2022 Festival Weekend
The 2022 Decatur Book Festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1st at First Baptist Church of Decatur, and will include a keynote the night before on Sept. 30th. The event will highlight selected authors with new fall publications, featured in fifteen sessions presented in three tracks: adult fiction, adult non-fiction, and children & youth. Click on the session links below for more details.
All sessions are free to the public, but the keynote requires registration through EventBrite. Please note, due to Covid precautions, masks will be required while indoors (not required for children attending events).
Schedule of Charis Sponsored Events (Click here for our full booklist)
9:30 AM: Georgia Politics Past & Present Featuring Mike Lukovich | The Sanctuary at First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
From Michael Edward Luckovich the National Cartoonists Society’s top award winner year, and the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes comes the new book The Twisted History of the GOP. He will be in conversation with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Greg Bluestein and Ernie Suggs.
Greg Bluestein’s book is Flipped: How Georgia Turned Purple and Broke the Monopoly on Republican Power and Ernie Suggs new book is The Many Lives of Andrew Young.
The moderator is Decatur Book Festival Board member Robin Morris. She is an Associate Professor at Agnes Scott College and Goldwater Girls to Reagan Women is her new book.
11 AM: Poets through the Mirror of Memoir | Carreker Hall at First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
Poet Kendra Allen brings us the arresting and one-of-a-kind memoir Fruit Punch, about the alternately exultant and harrowing trip she experienced growing up as a Black child desperate to create a clear reality for herself in this country.
Pushcart prize-winning poet and professor, Ravi Shankar’s memoir Correctional dives into his unexpected encounters with law and order through the lenses of race, class, privilege, and his bicultural upbringing as the first and only son of South Indian immigrants.
Moderator Denene Millner is a six-time New York Times best-selling author, Emmy Award-nominated TV show host and award-winning journalist who has written 31 books. Denene’s upcoming novel, One Blood debuts in 2023.
1 PM: Remembering and Resistance: Social Justice Across Genres | The Sanctuary at the First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
Efren Olivares’s book My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration From the Front Lines details his own story of immigrating to the United States at thirteen and as a human rights lawyer—whose work on the front lines of the fight against family separations in South Texas.
Poet Elizabeth Hughey’s book White Bull is composed entirely of words of the notorious, vile segregationist Bull Connor; the poems use language that was wielded in violence and oppression, to reckon with the present moment.
Artist, poet, theologian, and community organizer Tricia Hersey will discuss her new book Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. It is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism.
Moderator Jeremy Redmon is an award-winning journalist with nearly three decades of experience reporting for newspapers. He also teaches journalism at Kennesaw State University and has been named a 2022 Ochberg fellow with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
2:30 PM: Weaving Fact & Fiction: A Historical Fiction Panel | Carreker Hall at First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
Veteran journalist John Pruitt’s novel Tell It True is based on his experiences over fifty years as a television news reporter and anchor in Atlanta.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez‘s novel Take My Hand is Inspired by true events that rocked the nation. A Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients.
Ernesto Mestre-Reed’s novel Sacrificio is set in Cuba in 1998. It is a triumphant and mesmeric work of violence, loss, and identity, following a group of young HIV-positive counterrevolutionaries who seek to overthrow the Castro government.
Moderator Lynn Cullen is the national bestselling author of historical novels The Woman with the Cure, Mrs. Poe, The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Twain’s End, The Creation of Eve, Reign of Madness, and I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter.
4 PM: A Book Buffet: A Culinary Arts Panel | The Sanctuary at the First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030
Jessica Formicola’s book Beef it Up! is a collection of recipes offering ways to serve up protein-rich beef meals without a lot of fuss.
Food historian and fermentation expert, Julia Skinner explores the fascinating roots of a wide range of fermented foods in cultures around the world in her book Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities.
Judith McLoughlin’s A Return to Ireland: A Culinary Journey from America to Ireland serves up recipes celebrating Irish-American heritage as the reader journeys to Ireland.
Moderator Chef Belinda Smith-Sullivan’s book Southern Sugar offers recipes for decadent southern desserts and treats.
The untold story of the unlikely heroes, the cutthroat politics, and the cultural forces that turned a Deep South state purple—by a top reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From his childhood in New Orleans to Howard University as a boy of fifteen, from his work as a young pastor in Alabama to his leadership role in the SCLC, from serving as the first Black congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction to serving as the Ambassador to the United Nations, from two transformational terms as mayor of Atlanta to co-chairmanship of the 1996 Summer Olympics Games, from c
Goldwater Girls to Reagan Women is a statewide study of women's part in the history of conservatism, the New Right, and the Republican Party in the state of Georgia. Robin M. Morris examines how the growth of the Republican Party in the 1960s and 1970s was due in large part to the political activism of white women.
An arresting and one-of-a-kind memoir about the alternately exultant and harrowing trip growing up as a Black child desperate to create a clear reality for herself in this country
The first time Ravi Shankar was arrested, he spoke out against racist policing on National Public Radio and successfully sued the city of New York. The second time, he was incarcerated when his promotion to full professor was finalized.
This deeply personal perspective from a human rights lawyer—whose work on the front lines of the fight against family separations in South Texas intertwines with his own story of immigrating to the United States at thirteen—reframes the United States' history as a nation of immigrants but also a nation against immigrants.
In the summer of 2018, Efr&eacut
Composed entirely of words taken from the letters and public statements of the notorious segregationist Bull Connor, the poems in White Bull use language that was wielded in violence and oppression to reckon with the present moment. The city of Birmingham is a character too, with its suffocating heat and humidity, quarry pools, and mountain in the distance.
***INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world?
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Winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction
“Deeply empathetic yet unflinching in its gaze…an unforgettable exploration of responsibility and redemption.”—Celeste Ng
Set in Cuba in 1998, Sacrificio is a triumphant and mesmeric work of violence, loss, and identity, following a group of young HIV-positive counterrevolutionaries who seek to overthrow the Castro government.
"Huge applause... women have always been in science—despite those who would pretend otherwise.” --Bonnie Garmus, New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
She gave up everything — and changed the world.
From the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of the “page-turning tale” (Library Journal, starred review) Mrs. Poe comes a fictionalized imagining of the personal life of America’s most iconic writer: Mark Twain.
In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V.
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Where’s the beef? It’s on the dinner table tonight! This focused collection of recipes offers 50 tasty ways to serve up protein-rich beef meals without a lot of fuss.
Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities (Hardcover)
From craft beers and sourdough bread to kimchi, coffee, tea, and cheese, fermentation is a popular topic in both food and health circles.
An exceptional cookbook featuring over 100 recipes celebrating Irish-American heritage.
A Return to Ireland showcases fresh, innovative food and drink recipes which celebrate Irish-American heritage as it weaves the culinary and cultural journey of these two places that the author have come to call home.
Let Chef Belinda enhance your sweets menu with her warm hospitality, cooking tips, and approximately 100 flavor-packed recipes for decadent southern desserts and treats.