In This Issue...

GBF Presents ...

"A Conversation with Eleanor Brown and Ron Charles"

The Gaithersburg Book Festival is introducing a compelling new feature at the 2011 event - an interactive conversation between a top literary critic and a bestselling author.

Part C-SPAN’s “BookNotes,” part Bravo’s “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” the conversation will bring together Eleanor Brown, who recently published her bestselling debut novel, “The Weird Sisters,” and Ron Charles, a well-known critic and fiction editor for The Washington Post. 

Born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area, Brown currently lives in Colorado with her partner, writer and new media superstar, J.C. Hutchins. Brown’s writing has appeared in anthologies, journals, magazines and newspapers. “The Weird Sisters” hit the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Washington Post and national Indie bestseller lists and is now available from Amy Einhorn Books.

Charles has served as fiction editor for The Washington Post Book World since 2005.  In 2009, he won the “best criticism award” from The National Book Critic Circle. Previously, he was a book reviewer at the Christian Science Monitor. Charles reviewed Brown’s book for The Washington Post, calling it smart and hopeful and encouraging readers to “get thee to a bookstore” to purchase it.

The 50-minute program will consist of a one-on-one conversation between Brown and Charles, during which they will have an in-depth discussion about her first novel, her writing process and her influences. The program will conclude with an interactive question and answer session between the speakers and festival attendees.

And the List Grows Longer...

13 More Authors Added to Line-Up

The impressive list of featured authors for the 2011 Gaithersburg Book Festival is growing longer every day. We’ve added 13 more since last month, including:

• Rita Mae Brown – A New York Times bestselling author, Emmy- nominated screenwriter, poet, and former political activist, Brown has published more than 30 books of both fiction and non-fiction, most notably 1973's "Rubyfruit Jungle," the "Sister Jane" series, and the "Mrs. Murphy" series. Her new novel, "Hiss of Death" is the latest Mrs. Murphy Mystery.

• Edward Dolnick – Dolnick is the author of “The Clockwork Universe,” the true story of a group of strange, tormented geniuses who invented the modern world. His previous books include “The Forger's Spell,” the New York Times bestselling account of the greatest art hoax of the 20th century, and “The Rescue Artist,” winner of the Edgar Award in 2006 for best non-fiction.

• Anand Giridharadas – The author of “India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking,” Giridharadas offers a narrative non-fiction account of his return to the India that his parents left. The Wall Street Journal called the book "smart, evocative, and sharply observed," and the New York Times called it "a fine book, elegant, self-aware and unafraid of contradictions and complexity." Giridharadas is a columnist for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, and lives in Cambridge, Mass.

• Aviva Goldfarb – Goldfarb is author and founder of “The Six O'Clock Scramble,” a seasonal online weekly menu planner and cookbook. She recently released a new cookbook, “SOS! The Six O'Clock Scramble to the Rescue: Earth-Friendly, Kid-Pleasing Dinners for Busy Families.” Goldfarb is a weekly contributor to PBS Parents' Kitchen Explorers, and is regularly quoted in popular online and print family and health publications. She is an advocate for healthy families, actively working with national non-profit organizations, food companies and with parents to improve nutrition.

• Susan Fraser King – King is the bestselling, award-winning author of 20 historical novels praised for accuracy and lyricism. Her newest release, “Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland,” follows the acclaimed “Lady Macbeth: A Novel.” King has a graduate degree in medieval art history and lives in Gaithersburg with her family and a Westie.

• Dylan Landis – Dylan Landis is the author of “Normal People Don't Live Like This,” a debut novel-in-stories that made Newsday's Ten Best Books of 2009 and More magazine's Top 100 Books Every Woman Should Read. She has received 2010 fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sewanee Writers' Conference and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives in Washington, D.C., and previously wrote six books on interior design.

• Rachel Machacek – Machacek is the author of "The Science of Single: One Woman's Grand Experiment in Modern Dating, Creating Chemistry and Finding Love," a memoir of a year she spent trying out all the modern dating resources just to see what would happen. Machacek's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Maryland Life magazine, and Capitol File magazine, and she is a regular contributor to Washington Flyer magazine. She lives in Washington, D.C. and muses about dating and life on her blog.

• Brian Meehl – After a career of wiggling puppets on Sesame Street and in Jim Henson films such as “The Dark Crystal,” Meehl became an Emmy Award-winning writer for children's shows, such as “Between the Lions” and “The Magic School Bus.” Now an author, Meehl has written three young adult novels: “Out of Patience,” “Suck It Up,” and “You Don't Know About Me.” He recently returned from France where he began a new young adult book, an historical novel based on a star of the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s who could sing with his backside. Yes, he blew people away!

• Dominique Paul – Paul grew up in a Maryland suburb just outside of Washington, D.C., and received her BA in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as a screenwriter. “The Possibility of Fireflies” is her first novel.

• Jaime Paredes – A poet and songwriter, Paredes was born in El Salvador and raised in Los Angeles. His poetry has become the most reviewed and acclaimed contemporary Spanish poetry in Latin America. Paredes is the author of “Mil Galaxias en un Mundo,” “Between Love and Passion,” “Cien Poemas y Una Utopia” and “Las Distintas Pieles de Una Misma Raza.”

• Richard Peabody – Peabody is a prolific poet, fiction writer and editor; an experienced teacher and important activist in the Washington, D.C., community of letters. He is the editor of Gargoyle Magazine, and has published a novella, two books of short stories, six books of poems, plus an e-book, and edited (or co-edited) 19 anthologies including: “Mondo Barbie,” “Conversations with Gore Vidal,” “A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation,” and “Kiss the Sky: Fiction and Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix.” Peabody teaches fiction writing for the Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Program. 

• Phil Trupp – Trupp is a veteran investigative journalist, and the author of “Ruthless: How Enraged Investors Reclaimed Their Investments …And Beat Wall Street.” He is also a regular commentator for New York Times Dealbook and New York Magazine Online. As a journalist, Trupp has covered the White House, Pentagon, Supreme Court, Treasury, NASA, and the Federal Reserve. Currently, he lectures on "The Future of Journalism" at American, Georgetown and Alaska universities. He has written for major national publications, including Reader’s Digest, Madison Avenue, Smithsonian magazine, Profiles, Washingtonian magazine, and Caribbean Travel and Life, among many others.

• Susi Wyss – Wyss was born in Washington, D.C., to Swiss parents. When she turned seven, her family relocated to Abidjan, Ivory Coast for three years—a period that would have a lasting impact on her view of the world. “The Civilized World”  is Wyss’s novel-in-stories set in Africa and the U.S. She also works as an editor at Jhpiego, a Baltimore-based international health organization. Her stories, including several from “The Civilized World,” have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Bellevue Literary Review, Bellingham Review, and The Massachusetts Review. Her writing has been recognized by awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, and the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund for feminist artists.

Finalists Selected for H.S. Short Story Contest

After reviewing 114 entries from high school students in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, judges have selected 12 finalists and 10 honorable mention honorees for the Gaithersburg Book Festival’s first annual High School Short Story Contest. The finalists, who will read their stories at the Gaithersburg Book Festival Coffee House on May 21, are:

• John H. Baker – Germantown, Md.  (Seneca Valley High School, Montgomery County)
• Lundy Bowern – Germantown, Md. (Northwest High School, Montgomery County)
• Alice J. Chang – Rockville, Md. (Wootton High School, Montgomery County)
• Sutton Chiorini – Kensington, Md. (Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Montgomery County)
• Meredith Chen – Rockville, Md. (Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County)
• Shelby Duncan – Chevy Chase, Md. (Washington Waldorf School, Montgomery County)
• Sarah Latch – Frederick, Md. (Frederick High School, Frederick County)
• Alice-Yanhong Lu – Gaithersburg, Md. (Wootton High School, Montgomery County)
• Jessica Migler – Rockville, Md. (Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County)
• Maria-Lynn Okanlawon – Gaithersburg, Md. (Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County)
• Peter Ramsey – Crofton, Md. (Rockbridge Academy, Anne Arundel County)
• Agustina Rius – Rockville, Md. (Richard Montgomery High School, Montgomery County)

During the next few weeks, the stories written by these 12 finalists will be posted on the Gaithersburg Book Festival website and the GBF Blog.

Ten other students were chosen as honorable mention recipents. To read more, check out our press release. 

GBF In the Community:

Parades and Book Blasts, Oh My

@The GBF Blog:

Q&As with Featured Authors

If you haven't been following the Gaithersburg Book Festival Blog, then you really don't know what you're missing. Not only are we keeping you updated on a daily – sometimes hourly – basis about breaking news from the festival and the latest successes of our featured authors, we're also running some very interesting and insightful Q&A interviews with these authors.

In these Q&As, you'll find out interesting "facts" such as with which literary legends, living or dead, Douglas Waller (author of "Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage") would most like to dine; where "NPR Weekend Edition" host Scott Simon (author of "Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption") finds inspiration; and poet Linda Pastan's favorite opening line of a book.

We'll be posting other GBF Author Q&As on a regular basis, so we invite you to vist the GBF Blog often to find out more about our featured authors and maybe even find some commonalities that will help you strike up conversations when you meet them in person at the Festival on May 21.

Save the Date

Gaithersburg

Book Festival

___________

May 21, 2011

10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Dine Out on April 5 and Support the GBF

From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. that night, Cheeburger Cheeburger in Rockville will be hosting a fundraiser for the Gaithersburg Book Festival, in which 20 percent of all sales from diners who bring the GBF flyer will be donated to support the 2011 festival.

All you'll need to do is print out our flyer and present it to your waiter or waitress when you are seated.

Cheeburger Cheeburger is located at 14921 Shady Grove Road, Rockville, in the Fallsgrove Village Center.

Exhibitor Deadline Friday, April 8

The Gaithersburg Book Festival is a terrific event at which to showcase your literary-related wares! 

Whether you’re an author, poet, publisher, literary agent, bookstore, or have any other sort of business that caters to the book industry, here’s a great opportunity.

For a very modest price, you’ll get a booth for the day and have a chance to meet and interact with thousands of attendees.

The deadline to apply for exhibtor space is Friday, April 8. For more information on becoming an exhibitor at the festival, please view our Exhibitor & Vendor Application.

GBF Thanks its Newest Sponsors

The Gaithersburg Book Festival is made possible by the generosity of our sponsors.  In the last month, we've had several businesses return for their second year of sponsorship. Additionally, there have been many new companies and individuals pledging their support for this great event. 

We'd like to give special thanks to our newest sponsors:

Festival Partners

Friends of the Library

Java Junction

Johns Hopkins University-Montgomery County Campus

Whole Foods Market-Kentlands

Premier Sponsor

Comcast

Festival Sponsor

HESS Construction + Engineering Services

Washington Parent

Pavilion Sponsors

Holy Cross Hospital Health Center-Gaithersburg

Alzheimers Association

MedImmune LLC

Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union

Verizon

Friends of the Festival

Maryland Insurance Administration

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States

Kentlands Citizens Assembly

Kentlands Community Foundation

Book Lover

Thomas and Denise McQuighan

In Kind Sponsors

American Girl Store, Tysons Corner 

Arianna Ross Story Telling 

DC BookCrossers 

Family Services Inc. 

Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees 

Vincent Greenfield (graphic designer) 

Gail Norris (PR consultant) 

Sarah Pekkanen (author) 

The Elegant Envelope

 The Reading Tree 

Writopia Lab

We’re off to a great start, but we still need the support of additional sponsors to make the 2011 Gaithersburg Book Festival even better than last year.

There are sponsorship levels to fit all budgets.  Please visit the Gaitherburg Book Festival website for more information about 2011 sponsorships.

We Want You:

Volunteers Needed

The Gaithersburg Book Festival is an enormous undertaking, which would not be possible without the generous assistance of numerous volunteers.

We are continually recruiting volunteers for a number of opportunities. SSL hours are available for high school students. You must be at least 16 years old to apply.

Visit the GBF website for more details.

If you're interested in becoming part of this great event, take a few seconds and sign up to volunteer. We'll be in touch to coordinate as we get closer to the event.

Festival Sponsors

     Partners     

Java Junction

      Premier    

Clear Channel DC

     Festival    

Aris and Marianne Mardirossian

Charitable Foundation

     Pavilion    

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