The 2015 St. George Book Festival Committee and What to Expect in October Announced
In 2014, the Utah Humanities recognized the St. George Book Festival as its SISTER festival, making the St. George Book Festival #1 in Southern Utah and also Southern Utah’s signature literary event. However, not only has the book festival grown over the last three years, so has its committee. In the past two years, the committee was made up of about four main members, this year it has grown to ten members and multiple community supporters.
Meet the 2015 St. George Book Festival Committee:
Virginia S Grenier, Book Festival Director
David Smith, Co-chairman & Workshop Coordinator
Darren Edwards, Co-chairman & Poetry Coordinator
Dawn McLain, Media & Sponsorship Coordinator
Lin Vernon Floyd, Youth Poetry Contest Coordinator
James Duckett, Technology Coordinator
Ami Comeford, DSU Coordinator
Lenore Madden, School District Coordinator
Bonnie B. Anderson, Treasurer
One Pen, One Idea and One Reader’s Journey is the catchphrase for the St. George Book Festival and the 2015 programming features over 50 speakers, authors and poets throughout the weeklong event. “This year marks the 10th Anniversary of the book festival,” said Virginia S Grenier, director of the book festival. “We wanted to step things up a notch because of this, so there are some really cool opportunities for St. George community and surrounding areas such as prizes, goodie bags, open mic events to read poems and stories they have written, and of course, some huge authors with celebrity above and beyond their writing. The book festival will also showcase some powerhouse emerging writers from Utah and our own local area.”
Book Festival Director, Virginia S Grenier says these are a few of the headliners for this year’s St. George Book Festival, with more authors coming October 23 thru October 24 to the festival ending celebration Book Expo 2015, which will be part of the Washington County School District’s Spooky Town Fair.
“The book festival committee was really excited when we found out we’ll be partnering with the Spooky Town Fair for our biggest event during the week,” said Virginia S Grenier. “It has been something we have been working towards and the Spooky Town Fair committee has been wonderful to work as we continue to plan events, live entertainment and much more.” The St. George Festival will take place October 19-24, 2015 in various locations throughout St. George with more than 10,000 people expected to attend during the week. Considered one of Southern Utah’s premier literary events, the St. George Book Festival continues to be free and open to the public. This year the book festival has three amazing Keynote Speakers, who are more than just authors.
Kicking off the festival week on Monday, October 19 will be Brad Wilcox, a professor in the Department of Teacher Education at BYU, who works in such programs as Especially for Youth, Women’s Conference and Campus Education Week. Wilcox is also the author of more than a dozen books such as, Developing Literacy, The Best Kept Secrets of Parenting, and Rising Ourselves to the Bar.
The book festival returns with its Writer’s Journey Workshop on Friday, October 23 with opening Keynote Speaker Craig Clyde, who has been in an actor, director, writer in television and film with more than 21 credits to his name. After a stint as an English teacher, Clyde began his professional media career in radio and television in Montana, later moving to Utah. Clyde has appeared in over sixty major films and national television programs as an actor for all the major networks – as well as numerous stage roles. He has been nominated for an IRIS award from the National Association of Television Producers and Executives and was nominated for his first Emmy with his production of Captiona Eddy’s Exit, which he wrote, directed and scored. Even more impressively, he wrote the video, Lighting the Way – The Olympic Dream for the International Olympic Committee, which was used in the winning Utah bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
Those who purchase Literacy Charity Dinner tickets for Friday night, October 23 will be entertained with the Master of Ceremonies actor, comedian, writer, speaker Joe Nipote, who starred as Frankie Waters in the television series Viper for 5 seasons on NBC/UPN. He was also personally handpicked by Steven Spielberg to star as Uncle Stretch, the leader of the Ghostly Trio, in the film Casper. Nipote has Guest-Starred on countless television shows and films, has voiced hundreds of animation projects in film, television and the web, and has lent his voice for radio on dozens of commercials. He has always been very passionate about performing and reading for children, something Nipote has done since he was 16 and worked for the City of Southfield Library where he was known as, “Conductor Joe” traveling to schools in the a makeshift rolling theater and performing stories and puppet shows for children. Nipote has picked up a new chapter in his life writing for children. He recently released his children’s book Eggy Yolk and the Dirty Rotten Dozen, which will be followed by Something Stinks! and Spinelli-The Spider Who Hates the Taste of Bugs!
Other events planned during the book festival week can be found at http://stgeorgebookfestival.org
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Thanks to generous donors, sponsors, and volunteers, the St. George Book Festival remains free and open to the public. Visit http://stgeorgebookfestival.org for more information, and join the conversation on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/St.GeorgeBookfestival