Bookworms and bibliophiles will gather to celebrate their fascination with books on Saturday at the third annual Boston Book Festival.
The festival kicks off with a ticketed discussion with the cast and creators of HBO’s “The Wire” on Friday in the Back Bay Events Center. However, the main festival begins the following morning and is free to the public.
The festival features numerous speakers and workshops, catering to a wide span of age groups. An estimated 25,000 people took part in the festival last year, according to a press release for the event.
The BBF was created to “celebrate the power of words, to promote a culture of literature and ideas and to enhance the vibrancy of the city of Boston,” according to its website.
Last year the festival started One City One Story, a program that hosts an open forum about a single story for the entire community. Copies of this year’s story, “The Whore’s Child,” by Richard Russo, are currently being distributed at Boston Public Library branches, bookstores and T stations. A free PDF is also available at the BBF’s website.
Russo will be speaking to the community about his story in the BPL’s Rabb Auditorium Saturday. Other presentations include “Music Legends,” “Sports: Writers on Deck” and “Crime Fiction: The Killer Panel.”
The kids’ keynote speaker is animator of “Sesame Street” and children’s author Mo Willems, who will appear at the Back Bay Events Center on Saturday.
For those attendees who prefer words to pictures in their books, Michael Ondaatje, author of the Booker Prize-winning novel “The English Patient,” will be giving a keynote presentation.
Apple founder Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson was scheduled to interview Gov. Deval Patrick, but he cancelled in order to attend Jobs’s memorial service, according to a press release.
Over 80 exhibitors will be setting up shop in the square, ranging from “independent publishers and literary magazines to performance companies, arts organizations, media outlets, food vendors, and even a new kids area,” according to the festival’s website.
Berklee College of Music is organizing performances by musicians affiliated with the college and a poetry slam in Copley Square.
Boston University students said they are looking forward to the festival.
“I hope they have it next year,” said Danielle D’Avignon, a College of Communication senior. “Me and my roommate always swap books. It’s hard to read books for fun with classes.”
D’Avignon said that her favorite genre of books is fantasies.
Sarah Rogo, a third-semester student at Berklee College of Music, said that she plans on attending the BBF this year.
“My favorite part about things like this is that I get introduced to new books and authors,” she said. “I can find new reads.”
Rogo said that her favorite author is Jack Kerouac, but she would like to get acquainted with new authors.
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