Jun 5, 2009 9:24 am US/Central
Celebrated Authors In Town For Printers Row Fest
Dave Eggers, Neil Gaiman, Bill Ayers Set To Appear
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The Printers Row Lit Fest in 2006.
CBS
An array of celebrated authors will be in Chicago this weekend, appearing for talks at the Printers Row Lit Fest.
The festival is put on annually by the Chicago Tribune in conjunction with the Chicago Public Library. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday on stages outside the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St., the University Center, 525 S. State St., and along Dearborn and Polk streets.
Neil Gaiman, author of
Coraline and
American Gods, will appear at the festival to receive a Chicago Tribune Young Adult Book Prize. Also featured at the festival are Dave Eggers, author of
What Is the What; Elmore Leonard, author of
Road Dogs; and Aleksandar Hemon, author of
Love and Obstacles. But those authors' events require tickets and are sold out, according to the Web site for the event.
But tickets are still available – or not required – for several other authors. Tribune advice columnist Amy Dickinson will appear to talk about her book,
The Mighty Queens of Freeville, and WTTW-Channel 11 correspondent Elizabeth Brackett will discuss her book about the Rod Blagojevich scandal,
Pay to Play. Michael Davis, author of the recent "Sesame Street" historical narrative
Street Gang is also set to appear.
Also set to appear, among numerous others, are cartoonists Chris Ware and Lynda Barry; playwrights Tracy Letts and Mary Zimmerman; and University of Illinois at Chicago education professor Bill Ayers, who was in the headlines last year for his association with President Barack Obama and his past involvement in the Weather Underground radical group. Ayers will appear with his wife, Northwestern University law professor and former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn, for an interview by Book TV.
The festival also features cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, poetry readings, and a children's stage with lizards from the Shedd Aquarium on display, and performances by Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players. Booksellers from across the Chicago area will be represented at booths along Dearborn and Polk streets.
If you're driving or taking the bus, plan in advance. The festival will close Dearborn between Polk and Congress Parkway, and Polk between Clark and State streets from 10 a.m. Friday until 11 p.m. Sunday.
The street closures will cause the reroutes of the following bus lines: southbound Clark (No. 22), northbound Wentworth (No. 24), southbound Broadway (No. 36), northbound Archer (No. 62) and southbound West Loop/South Loop (No. 129), the CTA said.
More About The Festival
The STNG Wire contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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