedback from students and teachers.
While the reveal date for SE-YA is Oct. 27, the festival will take place March 10-11. There will also be author visits made to middle and high schools on March 9.
Alvarado said it’s a challenge to coordinate all the in-school visits, but “well worth it.”
“Since this is our second year doing it, we have our legs under us,” Alvarado said. “We have a little experience.
Alvarado added, “It was a labor of love, but we did not expect the community to rally around us like it did.“