The Gloucester Arts Festival is holding its first-ever Book Fair, featuring over two dozen local and regional authors, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester, 6894 Main Street.
This free event is open to the public. Guests will be able to drop in at any time, browse among the authors’ tables, chat with the writers, and purchase books, if they so desire. There will be book signings and readings, an exhibit of photographs by Freedom B. Goode, and food trucks in the parking lot for those who’d like to make a day of it.
Elizabeth Blackney, executive director of the Cook Foundation, which oversees the festival, said that the museum “proudly welcomes a distinguished group of authors whose works span poetry, mystery, memoir, and social justice.”
“As we all await the arts festival in June, we are excited to bring the literary arts into focus, as well,” she said.
The idea for a book fair was brought to the Cook Foundation by Mary Shipko, an aviation pioneer, an author, “and an inspiration,” said Blackney in a press release. Shipko is featured on the Iconic Women mural at the new ArtWorks building on Main Street.
A former airline pilot, Shipko is the author of “Aviatrix: First Woman Pilot for Hughes Airwest.” Her memoir offers an account of breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry during the 1970s.
Other selected authors
Carolyn Kreiter- Foronda, Virginia’s Poet Laureate from 2006 to 2008, is a nationally-recognized poet, visual artist, and educator, said the release. Known for her “lyrical mastery and exploration of nature, art, and memory,” Kreiter-Foronda has published numerous poetry collections and is celebrated for her ability to bridge the literary and visual arts.
David Cariens, author of “Outrageous: Investigating Mass Murders, My Personal Journey” and other works, is a retired CIA officer and political analyst as well as an author, criminal justice expert, and advocate for victims’ rights.
Tim Holland, also writing under the pen name George T. Arnold, is the author of five novels, including the Sidney Lake Mystery series, which consists of “The Rising Tide, “The Murder of Amos Dunn,” and “Deception.”
Other authors who have confirmed they’ll be at the fair and selected books include Susan Williamson, “Dead on the Trail”; Sally Stiles, “Across the Covered Bridge”; Leslie Tayloe, “The Attic Door”; Patricia Procopi, “The Murderer You Know”; Rich Blecher, “Xima”; Richard Eric Pound, “I Went Aviatin’ to China”; and Maurine Frank, “Blue Crab Finds a Home.”
Also, Adam Clayton, “Janus Curse”; Allison Keli, “When Violet Took Flight”; Cindy Freeman, “I Want to Go Home”; D.M. Frech, “Quiet Tree”; Ted Hale, “Carronia Incursion”; Paul Martin, “The Adventures of Chuka”; and J.S. Clawson, “The Hawk and the Hummingbird and the Clock.”
Also, Chris ‘The Poetic Genius’ Green, “Life Love and Poetry”; Carol Amorosi, “Death On the Line”; D.L. Farrar, “Vincent and the Grief Masters”; John Conlee, “The Rarest Book in the World”; Kathy Kasunich, “Always Remembering”; and Michael J. Hebert, “Ever Vigilant: Tales of the Vietnam War.”
For more information, visit gloucesterartsfestival.org/bookfair.
