Iowa Book Festival

Saturday, April 26, 2008
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

The 2nd Annual Iowa Book Festival to be held in Adel on April 26, 2008 promises to be one of those rare and special events where everyone can have fun and learn something at the same time. Local businesses will be participating as well with authors, books and various related activities right in their place of business in historic downtown Adel. The brochure is available for download in four parts: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

The Iowa Book Festival is pleased to announce that nationally-known author and NPR commentator Frank Deford will be the keynote speaker at the 2nd annual Iowa Book Festival. The keynote presentation by Deford will be at the Adel Community Stage & Pavilion at 10th & Main Streets in downtown Adel at 9 AM. Mr. Deford is a commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition, a regular correspondent on the HBO show RealSports with Bryant Gumbel, and a senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated. He is also the author of 15 books, including Casey on the Loose, which is being turned into a Broadway musical, and Alex: The Life of a Child, a memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis. For 16 years, Deford served as the national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and he remains chairman emeritus. As a journalist, Deford has achieved numerous honors in his field, including election to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters and was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times.

A private reception will be held from 8 AM to 9 AM immediately prior to the keynote address at the Raccoon Valley Bank Community House next door to the Adel Community Stage & Pavilion. Reception tickets are $20 per person. Reserved seating is available at the keynote presentation for $5 per person. General admission to the keynote presentation is free to the public but will be lawn seating only. Reception tickets are limited so order yours soon!

Activities will range from fun to serious, sometimes all at once. Writers & poets will have an open microphone opportunity, and plans also include a Book Swap Meet that anyone can participate in. Crafters and vendors are signing up to offer everything from bookmarks to food & wine to scrap booking materials.

Famous authors will read some of their works, including Iowa’s own Michael Carey, Mary Swander and Deb Marquart. Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre will make their first Iowa Book Festival appearance with a performance of Portraits of the Prairie, written by Iowan Mary Swander who will also be featured at the festival.

Scheduling information and vendor application materials will be posted soon to this website. You can also read more about the festival at iowabookfestival.blogspot.com.

Iowa Book Festival Goals

• To provide public programs about books, writing, and reading for people of all ages.
• To encourage programs in schools about books, writing, and reading.
• To offer a forum for discussion of the professional aspects of writing, publishing, and printing.
• To encourage use of the resources provided by libraries.
• To foster reading and discussion of books by Iowa authors.
• To promote literacy and life-long education through reading.
• To cultivate the habits of families reading together.
• To encourage the open discussion of ideas, with mutual respect, that is essential to healthy families and a civil society.

Schedule of Events

• Current Schedule (subject to change)

Author Biographies

The following authors are tentatively scheduled to appear at the Festival. This list is subject to change.

Frank Deford

Author and commentator Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium. The author of fifteen books, his newest, The Entitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in early 2007. On radio, Deford may be heard as a commentator every Wednesday on NPR's Morning Edition and, on television, he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show RealSports With Bryant Gumbel. In magazines, he is Senior Contributing Writer at Sports Illustrated.

Moreover, two of Deford's books — the novel Everybody's All-American and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis — have been made into movies. Another of his books, Casey On The Loose, is being turned into a Broadway musical. Cathy Schulman, producer of 2005's Best Picture, Crash, is producing Deford's next film, a comedy titled The Sister-in-Law. As a journalist, Deford has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. Six times Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review.

Michael Carey

Michael Carey (M.F.A, The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop) is a farmer and author of The Noise the Earth Makes, Honest Effort, Nishnabotna, Carpenter of Song, The Holy Ground and Poetry: Starting from Scratch. He also edited Voices on the Landscape: An Anthology of Iowa Poets. His life and work have been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor Television, and Iowa Public Television’s Living in Iowa, Touchstone and Studio III Presents programs. Michael is founder and executive director of Loess Hills Books and Carrauntoohil Books and founder and host of Iowa Public Radio’s Voices from the Prairie.

Mary Swander

Mary's Swander's most recent work is a forthcoming book of poetry entitled The Girls on the Roof (Turning Point Press, 2009). This long narrative poem is the story of a mother and daughter stuck on top of the roof of catfish dive on the banks of the Mississippi River for three days during the 1993 flood. There, they discover they’ve both had an affair with the same man. Ms. Swander’s award-winning memoir Out of this World: A Journey of Healing that was originally published by Viking/Penguin (1995) will be back in print by the University of Iowa Press in 2008.

Deb Marquart

Debra Marquart is a professor of English at Iowa State University. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment at Iowa State University and the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Marquart's work has appeared in numerous journals such as The North American Review, Three Penny Review, New Letters, River City, Crab Orchard Review, Cumberland Poetry Review, The Sun Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, Orion, Mid-American Review and Witness.

Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre Co.

Kali Van Baale

Peggy Johnston

Peggy Johnston, a graduate from the University of Wyoming, holds a double degree in Art and Education. Since completing her education, she has continued her studies in painting, printing and book art. She has traveled around the country teaching book art workshops in Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming and Iowa, while continuing her education by studying with leading book artists across the nation. In addition to her own work, she finds time to share her knowledge by teaching at the Des Moines Art Center and in the public schools with k-12 students as a visiting artist. She has also had opportunities to teach at the University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University, Simpson College, and Drake University. Peggy was instrumental in the founding of The Prairie Book Collaborative, a group dedicated to the book in all its forms. The group’s first project “One” was unveiled in 2004, and “Two” debuted April 1,2006. “Three” is currently in the works.

Vendor Information

Food, arts/crafts, book vendors and related literary merchants are a valued part of the Iowa Book Festival. If you would like to participate as a vendor, please download this application to become a vendor at the festival.

Workshops