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Rich Murphy
CONTENTS
A couple points to the waterfall coming from one of the sculptures on the Downtown Sioux Falls Sculpture Walk.
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Events Map
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Our Rhythms: A Tribute to Poetry Sponsored by Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation
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Our World: A Tribute to Non-Fiction Sponsored by South Dakota Public Broadcasting
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Our Youth: A Tribute to Children’s Literature Sponsored by Siouxland Libraries
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Schedule of Events
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Exhibitors’ Hall
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Our Fantasies: A Tribute to Fiction and Storytelling
For more information visit www.sdhumanities.org or contact us at (605) 688-6113 or e-mail sdsu-sdhc@sdstate.edu. Time and presenters listed are subject to change. Changes will be announced on the festival Web site and “The Festival Survival Guide” at the information booth in the Exhibitors Hall located at the Holiday Inn International Room.
Sponsored by Messengers of Healing Winds Foundation
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Our Creativity: A Tribute to Writers’ Support Sponsored by the South Dakota Arts Council
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Our Culture: A Tribute to History & Tribal Writing Sponsored by We The People National Endowment for the Humanities
Cover illustration based on photo taken by Greg Latza. See more photos at www.greglatza.com.
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Welcome From Mayor Munson
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ELCOME TO SIOUX FALLS, a city of 151,300 progressive citizens and one of the largest cities in the Upper Midwest. Our city offers many riches that make it unique … from parks to culture, entertainment, shopping, sports, and music. On behalf of city government and our citizens, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the Festival of Books. We are pleased to host this festival. This family-friendly event offers something for nearly every age group. One of my all-time favorite books is by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. The book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, is an insightful book on one of the best-loved and most important presidents in history. History comes alive on its pages. We’re glad to host this exciting gathering of writers and readers. Enjoy your time in Sioux Falls. Sincerely,
Dave Munson Mayor
O U R A DV E R T I S E R S Augustana College . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Big Read Egypt/U.S. . . . . . . . . . . .15 Book Shop (The) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Center for Western Studies . . . . . .18 Harper Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Kilian Community College . . . . . .25 Medallion Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Mount Marty College . . . . . . . . . .17 Mount Rushmore History Assoc. . .17 Penguin Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Pine Hill Press . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Prairie Pages Bookseller . . . . . . . .20 4 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
SD Agricultural Heritage Museum 13 SD Historical Society Press . . . . . . .2 SD Humanities Challenge Grant . .21 SD Humanities Foundation . . . . . .24 Shadow Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 South Dakota Public Television . . . .6 South Dakota State Library . . . . . .5 South Dakota State University . . .14 South Dakotans for the Arts . . . . .25 State Publishing Company . . . . . .25 University of Nebraska Press . . . .29 University of SD English Dept. . . .25
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DOWNTOWN SIOUX FALLS 7
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SD Tourism
Regional poets star at the 2008 festival.
Our Plains Poets
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any people wouldn’t relish being called “feisty” or “startling.” For a poet, those words are as precious as a fresh pen and a blank journal. Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle garners Freya Manfred some high praise from notables in the literary world. Poet Robert Bly calls her poems “feisty and touching,” and says this new collection is Manfred’s best book of poetry. Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award novelist Philip Roth remarked that Manfred “startles” him “by how close she gets to everything she sees… it makes her a wonderful poet.” Manfred’s talent will be showcased in this year’s poetry track. In keeping with the theme, “Poetry of the Plains,” all festival poets this year are from the Midwest, with most hailing from South Dakota. Yet there’s nothing parochial about these poets. David Allan Evans, Poet Laureate of South Dakota, was the first South Dakotan to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and a Bush Artist’s grant recipient as well. Evans’ latest collection, Each Day You’re Gone, came out in June. Patrick Hicks’ new collection, Finding the Gossamer, is being published in Ireland, where he has dual
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citizenship. Hicks is currently Augustana College’s writer-in-residence. Christine Stewart-Nuñez’s collection, Postcard on Parchment, reflects her stint teaching in Turkey. Lydia Whirlwind Soldier is a member of the first Native writers’ group in the state, the Oak Lake Writers Society. Her work appeared in the anthology Shaping Survival. Her poetry collection, Memory Songs, was published by the Center for Western Studies. A critic said Whirlwind Soldier’s poems “offer a world view that is every bit as profound and powerful as that found in the works of our famous and much-revered ‘great’ poets.” Other notable poets rounding out this track are Frank Pommersheim, Allison Hedge Coke, Jeanne Emmons and Jim Reese. Emmons specializes in modern poetry and Victorian literature in her post in the English Department at Briar Cliff University. In addition to his duties as an English professor at Mount Marty College in Yankton, Jim Reese encourages writers at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp. Pommersheim has a day job as a law professor at USD; Hedge Coke is at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. This year, the festival is pleased to have the South Dakota Poetry Society providing assistance and support for the poetry track.
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POETRY PRESENTERS JEANNE EMMONS An English professor at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa, Dr. Emmons specializes in Modern Poetry and Victorian Literature. A Texas native, she writes short stories and poetry. Her books include Rootbound, Baseball Nights and DDT, and The Glove of the World. Her work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Cimarron Review, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere, and she is a past winner of the Iowa Woman poetry competition, South Coast Poetry Review, and the Minnesota Voices Project.
has appeared in over 100 journals. He is an advisory editor for New Hibernia Review and is the author of Traveling through History, Draglines, The Kiss that Saved My Life and Finding the Gossamer. He was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and was a Visiting Fellow at Oxford.
FREYA MANFRED
South Dakota Poet Laureate David Allan Evans has authored six poetry books and three books of essays, including The Bull Rider’s Advice and Hanging Out with the Crows. He is Professor Emeritus of English at South Dakota State University. He lives in Sioux Falls.
Freya Manfred has written six collections of poetry. Her latest is Swimming with a Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle. Her other books are A Goldenrod Will Grow, My Only Home, which sold 2,000 copies, a huge amount in the world of poetry, Yellow Squash Woman, American Roads, and a chapbook: Flesh and Blood. Her literary memoir, Frederick Manfred, A Daughter Remembers, was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award and an Iowa Historical Society Benjamin F. Shambaugh Award.
ALLISON HEDGE COKE
FRANK POMMERSHEIM
DAVID ALLAN EVANS
in-Chief of PADDLEFISH. Reese’s poetry and prose have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies: New York Quarterly, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, Paterson Literary Review, South Dakota Review and New Delta Review. His most recent collection of poetry is These Trespasses (Backwaters Press, 2005, 2006). Reese is the 2008–2009 National Endowment for the Arts Writer-in-Residence at the Yankton Federal Prison Camp.
LYDIA WHIRLWIND SOLDIER Lydia Whirlwind Soldier is a Sicangu Lakota born in Bad Nation on the Rosebud reservation. An enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, she worked in education for 30 years, and is a poet, non-fiction writer, business owner and recognized craftswoman. Her collection of poems, Memory Songs, was published in 1999 and she contributed to the 2007 anthology titled This Stretch of the River.
CHRISTINE STEWART-NUÑEZ www.poetscholar.com
Allison Hedge Coke holds the Reynolds Chair in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Her latest book is entitled Blood Run. Of Cherokee-Huron-Creek and European-American heritage, she is the author of several books and is a MacDowell Colony/ Black Earth Institute Think Tank Fellow. Her book Dog Road Woman won the 1998 Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award.
Frank Pommersheim, a law professor at the University of South Dakota, writes extensively in the field of Indian law. He is the author of Braid of Feathers (American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life) and numerous scholarly articles. He is also a poet. His most recent book is East of the River: Poems Both Ancient and New. He recently completed a book entitled Broken Landscape: Indians, Indian Tribes and the Constitution, which is due out early in 2009.
PATRICK HICKS
JIM REESE
www.hedgecoke.blogspot.com
Patrick Hicks is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. His work
Dr. Stewart-Nuñez is an English professor at South Dakota State University in Brookings. Her poetry has been published in journals, magazines, and chapbooks Unbounded, Branded and The Love of Unreal Things. Her latest book of poetry, Postcard on Parchment, was selected as the winner of the 2007 ABZ First Book Poetry contest and was published in April 2008.
Jim Reese is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of the Great Plains Writers’ Tour at Mount Marty College in Yankton. He is the Editor9
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Kantner finds inspiration in his home state of Alaska.
Life Arctic Circle
Seth Kantner
above the
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cclaim for Seth Kantner’s debut novel, Ordinary Wolves, was widespread and unstinting. The coming of age story of a boy growing up on the Alaskan tundra and his encounter with urban life earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, the Milkweed National Prize for Fiction, a Whiting Award and other accolades. One reviewer called Ordinary Wolves “a rare thing of beauty, a novel alive with detail about a life most of us would never experience.” The theme continues with Kantner’s second book, just released in June. In Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska, Kantner again focuses on his home, Alaska, but this time does so through nonfiction essays and his own photographs. Shopping for Porcupine provides an insider’s view of Kantner’s upbringing through the1960s and ’70s as well as his life above the Arctic Circle today. His stunning photographs offer a glimpse into Alaskan life — its wide-open spaces juxtaposed with prose that examines rapidly changing life in the twenty-first century, a world vastly different than it was just a few decades ago. Kantner is joined in the nonfiction track by over a half-dozen authors who provide knowledge from a breadth of topics, ranging from regional subjects to thrilling tales of international spies, like those told by award-winning South Dakota author Marcia Mitchell
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in her 2008 book, The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War. Jerry Wilson and Starley Talbott both have new books from the South Dakota State Historical Press. Wilson’s book, Waiting for Coyote’s Call: A Memoir from the Missouri River Bluff, is inspired by Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Annie Dillard. Along the Grapevine Trail: Vineyards and Wineries in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska by Starley Talbott brims with information about the growing wine business in these states. Art Huseboe continues the nature theme with a talk about “Birding on the Northern Plains,” based on the book Birding in the Northern Plains, the Ornithological Writings of Herbert Krause. A reviewer for The Washington Post says there are 82 reasons to read Pete Dexter’s Paper Trails, a journalistic gem full of “storytelling and insight into people and circumstances that most of us either take for granted or can’t see.” High praise also abounds for Susan Griffin’s Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen. The book, which Griffin calls social autobiography, has been described as “cultural poetry steeped in history and heart.” The South Dakota Center for the Book’s newest program, The Big Read Egypt/U.S., will launch at the S.D. Library Association Conference and at the Festival with an Egyptian scholar presenting on “An Egyptian View of American Novels and Mythologies.”
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NON-FICTION PRESENTERS
PETE DEXTER After working as a journalist for 15 years, Pete Dexter turned to book writing at age 40. He is the author of Paris Trout, which won the 1988 National Book Award. In 2007, he released a collection of nonfiction short stories entitled Paper Trails: True Stories of Confusion, Mindless Violence, and Forbidden Desires, A Number of Which are not about Marriage. Dexter grew up in Sioux Falls and attended the University of South Dakota.
Frederick Manfred (Nebraska) and Anson Yeager’s Stories (CWS). He is the author of An Illustrated History of the Arts in South Dakota and co-author of A New South Dakota History (CWS). He is the executive director of the Center for Western Studies at Augustana College and an inductee into the S.D. Hall of Fame. Huseboe has just published Birding in the Northern Plains, the Ornithological Writings of Herbert Krause (edited by Ronald R. Nelson).
AZZA M. H. EL-KHOLY
SETH KANTNER
Azza El-Kholy is a Professor of Literature and Women’s Issues at the University of Alexandria, Egypt, and Special Projects Advisor at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
www.kapvikphotography.com
SUSAN GRIFFIN www.susangriffin.com Susan Griffin is a poet, essayist, playwright and screenwriter. Her published works include Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy, Woman and Nature and A Chorus of Stones, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award. Her play Voices won an Emmy in 1975 for a local PBS production. She has published several volumes of poetry, including Unremembered Country and Bending Home. In addition, she co-authored the script for the Academy Award nominated film, Berkeley in the Sixties. She is currently writing a script depicting the life of a courtesan.
ARTHUR R. HUSEBOE Among Huseboe’s recent edited works are The Selected Letters of
Born and raised in the northern Alaska wilderness, Seth Kantner is a writer and photographer who has also worked as a trapper, fisherman, gardener, mechanic, igloo builder, and adjunct professor. His first novel, Ordinary Wolves, garnered many awards, including the Milkweed National Prize for Fiction. Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska is Kantner’s 2008 nonfiction collection of writing and photographs. One reviewer said the book is unforgettable and “full of stunning images, and only some of them are in the photos.”
MARCIA MITCHELL Marcia Mitchell’s latest book, published in August, is entitled The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion. Mitchell arrives at the festival just after a sympo-
sium on the book at American University in Washington, D.C.; a screen adaptation is in the works. The Spy Who Seduced America, co-authored by Mitchell, was the Counterintelligence Book of the Year in 2002. She is the former Secretary of Labor for South Dakota.
STARLEY TALBOTT Starley Talbott has published hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles in her more than thirty years as a journalist and freelancer. She is the author of Along the Grapevine Trail: Vineyards and Wineries in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska, released in June 2008. Talbott is a charter member and past-president of Wyoming Writers and a member of Western Writers of America. She has traveled the world and lived in South Africa, Mexico and Peru. Her book Lasso the World details some of her world travels.
JERRY WILSON Jerry Wilson, a retired professor and magazine editor, recently completed Waiting for Coyote’s Call: A Memoir from the Missouri River Bluff, scheduled to be published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press in 2008. He is also the author of American Artery: A Pan American Journey. Wilson lives in Vermillion.
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The Elusive Obert Skye
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nd why are your teens and tweens bugging you to go see him at this year’s festival? Skye isn’t giving away answers to the question. He purposely keeps things sketchy because it sparks one’s imagination. For example, he’ll only say he lives somewhere in the United States in a place that’s colder than he would prefer. Moreover, he “was born in the middle of the week during an average-length year.” Not exactly helpful stuff. Despite the cloak-and-dagger secrecy that envelops Mr. Skye, it’s possible to ferret out some tidbits of information. Skye’s latest book, Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra, will be released September 30, but will be available at the festival. This book is the fourth in a series that began beginning with Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo. Foo, for the uninitiated, is a mythical realm whose existence is crucial to humans’ ability to dream and hope. Now Foo’s evil ruler wants to take over Earth. Enter Leven Thumps, a teen who lives in a dumpy mobile home park in Burnt Culvert, Oklahoma. Publisher’s Weekly calls the young adult fantasy novel “imaginative and entertaining.” We can deduce that Obert Skye is highly successful. He has entertained more than 250,000 students in the past handful of years. He won the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Juvenile Fiction Book and was
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nominated for a Texas Blue Bonnet Award. Obert Skye is also a busy man. July brought publication of Pillage, a suspenseful tale of family curses, dragons, greed, and courage. Who is Obert Skye? Who knows? At least now you understand why your kids want to see him. In addition to fantasy, the children’s track at the festival has something for every taste. Non-fiction lovers will enjoy National Geographic author Ann Bausum’s award-winning books on American history, as well as Jean Patrick’s South Dakota-based books Who Carved the Mountain? and Cows, Cats, and Kids. Other South Dakota authors featured are Mark Meierhenry and David Volk, as well as the state’s first National Humanities Medalist, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, author of Bad River Boys and many other books. Michael Spradlin’s latest book, The Youngest Templar, is being released just days before the festival; his Spy Goddess: The Chase for the Chalice was also recently released. The common theme in Spradlin’s books is that “stuff blows up.” School Library Journal promises readers that they will zip through Jon Anderson’s, aka William Boniface’s, Ordinary Boy superhero series “faster than a speeding bullet.” Last but not least, S.D. Nelson presents a rare combination — he is both a successful author and an artist. His unforgettable colorful artwork typically reflects his Lakota heritage.
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CHILDREN’S LITERATURE PRESENTERS
ANN BAUSUM
MARK MEIERHENRY
www.annbausum.com
Mark Meierhenry, a Sioux Falls attorney, recently co-wrote the children’s book The Mystery of the Trees which was released in the summer of 2008. Meierhenry is also the co-author of The Mystery of the Round Rocks, published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. Meierhenry served as South Dakota’s Attorney General from 1979-1986.
Ann Bausum writes about U.S. history for young people from her home in Wisconsin. Her latest titles include: Our Country’s First Ladies (2007) and Muckrakers (2007). She writes about issues of social justice, including the fight for women’s voting rights in With Courage and Cloth (2004), and the civil rights in Freedom Riders (2006). She also wrote Our Country’s Presidents (Second Edition, 2005) and Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs (2000). Bausum has won acclaim for her work, including a Sibert Honor designation for Freedom Riders and a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award for With Courage and Cloth. Both titles were named notable books by the American Library Association. In 2006, Booklist, an ALA magazine, named Freedom Riders “Top of the List” of the best youth non-fiction.
S.D. NELSON www.sdnelson.net S.D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Nelson’s artwork appears on book jackets, greeting cards, and CD covers, and his paintings are held in both private and public collections. He has written and illustrated numerous award-winning children’s books, including Crazy Horse’s Vision, The Star People: A Lakota Story and Gift Horse: A Lakota Story.
WILLIAM BONIFACE
JEAN PATRICK
Jon Anderson, under the pen name William Boniface, is author of The Extraordinary Adventures of an Ordinary Boy series for children. Anderson lives in New York.
www.jeanpatrick.com
VIRGINIA DRIVING HAWK SNEVE Driving Hawk Sneve is the daughter of an Episcopal priest and a Lakota mother, and she was raised on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The first South Dakotan to be awarded a National Humanities medal, she has worked as a teacher, school counselor, editor, and writer. She has published approximately two dozen fiction and nonfiction books for adults and children.
Jean Patrick is a children’s book author who lives near Mitchell. Her most recent book is Who Carved the Mountain? The Story of Mount Rushmore. She also is the author of The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth, If I Had a Snowplow, Dolley Madison, and Cows, Cats, and Kids: A Veterinarian’s Family at Work. Patrick gives presentations at schools, libraries and conferences across the country and is especially interested in literacy issues.
OBERT SKYE www.leventhumps.com Obert Skye doesn't like to give a lot of details in his biography. For example, he likes to say that he was “born 13
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CHILDREN’S LITERATURE PRESENTERS CONTINUED a number of years ago in a town about the size of the one you are living in.” More than wanting to remain anonymous, Skye just wants us to leave the rest of the story to our imagination, something he excels at. He read his first book at age two and he wrote his first story at age four. Besides traveling and writing, he enjoys solving mysteries and collecting old maps. He is the author of the bestselling Leven Thumps series. The fourth installment, titled Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra, will be released this September.
MICHAEL SPRADLIN www.michaelspradlin.com Michael Spradlin is the author of over a dozen children’s books. He is the author of the Spy Goddess book series for young adults. In February, he released the first Spy Goddess manga, Spy Goddess: The Chase for the Chalice. Spradlin has been nominated for the Edgar Award for the Best Young Adult Mystery by the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Michigan, his home state.
DAVID VOLK David Volk cowrote the children’s book The Mystery of the Trees, which was released in the summer of 2008. Volk is also the coauthor of The Mystery of the Round Rocks, published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. Volk is a five time state treasurer and served as cabinet secretary of Governor William Janklow. He holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Northern State University. 14 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
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FESTIVAL GUIDELINES Please abide by the following guidelines to make this event enjoyable for all. No soliciting or distribution of flyers, literature, etc., of any kind at any festival venue without prior consent. No videotaping or tape recording. Turn cell phones and pagers off during presentations. The S.D. Festival of Books, its sponsors or venues, are not responsible for lost or stolen items.
TICKETS REQUIRED The public is invited to purchase tickets for three special events at the Festival of Books. Purchase your tickets in advance from the SDHC (605) 688-6113. Saturday: Breakfast with Kim Ode $10.00 Saturday:Literary Feast $35.00 Sunday: Lunch with Clifford Wright $20.00
SILENT AUCTION BOOK CRAZE As a special offer to Festival goers, there will be a silent auction and a chance to purchase raffle tickets for dozens of books. All books are new releases, and several are autographed copies. The auction and raffle ticket sales will begin when the Festival opens with theWelcome Reception on Sept.26th at 3 p.m. Bidding and ticket sales will close on Sunday,Sept.28th at 3 p.m. You do not need to be present to win.Winners will be notified by email or phone. (Also,a number of books will be included in a free raffle that will be at the Humanities Council Festival information booth in the exhibitors’hall.) 16 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
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Monday, September 22nd – Wednesday, September 24th 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – The Outdoor Campus, “Animals and Architects” Hosted by HOP – Hands-On Partnership for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota
Thursday, September 25th 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS –The Outdoor Campus, “Animals and Architects” Hosted by HOP – Hands-On Partnership for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota 1:00 – 2:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – South Dakota Library Association Conference, Chamberlain – “The Library and Its Readers: The Importance of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt’s Window to the World,” Dr. Azza M. H. El-Kholy 7:30 – 9:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – Orpheum – Live Taping of National Public Radio’s, “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.” TICKET REQUIRED
Friday, September 26 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM ~ SPECIAL EVENTS –The Outdoor Campus, “Animals and Architects” Hosted by HOP – Hands-On Partnership for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM ~ SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – SD State Poetry Society Meeting 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM ~ SPECIAL EVENTS – Barnes and Noble – “Press Conference and Food for Thought.” Book signing to follow 1:00 – 3:00 PM ~ SPECIAL EVENTS – Orpheum, Main Theatre – “The Library and Its Readers: The Importance of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Classroom,” Dr. Azza M. H. El-Kholy. Workshop for area K12 teachers and school librarians
3:00 – 6:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, International Rooms – Opening of Exhibitors’ Hall, “Welcome to the Festival of Books Reception.” Silent Auction Begins. Sponsored by Jeff and Sheila Hazard 3:00 – 4:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – SD State Poetry Society Tea and Reception 4:00 – 5:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Atrium – Early Bird Book Signings 4:00 – 5:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – SD State Poetry Society Contest Winner Readings 7:30 – 8:45 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Extraordinary Characters.” Obert Skye, Michael Spradlin, Ann Bausum and William Boniface. Sponsored by Raven Industries 7:30 – 8:45 PM ~ SPECIAL EVENTS – Orpheum, Theatre – “Great Books for Many Readers.” Discussion featuring authors Louise Erdrich (2008 One Book South Dakota), Susan Power, Otto Penzler and Kenneth Davis
Saturday, September 27 8:00 – 9:00 AM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – HI, Starlite Room, “Breakfast with the St. Paul Bread Club.” Author Kim Ode is a veteran newspaper reporter and former columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Ode lives in Edina, Minnesota, where the aroma of fresh baked bread regularly wafts from the woodfired brick bread oven in the backyard. TICKET REQUIRED 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENT – Holiday Inn, International Rooms – Exhibitors’ Hall Open 9:00 – 9:45 AM~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Holiday Inn, Starlite –
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“Peril and Promise,” Charles Woodard, SDSU English Professor; John Miller, SDSU History Professor Emeritus; Mary Alice Haug, SDSU English Professor Emeritus; Ruth Harper, SDSU College of Education; Larry Rogers, SDSU College of Education 9:00 – 9:45 AM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “SD Poet Laureates,” South Dakota Poetry Society 9:00 – 9:45 AM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Embassy I – “Genealogy and On-Demand Publishing,” Loren H. Amundson, MD 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – The Outdoor Campus, “Animals and Architects” Hosted by HOP – Hands-On Partnership for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota 10:00 – 10:45 AM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Presidents and First Ladies,” Ann Bausum 10:00 – 10:45 AM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Classroom - “Mystery of Round Rocks,” Mark Meierhenry and Dave Volk 10:00 – 10:45 AM ~ FICTION – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – “Finding the Root of the Story,” Thrity Umrigar 10:00 – 11:15 AM ~ FICTION – Orpheum, Main Theatre – “Creating the Fictional Crime Character,” Otto Penzler, CJ Box, Lin Enger and Lori Armstrong 10:00 – 10:45 AM~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Holiday Inn, Starlite – “American’s Hidden History,” Kenneth Davis 10:00 – 10:45 AM ~NON-FICTION – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “An Egyptian View of American Novels and Mythologies,” Azza M. H. El-Kholy
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10:00 – 10:45 AM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “Where Do We Find Home?” Freya Manfred 10:00 – 10:45 AM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “Ask a Publisher,” Ben Barnhart 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Leven Thumps: Welcome to Foo,” Obert Skye 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~ FICTION – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – “Outlaws and Adventure Stories,” Leif Enger 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Holiday Inn, Starlite – “The Wild West and its Mythologies,” Jim McLaird and Louis Warren 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Orpheum, Classroom – “From Family Man to America’s First Public Enemy,” Timothy Bjorkman 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~NON-FICTION – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “Birding on the Northern Plains,” Art Huseboe 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “After the Swan Dive,” Dave Evans 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Embassy I – “Ask A Publisher,” Jon Anderson 11:00 – 11:45 AM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT– Orpheum, Main Theatre – “Screenwriting and Producing: Whose Story Is It?” Tom Pope and Pete Dexter 12:00 – 1:00 PM ~ Lunch Break 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Spy Goddess Series Morphs to Manga,” Michael Spradlin
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1:00 – 1:45 PM~ FICTION – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – “The Art of Writing Short Stories,” Brian Bedard, Ron Carlson and Kent Meyers 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Holiday Inn, Starlite – “Searching for Lincoln’s Legacy,” John. C. Waugh and Charles Lachman 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~NON-FICTION – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “An EcoMemoir,” Jerry Wilson 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “Native Voices in Poetry,” Lydia Whirlwind Soldier and Allison Hedge Coke 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Embassy I – “Science Fiction Writing and Publishing,” Jane Jewell 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Orpheum, Classroom– “Ask a Publisher,” Ben Barnhart 2:00 – 2:45 PM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Where Do You Find Your Power,” William Boniface 2:00 – 2:45 PM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Classroom – “Indian History for Kids,” S.D. Nelson and Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve 2:00 – 2:45 PM ~ FICTION – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – “Writing Through History’s Lens,” Spring Warren
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2:00 – 2:45 PM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “Traveling and Poetry,” Patrick Hicks and Christine Stewart-Nuñez 2:00 – 2:45 PM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Embassy I – “SD Children’s Book Authors,” Jean Patrick, Dave Volk and Mark Meierhenry 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Creating Daniel Boone,” Michael Spradlin 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~ FICTION – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – “Passing along the Stories,” Susan Power 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Orpheum, Classroom, “Harriet Tubman,” Beverly Lowry 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~NON-FICTION – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy,” Susan Griffin 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “Poetry and Real Life: What are the Connections,” Frank Pommersheim 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~ WRITERS’ SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Embassy I – “Collecting Classic Crime Fiction,” Otto Penzler 3:00 – 3:45 PM ~NON-FICTION – Orpheum, Main Theatre – “What Should We Read Next,” Dr. Azza M. H El-Kholy and Kent Meyers
2:00 – 2:45 PM~ FICTION – Orpheum, Main Theatre– “Undiscovered Country,” Lin Enger
4:00 – 4:45 PM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Orpheum, Anne Zabel Studio Theatre – “Mount Rushmore: Dynamite and the Writing Process,” Jean Patrick
2:00 – 2:45 PM ~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Holiday Inn, Starlite – “Raising Steaks,” Betty Fussell
4:00 – 4:45 PM~ FICTION – Holiday Inn, Burgundy Room – “No Place Like Home,” Ellen Baker
2:00 – 2:45 PM ~NON-FICTION – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “Paper Trails,” Pete Dexter
4:00 – 4:45 PM ~HISTORY/ TRIBAL WRITERS – Orpheum, Classroom – “Insights on Settlements of
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American Indians and African Americans in South Dakota,” Betti VanEpps-Taylor, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve and Allison Hedge Coke 4:00 – 4:45 PM ~NON-FICTION – Holiday Inn, Ambassador – “Spy Stuff: Writing Non-fiction in the Dangerous World of Smoke and Mirrors,” Marcia Mitchell 4:00 – 4:45 PM ~POETRY – Holiday Inn, Embassy II – “A Midwestern Poet Conversation,” Jim Reese and Jeanne Emmons 4:00 – 4:45 PM ~ WRITER’S SUPPORT – Holiday Inn, Embassy I – “For the Love of Writing,” Louise and Spring Warren 4:00 – 4:45 PM ~NON-FICTION – Orpheum, Main Theatre – “Shopping for Porcupine,” Seth Kantner 5:00 – 5:45 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Atrium – Mass Book Signing 6:00 – 8:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Starlite Room, “Literary Feast: Midwestern History and Storytelling,” Leif Enger, Lin Enger, C.J. Box, Starley Talbott, Kim Ode, Ellen Baker and Betty Fussell. Sponsored by American Family Insurance and J&L Harley Davidson (Jim and Jill Entenman) TICKET REQUIRED 8:00 – 10:00 PM ~SPECIAL EVENTS – Orpheum, Theatre, “Sweet Land Screening,” Thomas Pope with intro by Pete Dexter
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Sunday, September 28 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, International Rooms – “Celebrating SD Authors: Open Microphone and Book Signing,” South Dakota Authors and Writers 12:00 – 2:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Starlite Rooms – “A Mediterranean Feast and History,” with Dr. Azza M. H. El-Kholy and Mediterranean cook, Clifford Wright. Wright was the Winner of the James Beard/ KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year 2000 and Winner of the Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food in 2000. TICKET REQUIRED 1:00 – 4:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – The Outdoor Campus, “Animals and Architects” Hosted by HOP – Hands-On Partnership for Science, Literature and Art in South Dakota 1:00 – 1:45 PM ~CHILDREN’S/ YOUNG ADULTS’ LITERATURE – Sertoma Butterfly House – “Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs,” Ann Bausum and “Storytime” with South Dakota Children’s Authors 2:00 – 3:00 PM~SPECIAL EVENTS – Holiday Inn, Starlite Rooms –Special keynote by Valentino Achak Deng, founder of the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation 7:30 – 10:00 PM ~ Please join Augustana College for a very SPECIAL EVENT, with Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, at the Augustana College Elmen Center
Time and presenters listed are subject to change. Please check “The Festival Survival Guide” in the information booth located in the Exhibitors Hall (Holiday Inn International Room) for any last minute changes. 19
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Exhibitors’ Hall
Festival of Books guests glance over books that are available for purchase in the Exhibitors’ Hall.
PRESSES: Center for Western Studies, Sioux Falls www.augie.edu/cws
AUTHORS: Sue Christensen, Vermillion Re-Jeweled www.rejeweled.com
Darkling Publications, Colome www.darklingpublications.com
BOOKSELLERS: Barnes and Noble, Sioux Falls www.barnesandnoble.com
Dawg Gone Book Distributors, Blaine, MN www.xulonpress.com Paint Horse Books, West Des Moines, IA www.niobraracrossing.com
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS: Learning Enabled, Inc., McLaughlin
Pine Hill Press, Sioux Falls www.pinehillpress.com
Usborne Books www.patsysbookstore.com
Red Dragonfly Press, Northfield, MN www.reddragonpress.com
ORGANIZATIONS: S.D. Agricultural Museum, Brookings www.agmuseum.com
S.D. Historical Society Press, Pierre www.sdshspress.com William Randall Publishing, Yankton www.questmarc.com OTHER: S.D. Committee on Publications, Rapid City Shakespeare Society, Sioux Falls 20 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
Waldenbooks, Sioux Falls www.waldenbooks.com
S.D. Public Broadcasting, Vermillion www.sdpb.org Sinte Gleska University www.sintegleska.edu The Wall, Wall
Exhibitors’ hall opens Saturday at 9 a.m.
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Fiction: The Mesmerizing Prose of Louise Erdrich
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ouise Erdrich was once asked if she considered herself to be a poet or a storyteller. She replied, “Oh, a storyteller, a writer.” Yet her gift for poetry is unmistakable in her fiction, in its lyrical language and mystical imagery. When reading Erdrich, it’s easy to imagine her forebears gathered round, murmuring the secrets of the ages in her ears. Her writing is infused with the diverse backgrounds of those forebears — her German, French, and Ojibwe heritage — and the unforgiving and unforgettable northern plains, where Erdrich grew up. This year’s One Book Selection, The Master Butchers Singing Club, unfolds in North Dakota following WWI. The book explores the lives of Fidelis Waldvogel, a German sharpshooter, his wife, Eva, the pregnant fiancé of Waldvogel’s best friend who was killed in action, and Delphine Watzka, the motherless daughter of an Louise Erdrich alcoholic father. The saga is as rich and complex as the sausages that customers flock to buy from Fidelis’ butcher shop. Regarding The Master Butchers Singing Club, Booklist cites Erdrich’s mesmerizing prose, noting “Erdrich, one of our finest writers, is working at the very peak of her considerable powers.” Erdrich’s formidable storytelling powers are also on display in her 2008 novel, The Plague of Doves. Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, calling it “a multigenerational tour de force of sin, redemption, murder and vengeance.” Erdrich will appear at Friday night’s Orpheum
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event. In a panel discussion Erdrich, Susan Power (The Grass Dancer) and Otto Penzler (The Armchair Detective) will discuss “Great Books for Many Readers.” Saturday evening’s Literary Feast features fiction authors Leif Enger (Peace Like A River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome), Lin Enger (Undiscovered Country) and Ellen Baker (Keeping the House). The Enger brothers, Baker, and other festival authors address “Midwestern History and Storytelling.” No matter what your taste, the fiction track is sure to please and educate. Learn about creating memorable crime characters from C.J. Box and Otto Penzler, or historical fiction from Spring Warren. Brian Bedard, Ron Carlson, and Kent Meyers share their secrets on writing successful short stories. Thomas Pope might not be a household name, but you’ll have heard of many of his screenplays. He co-produced Sweet Land, which was filmed in Montevideo, Minnesota, and will be screened on Saturday evening. Pete Dexter will join Pope in a discussion of screenwriting and producing. Lori Armstrong sets her gritty mysteries in the Black Hills. Her characters might venture into the Alex Johnson hotel or discuss an Arthur Amiotte lithograph. Exotic Bombay and not so exotic Cleveland provide the setting for Thrity Umrigar’s If Today Be Sweet, described by Booklist a “sublime, cross-cultural tale about lives driven by tradition and transformed by love.”
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FICTION PRESENTERS LORI ARMSTRONG www.loriarmstrong.com Lori G. Armstrong left the firearms industry in 2000 to pursue writing crime fiction and romance books under a pen name. Her Julie Collins series includes Shallow Grave, Hallowed Ground, and Blood Ties. A nominee for the Shamus Award, Daphne du Maurier Award, and the 2008 High Plains Book award, she won the Willa Cather Literary Award in 2007. A fourth book, Snow Blind, is scheduled for release in October. She is a fourth generation South Dakotan, and now lives in Rapid City.
ELLEN BAKER www.ellenbakernovels.com Ellen Baker, born in Grand Rapids, Minn., grew up in Wisconsin, Illinois and South Dakota. Her debut novel, Keeping the House, was released in July 2007 and selected one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune. Baker has experience as a living history interpreter, a museum curator, a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. She lives in Wisconsin and is working on her second novel.
BRIAN BEDARD Brian Bedard is a Professor of English at the University of South Dakota, director of the creative writing program and editor of the South Dakota Review.
His short stories have been published widely in such forums as Quarterly West, Cimarron Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and others. The South Dakota Council of Teachers of English honored him as 2008 South Dakota Author of the Year. He is currently completing a new collection.
C.J. BOX www.cjbox.net C. J. Box is the author of nine novels, including the award-winning Joe Pickett series. Its eighth installment, Blood Trail, will be released in May. Blue Heaven has been optioned for a film. Box has received the Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Gumshoe Award, an Edgar Award and was an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist and the 2007 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year. Box, a Wyoming native, has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, newspaper reporter and editor, and he co-owns an international tourism marketing firm with his wife, Laurie.
RON CARLSON Ron Carlson is the author of eight books of fiction, most recently his selected stories A Kind of Flying, and the novel The Speed of Light. His short stories have appeared in Esquire, Harper’s, The New Yorker and other journals. He is Foundation Professor and Regents’ Professor of English at Arizona State University. Among his awards are a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, the Cohen Prize at Ploughshares, and a National Society of Arts and Letters Literature Award.
LEIF ENGER www.leif-enger.com Leif Enger is the author of So Brave, Young and Handsome, released in April 2008. He also wrote Peace Like a River, selected for the inaugural One Book South Dakota in 2003. He was raised in Osakis, Minn., and worked as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio for nearly twenty years. Enger lives in Minnesota with his wife and two sons.
LIN ENGER An MFA graduate from the University of Iowa, Lin Enger is the MFA Director at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. His novel, Undiscovered Country, was published in 2008. Publishers Weekly said it had “flashes of prose as crisp and haunting as the frozen Minnesota setting.” Enger published five mysteries with his brother, Leif Enger, in the 1990s. His short stories have appeared in a number of journals.
LOUISE ERDRICH Louise Erdrich has written a dozen novels, many of which are bestsellers. Erdrich’s 2003 release, The Master Butchers Singing Club, was selected as One Book South Dakota 2008. Her book Love Medicine won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has also been a finalist for the National Book Award with The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No
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FICTION PRESENTERS CONTINUED Horse. Erdrich is of mixed blood and enrolled in the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. She currently lives in Minnesota and owns Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.
KENT MEYERS Kent Meyers, an English professor and writer-in-residence at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, writes both fiction and non-fiction. His book The Work of Wolves won the 2005 Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award and was the 2005 One Book South Dakota selection. Meyers’ other titles are The River Warren (a novel), The Witness of Combines (a memoir) and Light in the Crossing (a collection of short stories).
OTTO PENZLER www.mysteriousbookshop.com or www.ottopenzler.com Otto Penzler is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. He was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal, for 17 years. Penzler founded The Mysterious Press (now part of Warner). He created the publishing firm of Otto Penzler Books (now an imprint at Harcourt), and The Armchair Detective Library, a publishing house devoted to reprinting classic crime fiction. Penzler’s publications include The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year, Best American Crime Writing (with Thomas H. Cook), Murder on the Ropes and 101 Greatest Movies of Mystery and Suspense. 24 • SOUTH DAKOTA FESTIVAL OF BOOKS
SUSAN POWER Susan Power is the author of the national bestseller The Grass Dancer. She also released Roofwalker in 2004. She is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and has earned an undergraduate and J.D. from Harvard. Power’s fiction has appeared in Atlantic Monthly and Paris Review.
THRITY UMRIGAR www.umrigar.com Thrity Umrigar, an Indian immigrant, is the author of four novels. Her latest, released in May 2008, is If Today be Sweet. She also wrote the novels The Space Between Us and Bombay Time and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. A long-time journalist, she now teaches creative writing at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. She holds a Ph.D. in English and was the recipient of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard.
SPRING WARREN www.springwarren.com Spring Warren, a Wyoming native, released her debut novel Turpentine in 2007. The book was part of the 2007 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers series. She currently lives in California.
Other fiction presenters include Pete Dexter in non-fiction and Tom Pope in writer’s support.
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“BIC” – the Path to Publication
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time for writing in an otherwise busy schedule. He o, we’re not talking about a pen. has supported himself as a field hand, newspaper BIC, or a similar phrase, is the delivery engineer, lawn maintenance specialist, mantra of virtually every successbartender, and bookseller. His story is not uncomful author. It’s an acronym for the mon. The advice of “don’t only-known SD Tourism Chad Coppess quit your day job” is one path to publimost writers adhere to, even cation: Butt after sampling the sweet sucIn Chair. cess of publication. Michael Spradlin knows Writers’ support will give BIC. He describes himself as you a rare opportunity to ask the “author of more than a questions of a National Book dozen books for children, Award winner, Pete Dexter. some of which have actually For poets, writers’ support been published.” He’s not offers the wisdom and expebeing flip. It’s inevitable that rience of Freya Manfred. some projects end up being a Aspiring children’s writers dress rehearsal for the main won’t want to miss Jean event. As Spradlin says, Patrick and Jon Anderson. “Writing is a craft and a skill Tom Pope will discuss just like any craft or skill and screenwriting. You can also the more you practice it, the visit with Jane Jewell, execubetter you get at it.” tive director of the Science It sounds like obvious Fiction and Fantasy Writers advice. Unfortunately, it’s of America. Jewell will presadvice often ignored. Just ask Badger Clark’s typewriter is preserved in his ent her perspective on what any editor attempting to scale editors want. that teetering mound of slush cabin at Badger Hole in Custer State Park. Whether you’re a newbie submissions. or a seasoned veteran, this year’s writers’ support “Adults want to know how to get published. My sessions will be rewarding. You’ll enjoy the camaanswer to that is to write your book first. When you raderie that comes from hanging out with other are done, re-write it. Then re-write it again,” writers passionate about their craft. And you’ll Spradlin says. come away inspired and refreshed, secure in the So, BIC is an inviolable rule. How does one knowledge that a case of TB following a long stint practice BIC amidst the chaos of everyday life? of BIC is just what the editor ordered. Spradlin shows writers that it is possible to find
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WRITERS’ SUPPORT PRESENTERS
JANE JEWELL Jane Jewell is the Executive Director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). The organization is a 1500 member non-profit writers’ organization that promotes the science fiction and fantasy genre. The organization is known for its annual Nebula Award.
THOMAS POPE Thomas Pope is a practicing scriptwriter and lecturer at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches courses on the Western and the musical, among others. He coproduced Sweet Land which was
filmed in Minnesota. He also teaches screenwriting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. In his 30 year career, he has worked with numerous major directors. Pope has written the screenplays for Bad Boys, Someone To Watch Over Me, F/X, Hammet, Lords of Discipline and many other films. He wrote Good Scripts/ Bad Scripts, a book that analyzes 25 of the best and worst recent American screenplays.
lis. He acquires and edits books for young readers age 8 to 13, as well as a limited amount of non-fiction and fiction for adults. Other presenters include Jon Anderson (aka William Boniface) in children’s literature, Kent Meyers in fiction, Jean Patrick in children’s literature, Michael Spradlin in children’s literature, Mark Meierhenry in children’s literature and Dave Volk in children’s literature.
BEN BARNHART Ben Barnhart is an editor at Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit literary publisher in Minneapo-
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John C. Waugh at home by his desk.
A Tribute to History and Tribal Writing
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magine Alex Trebek hosting this year’s history and tribal writing track. Attired impeccably in an Armani designer suit, Alex says, “This former president is distantly related to actor Tom Hanks.” If your tempted to shout out, “Who is Abraham Lincoln?” you won’t want to miss the festival’s feature on Lincoln, whose 200th birthday is in February 2009. According to the Publisher’s Weekly starred review, One Man Great Enough: Abraham Lincoln’s Road to Civil War, by John C. Waugh, is “lively prose backed with solid research.” In addition to covering pertinent political events, Waugh deftly weaves in Lincoln’s personal life. The result is a “rich page-turner which will make readers think they are along for Abraham Lincoln’s improbable ride to fame.” Do you know anyone related to a former president? Charles Lachman’s The Last Lincoln picks up after Lincoln’s assassination and traces the fascinating, yet littleknown, stories of Lincoln’s direct descendants. According to Lachman, Lincoln’s last descendant, Bob Lincoln Beckwith, may have employed outlaw and skyjacker D.B. Cooper as his chauffeur. Our history and tribal writing track would not be complete without a “South Dakota” category. Not to be missed is Timothy Bjorkman’s riveting account of a South Dakotan’s transformation from a family man into a bootlegger, bank robber, and kidnapper, Verne Sankey, America’s First Public Enemy. Betti VanEpps-Taylor’s Forgotten Lives: African
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Americans in South Dakota is impeccably researched. She will join Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve and Allison Hedge Coke in a discussion on American Indian and African American settlements in South Dakota. Calamity Jane: The Life and the Legend, by Jim McLaird and Louis Warren’s award winning Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show take readers to tales and myths of Dakota Territory. Weaving in and out of various festival tracks are a variety of tribal voices, including fictional representation by One Book South Dakota author Louise Erdrich and novelist Susan Power. Children’s author Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, poet and tribal law expert Frank Pommersheim, and children’s illustrator S.D. Nelson are also on the roster. The history and tribal writing track’s “Odds and Ends” category offers a cornucopia of delights. Beverly Lowry’s latest biography, Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life, is told with “a novelist’s sense of pace, suspense and speculation,” according to Publishers Weekly. Bestselling author Kenneth Davis has a new book, America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation. Hear Davis at Saturday night’s Literary Feast. And last but not least, Publishers Weekly called Betty Fussell’s The Story of Corn “a fun read” that is “downright fascinating.” Fussell’s latest offering, Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef, is being released just in time for the festival.
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HISTORY & TRIBAL WRITING PRESENTERS DR. LOREN AMUNDSON After a medical career spanning nearly four decades, Dr. Amundson took up genealogy writing. He has written six books, including Norwegians, Swedes and More about the histories of his and his wife’s ancestors. He is a 1997 inductee in the S.D. Hall of Fame.
TIMOTHY BJORKMAN Timothy Bjorkman, a Canistota resident, is the author of Verne Sankey: America’s First Public Enemy. Bjorkman is a judge for the First Judicial Circuit of South Dakota.
KENNETH C. DAVIS www.dontknowmuch.com Ken Davis is the author of Don’t Know Much About History, which spent 35 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and gave rise to the Don’t Know Much About series, which has a combined in-print total of 4.3 million copies. America’s Hidden History was released in April. Dubbed “The King of Knowing” by Amazon.com, Davis says “education isn’t the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.“ Davis is a frequent media guest, on television and radio shows, including NPR’s All Things Considered and The Today Show.
ist of food and travel, her articles have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Travel and Leisure, Cosmopolitan, Wine and Food, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Ladies Home Journal and Vogue.
CHARLES LACHMAN Lachman, a TV producer, traces the story of Abraham Lincoln’s descendants in The Last Lincolns. The book details the sadness and acrimony that divided Lincoln’s widow, Mary, and the eldest Lincoln son, Robert, including his forcible commitment of Mary to an insane asylum. Lachman follows the Lincoln story through the last of the Lincoln descendants: great –grandson Bob Lincoln Beckwith, his estranged wife, and the dispute over whether her son, Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, is the product of an adulterous affair and thus not a true Lincoln.
BEVERLY LOWRY Author of six novels and three books of non-fiction, Beverly Lowry teaches in the MFA Program at George Mason University. In June 2008, she released Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life. Her novels include The Track of Real Desires, The Perfect Sonya, and Daddy’s Girl. Her non-fiction collection includes Crossed Over. Lowry received the 2007 Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award. She lives in Austin, Texas.
BETTY FUSSELL
JAMES MCLAIRD
Betty Fussell, holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and is a writer who is also a home cook. She has written several cookbooks and food history books, including The Story of Corn, Masters of American Cookery; this October, she will release Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef. A long-time journal-
Jim McLaird is a history professor emeritus at Dakota Wesleyan University who is a leading authority on Deadwood’s infamous Calamity Jane. In 2005, Calamity Jane: The Life and The Legend was released. His new book is Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends. He is the author of numerous articles on western history and mythmaking, focusing on the Black Hills.
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HISTORY & TRIBAL WRITING PRESENTERS CONTINUED BETTI VANEPPS-TAYLOR Betti VanEpps-Taylor is an independent scholar, speaker and writer on black history and culture. Her recent book, published by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press, is entitled Forgotten Lives: African Americans in South Dakota. Born and raised in South Dakota, she currently teaches English at the College of Southern Idaho.
LOUIS WARREN Louis Warren, a teacher in the History Department at the University of California-Davis, is the author of Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show. The book, released in 2005, won the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Histor-
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ical Association, the Caughey Western History Association Prize, the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize and the Western Writers of America Spur Award.
JOHN C. WAUGH www.johncwaugh.com John C. Waugh is a former journalist who now writes history books, predominantly about the Civil War era. His latest book, released in 2007, is One Man Great Enough: Abraham Lincoln’s Road to Civil War. Waugh has written nine books, including Surviving the Confederacy: Rebellion, Ruin, and Recovery — Roger and Sara Pryor during the Civil War (2002) and Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency (2001). He is currently working on three titles.
CLIFFORD A. WRIGHT Clifford A. Wright, author of A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs, with More than 500 Recipes and Winner of the James Beard/KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year 2000 and Winner of the Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food 2000 will host a special ticketed luncheon on Sunday, September 28th.
Other history and tribal writing presenters: Louise Erdrich in fiction, Allison Hedge Coke in poetry, S.D. Nelson in children’s literature, Frank Pommersheim in poetry, Susan Power in fiction and Lydia Whirlwind Soldier in poetry.
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