The Kentucky Women’s Book Festival is celebrating its 10-year anniversary March 5 with a full slate of author presentations, book signings and opportunities to mingle with fellow book lovers at UofL’s Ekstrom Library.
New this year is a 10th anniversary wine and cheese reception at 4 p.m. at the University Club in which Sena Jeter Naslund, a two-time winner of the New York Times Notable Book of the Year, will read. The festival also features New York Times Editor’s Choice award-winner and Louisville native Tania James as the headlining luncheon speaker. James will discuss her new novel “The Tusk that Did the Damage” and Naslund, author of “Ahab’s Wife,” will read and discuss her writing.
Other speakers include:
- Crystal Wilkinson, author of “The Birds of Opulence” (March 2016),“Water Street” and “Blackberries, Blackberries;” writing teacher; owner of The Wild Fig Bookstore in Lexington and founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, a writing collective based in Lexington.
- Tajuana “TJ” Butler-Jackson, UofL graduate and author of “Sorority Sisters,” “Hand-me-down Heartache” and “The Night Before Thirty,” among others.
- Julie Marie Wade, author of “Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures,” “Without: Poems and Small Fires: Essays” and the forthcoming collections, “SIX” and “Catechism: A Love Story.” She teaches creative writing at Florida International University.
- Jan Arnow, author of “In the Line of Fire: Raising Kids in a Violent World,” among others, and founder and executive director of Innovations in Peacemaking International.
- Paulette Livers, author of the award-winning “Cementville,” the story of a small Kentucky town in 1969 after seven of its favored sons were killed in the Vietnam War.
- Deirdre Scaggs, author of “The Historic Kentucky Kitchen: Traditional Recipes for Today’s Cook.”
The festival sessions and presentations are free, except for an optional lunch. The festival begins at 9:30 a.m. and the opening session begins at 10 a.m. Luncheon registration is required by March 2 and can be made by calling the UofL Women’s Center at 502-852-8976. The cost is $10. The UofL Women’s Center and University Libraries host the event.
For more information, contact Phyllis Webb at phyllis.webb@louisville.edu or 502-852-8976.
