The Chattanooga Readers and Writers Fair returns to the downtown Chattanooga public library
As a book-lover, introvert (and 100 percent Ravenclaw), I understand why my fellow verbivores might want to give the Readers and Writers Fair a pass and well, just stay home and read.
But after a talk with Ray Zimmerman, writer, reader and volunteer with the Readers and Writers Fair, I think I might overcome my shyness, put down Volume 2 of Dragon Ball Z in Full Color, and venture forth. Heck, I might spend the whole day.
The Readers and Writers Fair, which is sponsored by the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild, Barnes & Noble and the City of Chattanooga Office of Multicultural Affairs, takes place this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Almost the entire library and library plaza, now often bustling with meetings and multimedia activity, will be given over to old-fashioned devotion to books. The first floor auditorium will feature readings at 11 a.m. and 1, 2 and 3 p.m. The second floor will host children’s activities.
And the fourth floor will contain tables where fans can hunt out their favorite authors for a face-to-face chat. At noon, indoor activities will halt for an open mic reading in the plaza, with goodies available from local food trucks.
I ask Zimmerman to talk me through this bonanza of reading, listening and eating.
“The first floor will hold presentations by fairly well-known local authors,” Zimmerman says, noting that, after the roster of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, there’s a spot specifically for spoken word artists at 3 p.m. “Spoken word [encompasses categories] from poetry to hip hop to storytelling. It lets us focus on some people the literary establishment has ignored in the past.”
However, Zimmerman notes that many of the traditional poets are strong performers, too. He calls out Helga Kidder, author of several chapbooks and co-founder of the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild, as well as Josiah Golson, Chattanoogan and creator of the illustrated, book-length poem “The Souls of Free Folk.”
Zimmerman has must-hear lists in fiction and non-fiction, too; I’m definitely beginning to think I need to stay all day. Non-fiction topics range from caring for elderly relatives to eating disorders, he says. And the featured fiction writers are almost all local, he adds.
“Our criteria focused on diversity,” Zimmerman says. “For instance, in spoken word alone, we range from an Appalachian storyteller to performance poets. We also looked at the author’s ability to draw an audience—do they have a following?”
Even with these criteria, the planners realized they had “more well-known and dynamic authors than we could fit into an auditorium,” Zimmerman says.
That’s where the fourth floor tables come in. If you wander upstairs at any part of the day, you’ll be able to visit representatives of the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild and the Mayor’s Book Club, as well as plenty of printers, authors, publishers and illustrators.
In fact, part of the interest of the Readers and Writers Fair is the way it seeks to highlight exciting talent while enabling people to attend as both readers and writers.
Even if you’re not a published writer, you can seize the day and declaim your prose or verse to an audience that’s primed to listen sympathetically. Want to read at the noon open mic? Catch KB Ballentine, open mic MC, at 10 a.m. and sign up for your five-minute slot.
And if you’re a kid, or have a kid in kindergarten and up, the second floor will feature a program of children’s activities from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., including creative writing prompts, poetry games and finally, a chance for children to make their own book. (This is not a drop-off service; parents must remain with their children throughout the activities.)
“Reading,” Zimmerman says, “is inhaling. Writing is exhaling.”
Whether you’re a reader, writer or both, make absorbing the words of others part of the air you breathe. And start Saturday, at the Readers and Writers Fair.
Readers & Writers Fair Featured Authors
- Fiction: Matthew Hubbart, Paul Luikart, Sybil Baker; MC: Starr Lowe
- Poetry: Helga Kidder, Josiah Golson, Finn Bille; MC: John C. Mannone
- Nonfiction: Dana Shavin, Sarah Einstein, Amber Lanier Nagle; MC: Christopher Chaney
- Spoken Word: Carla Elliott, aka Poetess Phenomenal C, Jody Harris, Peggy Douglas; MC: Christian Collier